Just Brakes Ripoff did poor installation, distroyed one rotor, and uses bad parts Atlanta Georgia

I have done the brakes on my Honda Odyssey van once in the past. As a former Honda mechanic during college, I have done many brake jobs. I was too busy to do it myself and decided to call around. I got prices from $99 from Just Brakes to $350 from a local repair shop. I decided to go with Just Brakes for $149 including turning the rotors and flushing the brake fluid.

The job took 3 hours because they were busy, but seemed to go fine. When I drove off, the brake pedal slowly went to the floor. I took the car back immediately and they said they fixed the problem by bleeding the brakes again. When I got home, I found that the parking brake did not work. I figured they forgot to adjust it, so I decided I would just do it myself at some point. After 2 months, I put the car up on stands and found that with the parking brake fully depressed, the left wheel would spin, but the right wheel was locked tight. I pulled the wheels and drums and found that the self adjuster on the left side was installed backwards (I have a picture). I turned the part around, pumped the brakes a few times, adjusted the parking brake and worked fine.

I had also noticed that the car shook when braking. I also noticed that the braking was very hard and that the front brakes squealed. That is, it was difficult to come to a smooth stop. The brakes appeared to grab as the car came to a stop. I pulled the front wheels and I found several problems:

1) The left rotor had been hit so hard with a hammer that the metal was bent (I have a picture). I assume they did this when they were trying to break the rotor loose.

2) The right rotor appeared to be warped. When I spun the rotor slowly, I could hear the pads scraping on the rotor part of the turn, but no sound the other. I don't have a dial indicator, so I couldn't measure the runout precisely.

3) While I had only driven the car a little less than 4,000 miles since the brake job, the pads appeared by be down about 1/3 and the rotors were worn and had ridges (they were smooth when they came out of the shop).

4) There was an excessive amount of brake dust on both the front and back wheels.

Rather than take the car back to Just Brakes, I replaced the rotors and pads myself. The vibration when braking is gone and the car now stops smoothly.

5) Another problem is that they removed the factory brake shims (2 on each side) and threw them away. The pads they installed had a single shim glued to the pad.

Problems 3 and 4 indicate to me that the pads are using very abrasive. I believe they are using very abrasive pads which will wear out the rotors and drums. The pads and shoes have a lifetime warranty, but the parts that they wear out do not.

I plan to replace the rear shoes because I am concerned about wearing out the drums. I have never in the past seen this much break dust on my rear wheels.

I could try to get my money back, but $149 is not worth the hassle. I probably couldn't get any back since I didn't take the car back to them. Given the work they did on the car the first time, I would not trust them in the future.

Douglas
Decatur, Georgia
U.S.A.