These are the parts that help the wheels stay positioned and help the car steer correctly. If they wear out, the car can feel loose, pull, or wear tires faster.
A ball joint is a key connection that lets the suspension move while still steering properly. If it wears out, you may hear knocking and the car can handle poorly or wear tires unevenly.
The lower control arm is part of the suspension that holds the wheel in the right position. If it wears out, the car can feel unstable and tires can wear unevenly.
Brake fluid check means looking at the brake fluid level and making sure it’s still in good shape. If it’s low or old, your brakes may not work as strongly as they should.
Term
brake retutorial
A brake retutorial is just a refresher lesson about brakes. The host is saying they’ll go over brake stuff people commonly don’t understand or don’t do.
“Regular maintenance” means doing service on a schedule, before anything major goes wrong. It helps keep the car running reliably and can prevent bigger, more expensive repairs.
“Panic maintenance” means you wait until something breaks badly before fixing it. That usually costs more and forces you to make quick decisions because the car can’t be used.
A “financial planning segment” is a budgeting-focused part of the show that helps listeners plan for vehicle expenses. In this context, it’s about setting aside money for repairs and replacements before a breakdown forces spending.
They’re calling this part a “brake tutorial,” meaning it’s meant to teach you how brakes work and what brake service involves. The goal is to help you understand it better, not sell you something.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a type of SUV made for both regular driving and rougher roads. The 2015 version is a specific model year people talk about because it’s common and many owners have had it for a while. It’s meant to be a comfortable all-around vehicle with extra capability when needed.
Brake rotors are the spinning metal discs the brake pads press against to slow the car down. They’re usually replaced during a brake service, but stuck parts can make the job much harder.
“Seized” or “frozen” brake hardware means bolts, pins, or other fasteners that have corroded and won’t move. The speaker uses this as the dividing line for why a brake job can expand from a normal estimate into a much longer, more labor-intensive repair.
Calipers are the parts that squeeze the brake pads onto the disc. If a caliper sticks, the brakes can stay on a little and the car may pull or slow unexpectedly.
Brake pads are the replaceable parts that squeeze against the spinning brake disc to slow the car. If they get worn, braking gets worse and you can hear bad noises.
Brake hardware is the set of small parts that help the pads and caliper move and fit correctly. If those parts are old or wrong, brakes can make noise or wear unevenly.
Locking up is when the wheels stop spinning while you’re still moving. That usually means you’ve lost traction and the car can skid—often due to a serious brake problem.
Their advice is to replace worn brake pads during a brake job. Pads wear out over time, and waiting too long can make braking worse and can even damage the brake discs.
Term
cheapies
“Cheapies” is the host’s way of saying low-quality brake parts. The worry is they may wear out sooner or not stop as well as better parts.
If a caliper “seizes up,” it can get stuck and not release properly. Then the brake can stay partly on, which can overheat the brakes and wear them out quickly.
Wheel nuts are the bolts/nuts that hold the wheel onto the car. If they rust and aren’t lubricated, they can get stuck so badly that it takes hours to remove them.
Separate labor means the shop charges for extra work time that’s needed before the real brake job can start. In this case, they’re charging for the time spent getting the stuck wheels off.
“Pad slap” is slang for doing the brake job as fast as possible—just swapping pads and not really checking everything. The host is saying that’s not the right way to do it.
A brake job is when a shop checks your brakes and replaces the worn parts. It usually includes things like brake pads and rotors, and sometimes the caliper-related parts too.
The spindle housing is the part of the front suspension area that the wheel and brakes attach to. If brake mounting bolts seize here, the shop can’t get to the brakes quickly.
A machine shop is a place with specialized tools for metal repair. If a bolt breaks during a brake job, they may be able to drill it out and restore the threads.
The Hyundai Accent is a small everyday car. The host is using it as an example of a brake job that was quick and easy because the parts came apart without major problems.
A road test is when the mechanic drives the car after the repair to make sure everything feels right. For brakes, they check that it stops properly and doesn’t make weird noises.
“Over and above” means extra work that wasn’t expected in the original estimate. If the brakes are stuck or need more fixing, the shop may need additional labor time.
