The Experience with a Deceptive Brake Repair Estimate at the Dealership

We recently took our Porsche to the dealership for what we thought was a routine brake inspection, only to find out that they had done it all wrong. The car was towed back to the dealership and taken apart to investigate why it was making a noise when braking. What were found were some concerning signs of neglect on the part of the service department.

Upon further investigation, it became clear that the rotors were sheared off, which meant they could be reinstalled easily without being replaced. The problem was not with the front brake pads, as we had expected, but rather with the rear brakes. The calipers in both the rear wheels were loose and the rotors were also loose, causing them to bang around inside the wheel. It turned out that some screws on one of the wheels were broken off, which added insult to injury.

It's hard not to be frustrated when you take your car into a dealership expecting routine maintenance and instead find yourself facing an overpriced repair bill for something you didn't even need. In this case, the estimate was a whopping $16,000 for new rear brake pads and rotors, which seemed excessive given that we had found nothing wrong with the front brakes. The worst part was that the dealership hadn't even bothered to remove the wheels to check what was causing the noise.

The diagnosis report from the service department showed that the minimum thickness of 27.7 millimeters on the rotor was sufficient and more than enough life left in the brake pads. It's puzzling that the technician had not taken the time to measure these things properly, instead relying on arbitrary standards that could have easily been exceeded with a bit more attention to detail.

The experience has also raised questions about how Porsche dealerships handle allocation of limited-edition models like the GT3. The customer was told that they had secured an overlist for their order and were expected to pay sticker price. However, it's unlikely that anyone would be willing to wait in line or pay full price for a car when there are other options available.

