SEARS AUTO CENTER They Serviced my brakes and 600 miles later my wheels nearly fell off at 60 MPH! Boise, Idaho

Firstly, try not to take this too personally. As an employee of Sears Automotive, I see where you are coming from. However, I have a few things to say about your claim towards the company. From what I'm reading, it looks like SAC were not the ones who installed your brakes. As part of a Brake inspection, which is REQUIRED regardless of whether  you know what is wrong with the car or not. It's a liability issue. We perform a brake inspection so we can see where the vehicle's brakes are at currently and to have documentation of it, as well as to find out the cause of the reported problem and any other problems you may have. Second, as far as the price of parts, yes, it may only be $20 something dollars at the part store. However, SAC is a BUSINESS. If we get parts for your vehicle, then yes, they will cost more than they would at the parts store. We have to re-sell the product, and where is the profitability in selling parts at the same cost we get them? Harsh, but true. As far as the wheel bearings being crushed and all of the other problems you have named off, who knows? Maybe it was this particular stores fault, maybe it wasn't. We follow MAP guidelines and all technicians who are employed by SAC are to be A.S.E. certified. I would take my car to SAC for repairs, regardless of being an employee or not. 

He said he has a 1969 BUG, they only have DRUM brakes, and the only way to look is to take the nut loose and pull THE WHOLE BRAKE/HUB ASSEMBLY, this means YES sears DID overtighten the bearigs.

He said he had the car at another shop for that wheel bearing.

And I doubt that sears did that much disassembly. Inspection would be no more than removing the tire and doing a visual inspection.

Take the whole rotor apart, no way. If anyone torqued a bearing castle nut, it was the previous shop. So why is he not there rather than at sears? Sounds more like that other shop was him. Yeah, he torqued the bearing castle nut like a backyard bob d.i.y.er .

Pablo, you have no idea how bearings are adjusted.

Foe all interested here's how.

First bearings are NEVER torqued, you screw the bearing nut on BY HAND AND ONLY BY HAND, then you spin the wheel, drum, or hub, AND DO IT AGAIN BY HAND, then you do it a third time, Finally you put the serrated Tin lock cap on the nut and inert a cotter Pin to hold it exactly where you set it, NO TIGHTER OR LOOSER.

On Volkswagen's they have no stamped tin crown, instead they have the axle drilled twice, and the axle nut slotted six times, so you tighten as before then either insert the cotter Pin as straight as possible OR back the nut NO MORE THAN 1/16 TURN, and put the cotter pin in. NEVER TIGHTER, ONLY LOOSTEN

By stating "The nut was torqued to specifications" Sears is admitting the bearings were far too tight, and YES tight destroys the bearings shortly.(A couple of days to a week, the tighter they are, the shorter they last)

Obvious incompetence, and they were fool enough to say so. (We torqued the nut to specifications)

.is the poster stating he could not bleed the brakes because of a broken foot...well was the other foot broken? You only need ONE foot to apply pressure on the brake pedal.

But..what I can say about Sears based on personal experience...it that they are SLOW as a*s.. start to finish. The customer service sucks...and they will try to rip you off.

I had them check out an old Pontiac a few years ago for a brake job estimate. I normally would do this myself..but at the time I was too busy dealing with my customers electrical issues. When I heard the quote I almost tossed a lung. I told them to shove the quote up their a*s and I will be by to pick up the car..NO DEAL.

They told me that "by law" they could not let me take my car because they concluded it was unsafe to drive. I told them to either show me this "law", or give me my d**n car back. I even offered to have it towed out..I kept the car next door to Sears where I worked. I could have pushed it there.

Granted they are probably (like any of us involved with big corporations) put under a lot of pressure to make numbers...so it is not so unexpected they would "resort" to these type of tactics..which is essentially a LIE. I do understand this. But at the same time..they will find plenty of others to rip off to make their quotas and budgets, I just wash my hands of the whole thing and make time to do it myself. I do not care if both my feet were broken..I would apply pressure to the brake with my shin rather then pay a rip off price.

Sure seems to me that Mr fix it messed up the bearing job and now wanted to blame sears.

First off, why did mr fix it not do the brake bleeding when he did the brakes previously?? What made him think there was air in the system now?? How did the brake system open up to air anyway? Soft brakes would have been apparent immediately after doing the brakes.

And why did he go to sears and not the guy who did this job??

Because he was playing the blame game attempting to blame sears for something he screwed up and he knows it. Sears didn't have to take anything off to do a visual inspection. Definatley not a wheel bearing.

Nervy little sob. Nice touch about doing 60 on a horseshoe bend. Makes for a dramatic moment.

this is in no way to diss you or anything---but todays mechanics cannot work on cars from yesterday and yesterdays mechanics cannot work on cars from today(unless you are always learning past and present-which is a rare mechanic)--it seems to me this car had a weird set up with the brakes and when checking them they had to take the bearings apart to do it which is ??? to me---i know on these cars there is no oil filter but a screen kind of thing--i have serviced 1 of these cars before at a meineke but never played with the wheels so to be honest ???---in any case--may i suggest--if you are going to bring your car from yesterday to a mechanic of today be there when servicing the car to guide them through it--just don't be one of those people who stands there 5 ft from the guy with your arms folded---for example when i did an oil change on this same car--the guy was there and he guided me through it and he was ok to deal with