A brake fluid flush (often described as “gush and flush” in the segment) replaces old, contaminated brake fluid with fresh fluid. The goal is to remove moisture and debris so the hydraulic system can perform correctly and consistently.
Term
hydraulic stuff in your braking system
This is the brake system’s “fluid-powered” parts—everything that carries brake pressure to the wheels. If the fluid is dirty or has water in it, those parts can wear out or start failing.
If the brake pedal feels soft or “spongy,” it can mean the brakes aren’t transferring pressure properly. That can happen when the brake fluid is worn out or contaminated, or if air gets into the system.
LIVE
Good morning Niagara. You're tuned in to Car Connection where the coffee's hot,
the tools are ready, and the talk is always tuned up. I'm your host Niall
Motormouth Jenkins coming to you straight from the Car Connection
Workshop where we mix a little humor, a little know-how, and a whole lot of
horsepower. Here it's not just about fixing cars, it's about keeping you
rolling, saving you money, and giving you the confidence to understand what's
under that hood. From the classics to the commuters, the weird noises, to the
what the heck moments, we've got you covered. So grab your coffee, sit back,
join the crew because this is Car Connection. Your Monday through Saturday
morning pit stop for stories, smarts, and a few good laughs. I'm Niall Motormouth
Jenkins and we are shifting into drive this bright sunny Monday morning
coming. Very shortly, yes, we'll see the sunrise over the skies of Buffalo and on
the south shores of Lake Erie. Well, good morning. Welcome to Motormouth's
Morning Drive. It's your very first time joining us. Welcome aboard. A couple of
housekeeping tips. We'll jump in too quickly. If you're in the drive-through,
the cue to the drive-through, remember it's Monday morning. People have had some
time off. The switch might not be totally on just yet. It's early. Double check
your order. It will have a swiggy in just a few moments for those just joining us
going swiggy. What? Leaf bag, crayons? What's going on? What did I tune into? You
tuned into Motormouth's Morning Drive. So you're going to need a 16 pack of
crayola crayons, a nicely pressed leaf bag. That's your memo pad. Crayons never
run out of ink. So you're not hunting for a pen that will never work in its
entire life because it's probably been in the pen holder for three decades. Is
that only in my house? I've weeded them out. I weed them out all the time. I
should get a piece of stiff cardboard and then I just go through a whole
handful and I go, nope, nope, nope, nope. But crayons? Yes. All day long. So if you
don't have a co-pilot, well, you can listen and relisten and find our podcasts
on all podcast platforms. Just search Car Connection Workshop. We're on Spotify,
Amazon, Apple, Podbean. You'll find us on all the major ones and all the minor ones
as well. iHeartRadio. We're there. We are there for you. So open your podcast that
you are entertaining each and every day. Search Bar, Car Connection Workshop and
you'll pull up our podcasts. All our podcasts load up to our YouTube channel
Monday through Friday. So by the time you get the podcast, which launches at 8am
every single morning, Fun Fridays and then Saturdays we do a one hour Q&A and
they are all at 8am. So if you visit our YouTube channel and get subscribed, you're
going to learn all the basic fundamentals of owning and operating an
automobile because when you do, you become armed and dangerous because you
have knowledge. It's when you're driving a vehicle in the unknown, which creates
stress and anxiety for many because you're afraid it's going to break down.
