Well folks I know that I haven't seen it all but this one takes the cake so
far in my book. A customer came in the other day on the back of a rollback
with no brakes. I went out to the car are sure enough the car had NO brakes.
The little red brake warning and the low brake pad warning lights were on
(1990 Audi 100). The left front wheel is covered with black and orange dust.
Strange I says to me self. I ask the guy how long the brake warning lights
have been on, "Oh about six months or so" he replies. "Six months!!!!" I
said to myself again. Well I figured we'll just have to have a lookie see.
I pull the suspect wheel and lo and behold the car has NO brakes. Not just
no more pads but NO more brakes. It appears that six months ago the little
yellow pad warning light comes on (VERY HARD to miss if you've ever seen the
dash of a late model Audi you'll know what I mean) and the guy figures heck
the car still seems to stop okay. I guess another 4-5 months go by and then
the guy starts hearing that awful grinding sound that tells you that you
have gotten all the money out of that brake pad set and that you have just
tripled the cost of repair but no this guy figures heck the car still seems
to stop okay. Finally what happens is after the metal portion of the brake
pad has turned into ferretic (SP?) dust the brake caliper starts in on the
rotor. Still the car stops okay and the guy continues driving. Then one day
he hits the brake pedal and pluie the pedal goes to the floor. He managed to
eat through the floating half of the brake caliper and since there was
nothing holding the caliper on poof out came the brake piston. This guy not
tripled his repair cost try multiplying by six!! If you think the parts for
our cars are expensive you haven't seen nothing unless you've owned an Audi.
After I was able to stand again ( I was laughing so hard) I give the guy the
news. He thinks its a design or engineering problem and this just shouldn't
have happened. Holding back the irresistible urge to laugh and tell this guy
that he is one of the most mechanically impaired people I've ever met I find
the will power to calmly explain that the warning lights are put there for a
reason and that when he first heard that grinding sound he should have
brought the car in. I really don't know about you folks but as I said before
this dude takes the cake in my book and the really unfortunate thing about
it is he out there on the roads with us and the really really unfortunate
thing is that he is probably NOT the most mechanically disinclined person
out there. Enough wasted bandwidth for tonight I just couldn't resist
telling this story. Regards Craig Bentley
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