The incident has left a sour taste in the mouth of the owner, who is now left wondering how such a mistake could have been made by a reputable dealership like Porsche. It serves as a reminder that even in the most premium automotive market, customer service and attention to detail can still be lacking at times.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody its Rob furedi anyway I got a portion behind me Siobhan's car you may remember I took it around I was trying to figure out what that noise was but he decided he was gonna bring it the Porsche that's a big mistake at least the dealer you brought it to and we'll get into my gripe about certain dealers at another time but maybe at the end of this video but if you look here they told him he needed six at the Lambo they told him he needed $16,000 where the rear brakes it said the rear brakes are bad I said shovel are you sure about that there carbons and you've only got 30,000 miles on the car and you know not for nothing and they look pretty good to me he's going off of these where spot saying like well they're saying these are where spots I assure you yeah the brakes are fine for now at least for the foreseeable future this tool even aftermarket if you lose it two hundred and seventy bucks but that plugs on there to get your $700 torque wrench to take your wheels off that's why I say send our lock wheels not very smart but anyway she bomb was at the dealership and they told him and he called me up it's okay they're telling me it's 16 grand I need new rear brakes and I was like no way you can't need a new rear brakes you got carbon ceramics on there those things are good for at least even unlike my most abused rental cars where we use them for like Auto crosses non-stop fifty thousand miles out of a set of carbon ceramics which is like you're talking like like extreme heat cycles for a long time I can't imagine you need brakes at whatever twenty eight thousand miles whatever is on the car and so he told me I'm like we'll get the car out of there and then I said if anything if you really need pads get the ped so he goes and he orders the pads so he got new pads and then he got new sensors and it turns out when they took the wheels off because he I said don't do it at the dealership because the dealership won't even do it the dealership won't do just pads only on the car they have to swap for liability reasons because I don't want to they have to swap off the rotors in the pan so let's just take it back so we get the car back and we take it off and what do we find well I'll tell you what we find find some pretty concerning news find these huh these are sheared off right like these go back together now these and these are what we're making the noise but on the other side of this wheel and I'm gonna take it off there's a different type of left this is a storage level on the other side of this wheel there's these screws that hold the rotors tight so the rotors were loose and those were just banging around in the wheel not again not making the noise and the calipers were loose on both sides in the rear and sure mom's like well how could they possibly have missed this like why they put the the thing off like how did they miss that these screws and how did they put these back in like that and it turns out they didn't even take the wheel off so he brought the car to a dealer without even removing the wheels they told him he needs sixteen thousand dollars worth of service work on the rear brakes he brought it in for a noise and they're getting new rear brakes so here we are 16,000 dollars they didn't even remove the wheels from the car we get the new brake pads from Suncoast or something like that and they're the same thickness you even see like I can fit my whole fingers in there they're the same thickness as what's on there and then we're like alright well let's let's see what they're saying here and here on the rotor you see it says if I hit this a little light sorry gentlemen and lady see it says there come on minimum shadow minimum thickness twenty seven point seven millimeters and you know what we measured the rotor and it's more than twenty seven point seven millimeters let me see if I can give you a little picture there twenty of them so this car doesn't need either of these things so we're gonna send them back and what do we have what are we left off with and turn that flashlight off what are we left off with is he almost paid 16 grand for brakes that they didn't need from a diagnosis where they didn't even take the wheels off to check what was making the noise and again I don't know the noise he's probably still Eric I haven't done anything but that sucks I mean think about bringing your car in and getting a $16,000 phantom service and most Porsche guys I'm just gonna pay oh I need that safety issue like right pads all right yeah I guess I have to suck up part of owning a fancy car and that is a pretty pretty pretty shitty way of going about now he's also these are his side skirts but we're putting these on it was falling off the one side here the little tabs are broken but both rotors perfectly fine on the back I should just come over here directional obviously with the arrows this is much easier to videotape so got the ambient light from outside but they're well over 28 and change on the millimeters on the thickness of the rotor so they've got more than enough life left and I'm especially on the rotor thickness and I was like well how could you possibly need new rears when you don't need new fronts because the Front's do most of the braking and he got a story about how the rear brakes are sort of always engaged because it helps with the stability of the gt3 thought that was the what the wing was for but needless to say both calipers were loose both rotors were loose and and some bolts were broken off in the one-wheel and Porsche missed that but did tell them we need to spend 16 grand pretty wild right Jesus so that's also a good time to bring up the fact that Rob loves gt3s right this car cool car fly Rob's gt3 order hey you know what I'll make another video about it but let's just say the dealer now wants over list for my order they feel I got an allocation now in December what they want over list and that's not happening I'm not gonna sit in line for a car which is not a limited car then be told that I have a over list so if you know a dealer that's selling gt3s I'd sticker I'm happy to pay sticker I've got my bill they'll send it over to them and they can have my business but that was sort of a yeah but so is telling somebody they need pads and new rotors for 16 grand when you don't actually need them and you didn't even take to prick your wheels on look at the screws thank you for watchinghey everybody its Rob furedi anyway I got a portion behind me Siobhan's car you may remember I took it around I was trying to figure out what that noise was but he decided he was gonna bring it the Porsche that's a big mistake at least the dealer you brought it to and we'll get into my gripe about certain dealers at another time but maybe at the end of this video but if you look here they told him he needed six at the Lambo they told him he needed $16,000 where the rear brakes it said the rear brakes are bad I said shovel are you sure about that there carbons and you've only got 30,000 miles on the car and you know not for nothing and they look pretty good to me he's going off of these where spot saying like well they're saying these are where spots I assure you yeah the brakes are fine for now at least for the foreseeable future this tool even aftermarket if you lose it two hundred and seventy bucks but that plugs on there to get your $700 torque wrench to take your wheels off that's why I say send our lock wheels not very smart but anyway she bomb was at the dealership and they told him and he called me up it's okay they're telling me it's 16 grand I need new rear brakes and I was like no way you can't need a new rear brakes you got carbon ceramics on there those things are good for at least even unlike my most abused rental cars where we use them for like Auto crosses non-stop fifty thousand miles out of a set of carbon ceramics which is like you're talking like like extreme heat cycles for a long time I can't imagine you need brakes at whatever twenty eight thousand miles whatever is on the car and so he told me I'm like we'll get the car out of there and then I said if anything if you really need pads get the ped so he goes and he orders the pads so he got new pads and then he got new sensors and it turns out when they took the wheels off because he I said don't do it at the dealership because the dealership won't even do it the dealership won't do just pads only on the car they have to swap for liability reasons because I don't want to they have to swap off the rotors in the pan so let's just take it back so we get the car back and we take it off and what do we find well I'll tell you what we find find some pretty concerning news find these huh these are sheared off right like these go back together now these and these are what we're making the noise but on the other side of this wheel and I'm gonna take it off there's a different type of left this is a storage level on the other side of this wheel there's these screws that hold the rotors tight so the rotors were loose and those were just banging around in the wheel not again not making the noise and the calipers were loose on both sides in the rear and sure mom's like well how could they possibly have missed this like why they put the the thing off like how did they miss that these screws and how did they put these back in like that and it turns out they didn't even take the wheel off so he brought the car to a dealer without even removing the wheels they told him he needs sixteen thousand dollars worth of service work on the rear brakes he brought it in for a noise and they're getting new rear brakes so here we are 16,000 dollars they didn't even remove the wheels from the car we get the new brake pads from Suncoast or something like that and they're the same thickness you even see like I can fit my whole fingers in there they're the same thickness as what's on there and then we're like alright well let's let's see what they're saying here and here on the rotor you see it says if I hit this a little light sorry gentlemen and lady see it says there come on minimum shadow minimum thickness twenty seven point seven millimeters and you know what we measured the rotor and it's more than twenty seven point seven millimeters let me see if I can give you a little picture there twenty of them so this car doesn't need either of these things so we're gonna send them back and what do we have what are we left off with and turn that flashlight off what are we left off with is he almost paid 16 grand for brakes that they didn't need from a diagnosis where they didn't even take the wheels off to check what was making the noise and again I don't know the noise he's probably still Eric I haven't done anything but that sucks I mean think about bringing your car in and getting a $16,000 phantom service and most Porsche guys I'm just gonna pay oh I need that safety issue like right pads all right yeah I guess I have to suck up part of owning a fancy car and that is a pretty pretty pretty shitty way of going about now he's also these are his side skirts but we're putting these on it was falling off the one side here the little tabs are broken but both rotors perfectly fine on the back I should just come over here directional obviously with the arrows this is much easier to videotape so got the ambient light from outside but they're well over 28 and change on the millimeters on the thickness of the rotor so they've got more than enough life left and I'm especially on the rotor thickness and I was like well how could you possibly need new rears when you don't need new fronts because the Front's do most of the braking and he got a story about how the rear brakes are sort of always engaged because it helps with the stability of the gt3 thought that was the what the wing was for but needless to say both calipers were loose both rotors were loose and and some bolts were broken off in the one-wheel and Porsche missed that but did tell them we need to spend 16 grand pretty wild right Jesus so that's also a good time to bring up the fact that Rob loves gt3s right this car cool car fly Rob's gt3 order hey you know what I'll make another video about it but let's just say the dealer now wants over list for my order they feel I got an allocation now in December what they want over list and that's not happening I'm not gonna sit in line for a car which is not a limited car then be told that I have a over list so if you know a dealer that's selling gt3s I'd sticker I'm happy to pay sticker I've got my bill they'll send it over to them and they can have my business but that was sort of a yeah but so is telling somebody they need pads and new rotors for 16 grand when you don't actually need them and you didn't even take to prick your wheels on look at the screws thank you for watching\n"