But if you're driving in the know, that means your vehicle's being checked on a
regular basis for you. You have peace of mind and you cannot put a price tag on
peace of mind. No way. There's no way you can do it. And so the only way I can help
you is by simply teaching you the basic fundamentals of vehicle ownership. So it
doesn't matter on this podcast, it doesn't matter how old you are, how tall you
are. If you're, you know, you recently widowed, divorced, you're single. This is
a great way for you to educate yourself in easy to understand language and then
you have our videos to actually watch so you can see what I'm working on, know
what it is. So here's the five things. What the component is, where it's located,
how it works, and how you broke it so you don't break it next time. So once you
have a working knowledge of the basic components of your automobile, you don't
need to be a rocket science scientist to watch our videos, watch and learn how to
test a battery, how to check antifreeze, where the fluids are, how do you put them
in from stuff that's as simple as that is, suspension and steering components,
what happens when the time rod wears out, what happens when a ball joint or a
lower control arm wears out, what happens when the brakes fail, when things are
going wrong. Do we still tune up our vehicles today? How do we, how do I check
the fluids? How do I check and adjust tire pressures? We have all of that for
you on our YouTube channel. There's well over 550 components there for you to
enjoy and over 220 podcasts are up there as well for you to enjoy. So check out
our YouTube channel and that brings us to the homepage of our website, which is
the biggest drawer in our toolbox. You'll find everything on our homepage at
carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com, including really nice business owners to
deal with in our local area. So and our program partners are also featured on
the homepage of our website. So you just point click and their profile page is
open and they're all designed exactly the same. So navigation, you don't have
to figure out every page. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired, fed
up and disgusted and bored with websites that it takes you hours to figure out
how to navigate your way around their website. That's when I usually go nuts
to this. I can't stay on this site any longer because I can't figure out where
I got to get to. So our site is very simple. Point click, open. The next page
looks exactly the same. So if you want to, if you'd like to follow the build and
repair work that we do and connect with our program partners, one clear way of
doing that is our website, carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com, C-C-B-U-S-N-E-T dot
com. Top right hand corner of our homepage. Here's what you're going to see. All
the links and platforms that car connection is available to you on. So now
you can, now you can listen and watch in many different ways and engage with us.
So top right hand corner starting from the left. We have our YouTube channel.
Point click your end, subscribe, like, share, follow, invite some car enthusiasts
to come along with you and join our community. We have Facebook, Instagram,
Stevensvilleontheweb.ca put together by our videographer Skippy. And then that
receives about 20,000 visits a month. So we're there as the automotive expert. Just
click on the businesses tab. All three of those platforms, social media platforms
is where you'll find reels, bloopers and outtakes that you won't see anywhere else. Okay,
keep going to the right. We have merch, yes. We have our merch store, Freedom Expressions,
puts our car connection motormouth gear together for you. You order what you like,
size, color and the product. They put it together and send it to you directly. You
pay them safely online and it goes directly to you. All the proceeds from our merch go back to
Total Freedom Addiction Campuses Canada and US changing lives one at a time every single day.
So stand with Skippy and I as we want to do something to affect somebody else's life as
well. Let's help get them there to a campus near them and change a life together. What else do we
have in that corner? Our link for iHeart Radio is also there as well. I often forget about that.
So let's jump into this morning. We got a lot to get through in a very short period of time.
So hang in there. I have another motormouth summer tech tip for you today entitled
brake fluid check time. When was the last time you had your brake fluid checked?
I can see the answer already. Honey, when did we have the brake fluid checked on the car?
I don't know. I'll have to get back to you on that one. So I have five things
related to brakes this morning to share with you. So this is going to be
your brake retutorial this morning. I've got some stuff to share that people aren't quite getting
yet and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm not teaching it right. I'm not sure but we're going to have
a brake tutorial this morning because that seems to be a huge common factor these last
several weeks in the car connection workshop. I'm seeing stuff that shouldn't happen that's
costing you a lot of money. So let's jump into our morning swiggy. Let's say thank you to our
program partners because we would not be here without them because we're not monetized and
they're the ones that are helping us to stay on the platforms that we are on. So thank you to
Mama Louise and her wonderful husband Earl as a car enthusiast at City Auto Sales and Leasing
providing you with low mileage quality vehicles at fair prices. Earl is a car guy through and
through and they have been in business 25 plus years. They are greater Toronto areas,
premier pre-owned auto store. You will not find any junk there. Earl does not push,
pull, drag pieces of junk to sell to you. They are absolutely outstanding quality vehicles.
They have in-house leasing and financing available. Folks this is a safe place for you to purchase a
vehicle. A safe place. You're not going to be dragging a vehicle home that's been put together
by two vehicles, make one out of two and jury rigged and MacGyvered to sell it to you. You're
not going to get those types of vehicles from City Auto Sales and Leasing. You can buy with
confidence and be treated with nothing less than honesty and integrity and you definitely want to
meet Mama Louise. She's going to love all over you and you're going to have the best vehicle
purchasing experience you've ever had in your entire life. Enough said on that.
