Been thinking about a good weekend to spend doing some maintenance on the Canyon. Mainly a coolant flush and replace the serpentine belt, at 8 years and 75,000 miles, I figure it's time. I stepped outside last night in the dark with my flashlight, raised the hood to look at the condition of the serpentine belt, and heard the sound of something plastic falling. I glanced toward the firewall where the sound came from to see that the brake fluid reservoir had no cap on it. Looking closer, I found it laying on the cowl cover. I guess the headliner got slammed on it and it was temporarily stuck there. I guess I'm lucky it didn't get lost. Naturally, there was fluid on some things below the reservoir, and the fluid in the reservoir was very brown. I struggled to remember the last time I was even under the hood of the truck, because it hasn't really been driven much lately, and I had just changed the oil the first weekend in June. It has made a couple of 160 mi round trips to my mother-in-law's farm in August and September. It got a brake job during the second week of June, and it occurred to me that I haven't been under the hood since then. The fine folks at Caliber Auto Repair left it off when they did the brake job. In June. So I immediately got out the compressor and my vacuum evacuator and emptied the reservoir, and refilled with some fresh DOT 4.
I just don't know where to turn for competent auto service anymore. The shop that's been handling my Shadow's issues really stubbed their toe recently, keeping the car for nearly 2 months battling a fuel leak, with all sorts of excuses of why they can't get to it, and why they're having so much trouble fixing a simple issue. Now the folks that I paid good money for a brake job can't be bothered to replace the brake fluid reservoir cap. I have a hard time justifying $195 an hour for this level of incompetence. Do I need to just buy my own shop with a lift and tools and do everything myself? It's really looking that way.
Got out in the garage after a full day's work today and did a brake fluid swap on the truck, so as far as I can tell, no harm done. It's just the principal of the thing. Is it really this difficult to get good service anymore? I feel like I'm throwing money out the window on people that don't deserve the wage they're getting.
I just don't know where to turn for competent auto service anymore. The shop that's been handling my Shadow's issues really stubbed their toe recently, keeping the car for nearly 2 months battling a fuel leak, with all sorts of excuses of why they can't get to it, and why they're having so much trouble fixing a simple issue. Now the folks that I paid good money for a brake job can't be bothered to replace the brake fluid reservoir cap. I have a hard time justifying $195 an hour for this level of incompetence. Do I need to just buy my own shop with a lift and tools and do everything myself? It's really looking that way.
Got out in the garage after a full day's work today and did a brake fluid swap on the truck, so as far as I can tell, no harm done. It's just the principal of the thing. Is it really this difficult to get good service anymore? I feel like I'm throwing money out the window on people that don't deserve the wage they're getting.
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