YACT...with rant

HappyPuppy

Lifer
Apr 5, 2001
16,997
2
71
I am amazed at the clueless people here who do their own brake jobs thinking it is such an easy thing to do. The most important safety feature on any automobile is its brakes and yet many think it is nothing to do a brake replacement.

I was a mechanic for 25 years working on just about every type of equipment you can imagine from cars, to trucks, to semis, to heavy earthmoving equipment to, the most dangerous of them all, cranes. I never took any repair I made lightly because other people's lives might depend on how well I did my job.

You knownothing, wannabe mechanics who have successfully replaced the brake pads on your Civics have been lucky, or maybe you are just smarter than the average bear. What pisses me off is that you egg others on, kids who have no business even picking up a wrench, to do their own brake jobs as well.

I don't care if you change your oil, swap spark plugs or put a $10,000 sound system in your car because those things are not going to endanger you, your passengers and others on the road. Brakes are more than a convenience, they are a fvcking necessity.

There is an active thread right now by an ATOT member who did his own brake job and is hesitant to drive his car because his brakes feel "spongey". He is asking for advice on what to do next. His narration recounts how he removed some "pins'. He doesn't know what they are for or why they are there. For all anybody knows they caliper pistons may have fallen out into his lap and he just stuffed them back in.

He mayb have tried to do his own brake job because of the ignorant blatherings of other mechanical noobs here.

Won't you all just pleas think of the children you may kill by doing your own brake jobs?
 

Sluggo

Lifer
Jun 12, 2000
15,488
5
81
Rant 2/10

Information passed on 8/10. Good advice, leave the brakes (or breaks as they are known to some on this board :eek: ) to someone who knows what they are doing.
 
Oct 9, 1999
15,216
3
81
yeah brake jobs need to be done by someone who knows what he is doing..

i admit there are more than usual nut jobs here.
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,204
66
91
I have seen stupid people in action so I tend to agree with you.







I've probably done about 30 brake jobs in my life so it doesn't seem so hard, but then I had good instruction starting out and I am fairly mechanically inclined.

 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
If you flip the brake pads inside out, so the backing plate is against the rotor, you will stop faster.
 

HappyPuppy

Lifer
Apr 5, 2001
16,997
2
71
I'm not trying to discourage people from doing their own mechanical repairs on their automobiles, but doing a brake job as your first adventure into the world of mechanics is a bad idea. Most of us started out by adding RAM, video cards and HDD's to our computers before we built our own rigs from scratch.

aplefka: If your attention span is too short to read my well thought out rant then you have a serious problem. There are remedial reading programs for HS students, college students and even adults in the workforce. I suggest you take advantage of one of them.
 

EyeMWing

Banned
Jun 13, 2003
15,670
1
0
Dad still does my brakes. He's done them since he got his first car decades ago, and always insists on having a service manual right there with him every single time and follows instructions to the letter. I consider myself mechanically inclined - but I still won't touch the brakes. Maybe one day when I get a new brake kit I'll do it myself, but until then, no.
 

Toastedlightly

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2004
7,214
6
81
Originally posted by: Evadman
Oppsies

Awesome.

Yea, my dad does all of the brake on our vehicles. I am supposed to be learning in ~6 months cause I am going to be restoring a vehicle/learning. Hoepfully Ill do it right (I WILL DO it right)