All right let's have our morning swiggy. I don't want your favorite breakfast beverages but I have
my herbals here that get my motor running each and every morning so shall we on 321
have our morning swiggy. Thank you to Mama Louise and her husband Earl at City Auto Sales
and Leasing. 321 Oh yeah that's happening today. I tweaked it just a little bit. A little
adjustment. Yeah that is so good. It's not coffee but you know what that gets the motor running.
Okay what do we have next? We have for you the daily weather. Let's have a look at the daily
weather report and see what's up. Yeah there's a Oregon's got a terrible time going on with
forest fires too and we got some really big stuff going on Northwest
that are deeply there's a couple of them that are like 150 plus hectares so think about the
boots on the ground and those who are fighting those fires because I'll tell you they put their
lives on the line to go into the bush and there's nothing but fire around you. Not a job built for
everybody so keep them in your thoughts and your prayers. They're doing their best with what they've
got but I think that whole thing about forestry really needs to be re-looked at and how important
it is to do maintenance. Sound familiar? Yeah maintenance it's not just about cars. Maintenance
applies to many areas of life health food finances shelter automobile it's all about maintenance
everything is maintenance and when there's lack of maintenance guess what happens
stuff happens and quite often oopsie I didn't see that coming exactly so that's why I'm here
for you to prevent that from happening with your vehicle peace of mind driving you cannot put a
price tag on that. Well today thanks to our friends Kathy Dave and Dan Grimo at Niagara block 5000
Montrose road Niagara Falls building Canada since 1931 all the building supplies building blocks
interlocking brick all your hardscape landscaping materials so they can help you build a project
that you're after maybe you're building a man cave garage or a house or whatever they have all those
supplies for you except for lumber they don't have lumber but they have beautiful hardscape
landscaping materials that will help you create that beautiful outdoor living space that you
always wanted so get in touch with Kathy if you need a contractor to get this project to undergo
to design it build it and let you enjoy it she has a list of contractors that they could say
these guys they'll get it done for you so check in with Kathy David and Dan Grimo and let them
know that you heard all about them right here in the morning drive with Nile Motormouth Jenkins
61 degrees right now and clear the wind is making it feel cooler about 59 partly cloudy
conditions from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. so in the early evening with mostly cloudy conditions expected
at 6 p.m. today's temperature range can be a little cooler which is not too bad to take we've
been cooking for a few weeks right today's temperature range 61 to 77 going to feel like
58 to 75 that you know what that's my temperature that's it so we're going to top out today at 77
yesterday we topped out at 76 here in the Niagara region and on the south shores of Lake Erie so
let's uh let's jump into the into let's jump into today's topics and we thank our certified
financial planning professionals if if the household finances are keeping you up at night folks
I can't stress this enough connect with Tony Miele or Larry T. Troll and get that hour and a
coffee discovery meeting down on the table whether it's an investment portfolio all of you if you've
got investments with the bank you need these fellows to take a look at that because you're
not making any money I mean I laugh at 3.99% for GICs come on really that's all you can give people
bank guys do you see the profits they make don't get me started yeah 3.99% you get 1% on a savings
account hello hello do the math you're not winning and they're not there to help you win and I can
say this openly and honestly because um yeah there's no compliance I don't have to meet compliance
but Tony and Larry both have to meet compliance they can't say what I just said so you need to get
that money working for you the only way you're going to do that is to hang on to somebody who has
credential certified financial planning professional they've been with IG wealth they're 50 years
in and these guys are going to retire soon they don't need any clients so there's no sales pitch
folks there's they're using their talents to help you and they're willing to do that for free an
hour and a coffee to go over your debt situation estate planning you have kids 18 years old at
home are you there are you are you their health proxy if not something happens you're not allowed
to by law you're not allowed to uh indicate to the physicians the plan of attack to get them
corrected so you can't get you can't do that unless you're their health power of attorney and it's true
and that's not something you handle yourself it's like break jobs guys it's not something that you
should always handle yourself so estate planning is the same you don't go to the big W store and
pack it for 20 bucks and then you read it and get to the fine print and say you need to have an
