New part failure and labor issues

[marista]

Anyone else experiencing a high number of new part fails? We have fails across the board, sensors, window motors, electrical (starter, alternator) and untold number of squeaky brakes. We use ceramic almost exclusively unless it's a cost factor for customers, do new rotors 98% of the time and it doesn't matter which vendor I purchase from - I get a large number of complaints from customers that the brakes are squeaking sometimes in as little as 1 month.?!?!?

Brakes are installed properly and greased appropriately.

 

Some weeks we feel like all were are working on are re-dos.

 

In the past, we haven't charged customer for part failures. It's not our fault, but it's certainly not theirs. Big labor jobs would get a labor claim sent into vendor. We hardly ever see anything close to full reimbursement if we see anything at all.

 

After the last few months, partner I decided customers need to pay labor at 50% reduced rate. Again, not their fault - but not ours either. We can't keep doing this without getting paid something for our time. Thinking of adding disclaimer on invoice stating this policy.

We feel for the customer, but we can't keep doing them for nothing with such a high rate of failures.

 

Just wondering if anyone else is running into this problem and how you are handling it?

 

 

 

 

[lmcca]

no offense but i would find another shop to do my repairs if i was billed for you not finding me good parts, you said it yourself, you use ceramic unless its a cost factor....

 

What brand? And you find 98% of the brake rotors are below spec or will be after resurfacing? Thats ALLOT.

 

What brand of brake pads do you use?

 

We use Centric and almost never have them come back on us. In Houston, we have high humidity that will literally rust the rotors overnight which will cause squeaking once or twice when first start driving. Its no cause for replacement. Other than that i cant remember the last brake job that came back. I would suspect your brake lathe being an issue but it doesnt sound like it gets much use, lol.

[mmotley]

Yea, I never use aftermarket brakes for that reason. If they want cheap, they can go somewhere else.

[Tires Too]

You need to have a conversation with your vendor. There are plenty of good aftermarket brake pads, but your gonna have to pay the price for them. Like Imcca said, if I was your customer and you wanted to charge me for a parts failure within whatever your warranty period is, I would be looking for a new shop to take care of my vehicles. We are a NAPA AutoCare shop and we use mostly NAPA premium parts. We see an occasional part failure(mostly rotating electrical or steering racks) that we will submit labor claims on, but no brake issues. We do use the Adaptive One brake pads on almost all our brake jobs. We do a 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty on all repairs and have almost zero warranty issues.

[ScottyP]

You also need to take a look at the brake work your techs are doing. One of the biggest no no's I've seen is pad ends being ground down to fit in the brackets and abutment hardware, even by well know shops. I assume you're in a salt zone as I am and one of the problems I see on a daily basis is rust buildup behind the hardware which starts to pinch the pads and sticks them in the brackets. Hardware needs to be removed and all rust cleaned off the brackets. I have several methods but my favorite is to use the sand blast cabinet. Once the rust is gone I treat that surface, grease it and install new hardware and then the pads will fit perfect, not too tight and not too loose. I assume you're greasing the pad ends and or abutment hardware, glide pins as well as the caliper piston end and opposite side contact areas. In the four years I've owned my shop I have never had a brake job come back for squealing, and I do a crap ton of brake work.

 

 

[5 Star Auto Spa]

We almost exclusively use after market brake pads and our comebacks for brake work are less than 5%. I agree with others that you have to find a good brand and also make sure technicians are doing proper brake repairs.

[lmcca]

We almost exclusively use after market brake pads and our comebacks for brake work are less than 5%. I agree with others that you have to find a good brand and also make sure technicians are doing proper brake repairs.

 

us too, we never use OE and have great success.

[Junior]

You also need to take a look at the brake work your techs are doing. One of the biggest no no's I've seen is pad ends being ground down to fit in the brackets and abutment hardware, even by well know shops. I assume you're in a salt zone as I am and one of the problems I see on a daily basis is rust buildup behind the hardware which starts to pinch the pads and sticks them in the brackets. Hardware needs to be removed and all rust cleaned off the brackets. I have several methods but my favorite is to use the sand blast cabinet. Once the rust is gone I treat that surface, grease it and install new hardware and then the pads will fit perfect, not too tight and not too loose. I assume you're greasing the pad ends and or abutment hardware, glide pins as well as the caliper piston end and opposite side contact areas. In the four years I've owned my shop I have never had a brake job come back for squealing, and I do a crap ton of brake work.

 

 

 

Scotty hit the nail on the head. If you are having that kind return rate your techs are not doing the job right. Brake rotors need to be replaced or machined on every job, piston travel checked, and if you can't move the pads in the brackets with pinky pressure there is something wrong. Pads should never be ground down, if they stick its a bracket problem. Every brake job should be test driven. If you are using any decent brand aftermarket pad you will be ok. Most warehouses carry a cheap rotor/pad line avoid it. Using brands like Wagner, Textar, Akebono, Jurid, Centric, Sebro ect will net you great performance. Remember even the most basic brake job is at least 40 mins or more for a top tech. That's why the labor guide gives you an hour an a half or better for most jobs. If techs are doing jobs in 20 mins they are not doing the job.