attorney check this they arrange mortgages i don't do a mortgage with a bank ever anymore for decades
because i like to be treated like a person and be treated fairly and i'll tell you their mortgage
department of winnipeg is amazing the ladies out there are fabulous there's so much more
than i could tell you but get that hour in a coffee book leave your wallet and your purse at home
no sales pitch no condemnation just getting answers to your questions how do you create that budget
that maintains your automobile do you have a plan for that you got that figured out cars take money
not just gas and oil it's a piece of equipment it's a machine period and you got to change
your mindset on that but do you have a budget set aside should the car break down are you doing
regular maintenance and that regular maintenance doesn't mean when something happens no that's
not regular maintenance that's called panic maintenance because now it's car down now it's
forcing you to have to make some decisions that's generally as a tech i come to you with a list as
long as your left leg and go where would you like me to start you mean it's going to cost that much
to fix all this well when was the last time you spent money on the car that's the big question
isn't it when was the last time you spent money maintaining a piece of machinery called an automobile
in your household and do you budget for that are you budgeting for the replacement because when
that goes down and you don't have the money to fix it where's that money coming from that's why we
do the financial planning segment that's why because nine out of ten of you have no stinking
idea what you're doing but you you say you have a plan but you usually don't have a plan the plan
is to get a plan but you don't have a plan and it's not that we plan to fail it's that we fail to
plan so let's jump into this this morning because what i'm talking about is exactly that is you guys
do am i speaking chinese or something i don't know should we i should check that and
recheck because here we are it's 2000 summer 2026 and we are into the break nationals again
and i gotta tell you it's really bad you guys are you guys suck out there when it comes to your
breaks and i'm hoping that this break tutorial is gonna break through the barriers and help you
get a better understanding i'm here to help you not hurt you but you're you're doing a great
job at hurting yourself so i'm just gonna point out because here's the thing you know my professor
would always say you don't know what that's why you don't have because if you knew
what you knew if you knew what you knew you'd have it and to know it not do it means you never knew
it in the first place that's where we're at the break tutorial i think you never knew it in the
first place so let's dive in this morning thank you to uh tony and larry connect with these guys
they've been my planners for over 20 years and these two fellows are like my brothers from other
mothers and they're there to help you they're reaching out to say hey what's what do you got
going on how can i help you and i'll tell you don't give up on yourself you feel like you're
drowning in debt don't listen to anybody from the outside i did that twice and let me tell you i'm
still digging my way out and that's decades ago decades oh you need to do this oh okay and i'm
listening to him because i was sent there and then i find myself upside down sideways and some
for seven years test that one out it doesn't taste good even today decades later it does not taste
good all right so i want to say thank you to the ladies again for holding the show on saturday
an hour q and a they held it all the way to the end again fellas i'm not poking you too hard am i
thank you to wendy april and kathy with a c fantastic questions if you want to you
want to get some energy and you want to get um up to speed these ladies are asking some amazing
questions and uh it's turned into a really good q and a program on saturday so if you
want to get your questions in the bundle you have to send them to me email by noon
by noon on friday okay do me a favor and uh take care of that business ahead of time so by noon
on friday is the cutoff no exceptions because i'm building a program for saturday and it's all time
and continuity so i can't i can't push beyond the noon hour to get the show ready for saturday
morning at eight a.m or q and a questions and answers and i can only take three questions
and be able to break them down in the hour and give you a real good bird's eye view
of what the meaning behind the question is and what you do about it let's jump in this morning
ready both feet five things it's the break tutorial and what has supercharged me on this is a
i did a break a break job uh for a family this week and uh praise god that i was able to do that
for them and donate my labor but i'm telling you i'm my hands are hurting so
yeah they had some stuff going on i can't i can't share but you know if you have stuff and medical
stuff going on you know the car kind of sits on the back burner and it was a it that's a case but
in your case it's generally not the case it's the case that you just don't understand maybe
what's going on so we have to explain it out and say here's here's where it's it's hurting you
in the pocketbook so anyways a break job on the front of this particular vehicle
um i guess i could say what it was a 2015 jeep grand chicopee yeah you figure that one out
i'm still laughing about i came up with that okay i came up with that i thought this thing has to have
a a moniker a grand jeep grand chicopee so got into this break job and i'm thinking i just want to
get take me a couple of hours eight plus grunting it out from nothing
went well from start to finish until i started putting all the new stuff back on that doesn't
take me long i can whoop through that and make sure i've got all my eyes dotted and tees crossed
it was getting it apart friends was incredible yeah i had to go over to my plumber's
drawer and get a pipe wrench two and a half feet long to get the pins out of the saddles that hold
the caliper on because the new calipers came with different hardware and so the old hardware was
not required but i think somebody put those in like you're holding the wing on an aircraft or
something or holding the engine in the car i've never had to do that before i that i got to the
point where heat wasn't working heating the bolts wasn't working using a bigger air gun wasn't working
they were stuck everything was stuck tight so how do you do a break job you don't want to be
snapping stuff off because then that's you know what how that costs you i'm going to tell you how it
costs so all that stuff that i dealt with that was seized that goes on hourly it does not get
applied to the break job i hear some people going what yeah that's not applied to the service repair
times to replace pads rotors calipers etc hardware that does not apply to the service and repair
times when we get into things that are that are frozen stuck seized and can't get them apart
that's where it goes on to hourly so we start we stop the clock we punch in on removing those
bolts that we have to get out without snapping them off because then it gets even deeper folks
so that's what i got into building it back up once i had everything apart and cleaned and lubricated
ready to put all the new stuff on it takes me no time to put it all together and torque all the
bolts back to spec so let's jump in number one i'm giving you five things today but i thought
i'd give you a bit of a backstory because i felt that it really needed to be talked about is i'm
not scolding you i'm trying to help you save money and get a better understanding you know
how does i only allotted myself about two and a half three hours i can tear that off you know
pads rotors calipers hardware boom bang bang boom because i did one a few weeks back
for a lady on a saturday morning and i was done like three hours out the door road testing finished
pads calipers rotors the whole nine yards because it came in and had a caliper fail
and the car was locking up actually the caliper was coming on and applying the brakes all by itself
imagine that and i test drove it and it was it was kind of creepy because it would all of a sudden
the car is slowing down and it's pulling well this one hasn't seen brakes for a while and here's
the thing number one get your crayon fired up because i'm giving you the five things i'm gonna
hammer them off and then probably do a follow-up tomorrow break tutorial i think it warrants having
a deeper discussion and if you have questions feel free to send me an email anytime number one
we don't do brakes once then do nothing until the next time that's number one we do not do brakes
once and then do nothing till the next time there's some grunching scraping or whatever
going on you go oh uh oh i think we got a problem here houston and number two
we're going to replace pads we're not using any cheapies that's right no cheapies there
we need quality brake pads number four we should be replacing calipers every time because they do
not work properly and they seize up in ultimate cases where things have been properly maintained
calipers can be reused but if it's if you're the type of person you did brakes once 56
years ago and now you need them again because the car is forcing you into the shop um i'm gonna i'm
gonna price out everything for you i'm not saving anything i'm not wasting my time trying to salvage
junk because that costs you money by the time you pay me to try and salvage stuff we can be putting
on quality products and doing a really good brake job for you number five
clean and lube all hardware this is where the problem is because you're not doing any brake
services everything gets seized there's no lube on anything that's what was up with this uh 2015
Jeep chickapee um no lube anywhere not even on the wheel nuts i worked for two and a half
almost three hours to get the wheels off no lube on the the wheel studs no lube on the wheel nuts
they were frozen right to the alloy wheels i managed to get i think 22 wheel nuts off
with my heavy-duty impact on on one side and on the other side one out of five yeah and it was the
locking nut didn't have any problems getting the locking nut off and it why because that nut is a
double chrome nut so it hadn't welded it itself to the alloy wheel as for the rest they're saying
try again motor off that's not working and i'm trying to get the wheels off two and a half three