[ncautoshop]

My only comment on the brake pad issue is that some pads do have excessive epoxy on the end that needs to be cleaned. We bead blast every bracket that will come off and clean the others to bar metal if possible. Still get the ocassional pad you'll need to take a razor knife or grinder to knock the epoxy off for a clean fit.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Edited May 19, 2015 by ncautoshop

[NorthernMike]

Here too...We use mostly aftermarket parts across the board and have a fairly low part failure. on top of that we make sure that who ever our main vendors are pay the complete labor dollars that we charge to the customer. for instance....if we replace a wheel bearing for $275 labor price...we make sure I vendor credits us for the part and pays the full $275 in labor cost.

We who run our independent repair shops have only our reputation....so IF we have parts failure comeback, we pay for a rental, give free oil changes for inconveniences and so on..that can easily cost more than the $65-$100 labor rate... so we say, if the vendor CANT pay a $200-$300 labor claim once every 2-4 months...tell them you will find a parts vendor that will gladly pay those labor claims to get your $40k to $75k or whatever it is you spend with them. that's what we do....

 

That's just my opinion.

[mspecperformance]

Here too...We use mostly aftermarket parts across the board and have a fairly low part failure. on top of that we make sure that who ever our main vendors are pay the complete labor dollars that we charge to the customer. for instance....if we replace a wheel bearing for $275 labor price...we make sure I vendor credits us for the part and pays the full $275 in labor cost.

We who run our independent repair shops have only our reputation....so IF we have parts failure comeback, we pay for a rental, give free oil changes for inconveniences and so on..that can easily cost more than the $65-$100 labor rate... so we say, if the vendor CANT pay a $200-$300 labor claim once every 2-4 months...tell them you will find a parts vendor that will gladly pay those labor claims to get your $40k to $75k or whatever it is you spend with them. that's what we do....

 

That's just my opinion.

 

 

I wish that were the case around me. I do not believe any part vendors offer to pay ANY warranty on labor at all which is sad when I pay over $7000 in parts weekly on average.

[NorthernMike]

 

 

I wish that were the case around me. I do not believe any part vendors offer to pay ANY warranty on labor at all which is sad when I pay over $7000 in parts weekly on average.

please understand...no one here in Michigan Offers that to us, we tell them...if they want our business that's the way it has to be....

Im sure there is a vendor near you that would LOVE your $30,000 a month. minus a few labor claims a year....Im just saying.

Edited August 20, 2015 by NorthernMike

[mspecperformance]

you would be surprised. I have 2 options for my go to parts which is Northside Imports and WorldPac. Both give me nothing. WorldPac starting giving me SOME freebies but to get them to agree to any type of warranty claim payouts would be a dream. They won't even fix my delivery route. I am in between 2 warehouses and 1 of them is about a 15 minute drive. I explain to them that they are losing out on 20k in sales a month. Falls on def ears.

[NorthernMike]

you would be surprised. I have 2 options for my go to parts which is Northside Imports and WorldPac. Both give me nothing. WorldPac starting giving me SOME freebies but to get them to agree to any type of warranty claim payouts would be a dream. They won't even fix my delivery route. I am in between 2 warehouses and 1 of them is about a 15 minute drive. I explain to them that they are losing out on 20k in sales a month. Falls on def ears.

I guess being mostly German cars you are at a disadvantage for parts...I didn't think about that.

 

On a different note. how do you like worldpac. we are thinking about using them for our import parts. are they reasonably priced.....I will tell they seem as if they could care less if we sign up with them or not.

[mspecperformance]

I guess being mostly German cars you are at a disadvantage for parts...I didn't think about that.

 

On a different note. how do you like worldpac. we are thinking about using them for our import parts. are they reasonably priced.....I will tell they seem as if they could care less if we sign up with them or not.

 

 

They definitely value you us as customers however there arent very many freebies from them even though they are the biggest importer of european parts. I would say if you have a warehouse that can actually perform daily deliveries its definitely a good supplier to have. They have a lot of OE parts that are hard to come by. If you need to have parts shipped to you I would look into SSF based in california or Northside Imports

[ATSAutomotive]

 

 

They definitely value you us as customers however there arent very many freebies from them even though they are the biggest importer of european parts. I would say if you have a warehouse that can actually perform daily deliveries its definitely a good supplier to have. They have a lot of OE parts that are hard to come by. If you need to have parts shipped to you I would look into SSF based in california or Northside Imports

 

Do you use SSF at all?

[mspecperformance]

 

Do you use SSF at all?

i have an account with them with the intention of giving them some business. However them being on the West coast and me on the east it becomes hard with the shipping charges and such. Nice looking site and lots of inventory. I like the ethos of the company as well, seems like they are much more customer centric

[Mario]

All of the chain stores here pay labor up to a reasonable amount. I buy a lot from a regional supplier that does not offer labor claims.

 

It use to be the part markup was the built in labor claim. As the industry has gotten more expensive, the part markup fund gets reallocated to other costs.