hours to get the wheels off folks before i even do a brake job that does that labor does not apply
to doing the brakes do you know that again it's start the clock stop the clock you pay me for
my time to get those wheels off and unfrozen that's that's separate labor so before i put this thing
this vehicle back together i took all the wheel nuts over to my wire wheel on my bench grinder
and i cleaned all the rust off the points of the wheel nuts that were all corroded
and you can see how they had welded themselves to the alloy wheels and i sprayed them all with
pb blaster that's how i won the battle i sprayed them all with pb blaster and i let them sit before
i got two nuts nutzoid and started busting wheel studs off because that that's more labor so i'm
trying to save you money in a horrific job now i can't even get to the job that needs to be done
till i get the wheels off and the backs weren't any different except the backs had been done
only a year or so and they just needed a service and there wasn't any lube back there either so
whoever did it you know shame on you you know we don't just uh do a pad slap and send the customer
down the road but that's apparently i guess the new thing in the shop is get them in get them out
charge them for everything they're not going to look and get you down the road so that's why i
thought we better we better have a really good discussion about this because it's costing you
a fortune so if this job i'll share some more tomorrow we're going to do a tutorial i'm really
breaking out tomorrow over the next day or two because i think we're missing the boat here
i'm going to tell you the bottom line if the customer was paying for this
you ready i'm gonna get my i'm even gonna get my calculator going here so you it's real numbers
most shops are charging anywhere between 110 and 130 plus an hour and i've been hearing that 130 is
cheap so it took me eight and a half hours actually close to 8.75 to do the brakes on the front
on the front that's all everything i told you everything that was seized just to get the wheels
off two and a half three hours wrestling with the wheels let's choose 110 dollars 110 an hour
that's 962 dollars and 50 cents and the brakes are completed on the front
that includes the separate labor to get the wheels off the labor to clean the wheel nuts that's
extra that's not a brake job that's preventing issues again down the road that's working to
get the bolts out that hold the caliper saddles on to the spindle housing they're seized up solid
and you do not want to break one of those off because then it turns into a project from hell
let me tell you because now i got to take the whole car apart to take those brackets off
and the spindle housings and then take them to a machine shop and let them drill them out
and re-thread them for me so here's what it would cost if i just was able to get
the wheels off as normal and get to the brake job it would have been
330 labor are you getting my drift which way would you like which way would you prefer to go
an additional 600 in labor to battle your vehicle to get down to the brakes
or 330 labor to change calipers pads rotors hardware lube clean and lube everything all
the moving components button it up torque everything torque the wheels to 110 foot pounds on this one
and out the door we go you'd be 330 plus parts
yeah i hear crickets too exactly so we need to talk about this because it's costing you folks
a fortune a fortune now imagine just change the door rate to 130 135 what does that look like
let's do it so let's go 135 times 8.5 which is on the the generous side that's 1147 dollars and 50
cents to do your front brakes because we do the job a brake job i don't know how many years ago
3456 years ago we do nothing until everything is decayed and now we got to get in
there and this is a typical what i'm just talking to you about is a very typical scenario and this
has happened to me since last summer and skippy if she were here she'd say yeah he's right because
she watched me tear this stuff apart that they're all turning into that kind of job except for that
ladies 09 Hyundai Accent i did a couple weeks back that was a treat i was done in three hours
wheels off everything apart and i did pads calipers rotors all the hardware cleaned and lubed everything
everything was already lubed so it all came apart lickety split no problem out the door road test
down the road and i made the schedule for the ladies she had to get somewhere and needed her car
and it all worked out because everything worked everything worked and this particular job
is just so it's typical of what happened last summer it was a break nationals then and we got
we got it going on again this year so kind of starting to get a little gun shy because
that that messed up my whole week my whole schedule everything because i expect only to
be a couple of hours on something and i'm a i'm at days worth of labor and still not done i still
got to chase the back down and do the back so we're going to break this out over the next
couple of days and i hope by the end of the breaks tutorial that you'll come out the other side going
i i get it this you know because when the student is ready the teacher will appear
so let's jump into the final word here this morning which is
oh man i just i'm actually exhausted because yeah i am i'm tired because i i've been working
super hard on the mechanicals this week that's it right is what i've got to say
you either do nothing you here's what's happened i'm trying to read my own handwriting it's
terrible this morning what's going on here you you do your breaks once and then you do nothing
for how long and that's if you if that's the way you're doing it
and you're doing nothing until the breaks fail again until next time that's costing all of you
a majority of you bucke bucks it's parts and much much more labor hours just like i said
parts plus the labor hours when things are seized it's not included in the service repair times
it's not that's over and above that's what it's called over and above the actual
repair so service repair times in in repair manuals when we go there it's giving us the
labor time in unrealistic conditions and that's what i just described to you that's unrealistic
conditions there's no way any man on the face of the earth is going to do that entire break
job i got into when you couldn't even get the wheels off so what that tells me is how long ago
did the wheels come off when was the last time the front wheels came off for anything answer
i'd be pretty close i'm not a betting man but i would say long time long time yeah absolutely
okay we're going to wrap up today i think i beat on you a little a little uh a little much this
morning but i really want to help you and i really want to save you a lot of money bucke
bucks but when we get into stuff like this that isn't possible that is not possible to do it that's
that's costing you whatever the labor time is and then some so this morning's uh
summer motor mouth summer tech tip kind of ties right in entitled break fluid check time
how many of you actually done that break fluid should be flushed out cleaned out and done with
and fresh blood put in there every 24 months because break fluid is continuously heated and
cooled heated and and brought to temperatures that would actually boil
water and break fluid is hydroscopic and draws moisture out of the air so just naturally it's
organic and we'll talk about that in detail as well so every 24 months when i call a break fluid
gush and flush we want it all out of there because it gets contaminated and then it contaminates all
the hydraulic stuff in your braking system and then it starts to fail what is happening there
more bucke bucks yeah because there's going to be oodles of labor to to replace the coma
components that have been damaged by contaminated brake fluid so that's why we need to talk about
it breaks are a huge huge part of automobiles huge so now here motor mouth here when was the last
time you checked your brake fluid if you had to think about it it's probably time summer heat can
mess with the fluid and make your pedal feel spongely spongely or pop the hood let's pop the
hood and just see check the level and the color it should be clear to yellow like
lighter than um apple juice it shouldn't be dark anything darker it's time to gush and flush the
brake system period so i hope you have a fantastic day drive safe out there if you're
heading away for vacation always always always listen to our podcast on the five things that
just came out i think it was last week or the week before on things to prepare before you head out
on that vacation and make sure you have all the eyes dotted and the t's crossed so that your
vacation doesn't suffer trip interruptus because that gets things boiling inside the car and mama
is not going to be impressed fellas no siri bob would i want to be you at that point no
as far away as possible so keep it under 100 drive safe happy healthy motoring friends
you
About this episode
A brake job can turn into an all-day ordeal when seized hardware and neglected lubrication show up. The host frames the tutorial with a “five things” approach—what the component is, where it’s located, how it works, and how you broke it—then starts with a brake fluid check reminder. Real stories explain why calipers can fail and why wheel removal can take hours, plus how brake fluid absorbs moisture and can make pedals feel spongy.
"If it takes me nearly three hours just to remove the wheels, I already know this isn't going to be a three hour brake Job. That's exactly what happened on this Jeep Grand Cherokee-and today we're talking about five things every proper brake job needs."
What should have been a three-hour front brake job on a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee turned into an 8.1/2 hour repair. Why? lack of regular brake maintenance.
In Part 1 of this brake tutorial, Motormouth shares the five essentials of a proper brake job:
✅ Don't ignore your brakes between services.
✅ Never install cheap brake pads
✅ Use quality brake rotors
✅ Know when brake calipers should be replaced
✅ Clean, lubricate and torque all brake hardware correctly
A quality brake job is about much more than replacing pads. Proper maintenance today can save hours of labour and hundreds of dollars tomorrow.
Summer Tech Tip: It's Brake Fluid Check time! Learn why fresh brake fluid is just as important as quality brake parts.
Thanks for Tuning in, and remember.......
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