Make sure your brakes are working right!!
 

Well this happened about an hour ago:

I put my truck in the shop (Mineke) a couple weeks ago, they replaced the wheel cylinders, they were leaking, plus I was having a problem with pedal drop(which is the reason I put it in there!). When I got it back, they said "the total is $200, here are your keys," and thats it. On the way home I still had pedal drop, but mineke was closed. So it had to wait, now I have to get it towed to the shop, which will never be Mineke again.

I was driving down the road comming to a stoplight, downshifting as usual, and i decided to change lanes before I got there. I changed lanes and hit the brakes, but they went to the floor with no effort at all. I hit them again and nothing, so I hit the car in front of me (2001 Nissan Xterra).I was only going about 15-20mph (thank god for manual transmission downshifting, cause the speed limit was 40!). When I got out, it was my best freinds mom! She said, "I saw you comming, and the reaction on your face. I knew something was wrong!" A scratch to her car on the bumper, was the only thing wrong with it. She was like dont worry about it nothing is wrong, and she followed me home...I had to tap the brakes like 1000 times, but I stopped every time.

I just want to tell yall, and thank god. I am so glad I changed lanes, because there was a car in the other lane, and I would have destroyed it. Plus I am glad that her car was there to stop me, because I would have just gone into the intersection. Happy 18th birthday to me!! (It was 2-10-07, but still close!)

Please, take my advise, DO NOT PUT OFF ANY MAINTENANCE ON YOUR TRUCKS. I know it is our fault, well actually his, for not getting it done, but he is my dad and I love him. It hurt him more than it hurt me though, because I could have been on the freeway when this happened, and he feels guilty. Looks like I am going to be driving moms Honda Civic around while im getting the brakes fixed.

The damage isnt that bad, I wanted to replace the grill and the bumper anyways, because the bumper was starting to rust, and the grill was fading, so I am going to just do all the work myself, and save some cash!

I took some pics for yall:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...wd/Wreck-3.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...wd/Wreck-2.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...wd/Wreck-1.jpg

dont feel too bad, that bumper is pretty cheap sheet metal. you could probably use a dolly and get it back to proper shape in no time. glad to hear no one was injured and that your friends mom was so understanding.

as you stated, maintenance of any sort should be completed as soon as possible. i would be talking directly with meineke and let them know the situation. sounds like the master cylinder is toast, ive had two of them do just that to me. good thing my emergency brake was working!

lee

Working at a body shop we had 2 seperate vehicles come in that were accidents from "M" brake jobs. We had to have seperate inspectors come in and take them apart. Both had the brake lines actually twisted and kinked to where the calipers didn't work. Just my opinion, I would go elsewhere.

I would not reccomend Mineke to my worst enemy. lol my poor baby was hurt though, but she did need a facelift anyways, so at least something good came out of it.

call a lawyer those fools could have killed you I had a ton of problems with them about 5 years ago nothing that bad but after they did the brakes on my F150
it would go through pads within 2 months no joke.
after starting to work on my trucks myself I had come to the conclusion that they had not checked my rotors or calipers nor had replaced the rotors like they had charged me for. after telling me that the old ones where to far worn to use.
but they did flush my brakes and replace my tie rod so they did do half of the work with a bill of over 800$.
if it had been me I would have made a police report of the accident had the cop see that the brakes did not work and than made them pay for any damages for the accident. brakes are the most important item on a vehicle and who ever did the work on your truck should have done it right.

Agreed. Those guys need to be held responsible for putting your life in danger.

I was thinking about calling a lawyer, but I didnt want to call a cop to the scene either, because It would have been a ticket for me. Failure to control speed!

it would not have been you fault due to you had just had it worked on
still talk to a lawyer usually the first phone call will be free and they will be forward with you about about if you have a case.
call a few and see what they say.

At least your alive, that's the important part.

I'd question the shop's job. I'm not to trusting with different shops as I've seen countless people, including myself get screwed over.

who is mineke
Is it a shop that is around the country? i have never heard of them

Yes there nation wide I thought? There's another shop that stars with an "M" also that you need not go to. Unless you have a fat check book and want to risk the same fate!

I'd be all over this with your insurance company and the brake "shop".... Big liability issue.

lol "you can trust the m____s touch"

the other shop is midas. i took mine to midas once and just after looking at it they told me my rotors needed to be resurfaced, my calipers rebuilt, new pads and new brake lines. the dealership told me i needed new calipers. guess which one i trusted.

i'd be raising hell with meineke right away. at the very LEAST they need to pay for everything to get it done right...ELSEWHERE

oh and im pretty sure the cop wont write you a ticket if both parties agree...am i wrong?

That's what I meant about the check book. These guys are trained to upsell jobs. Even if you don't need it, there going to try and sell it to you. It really ticks me off because there's really trust worthy people out there, and that are getting taken advantage of. That's why sites like these are really helpfull. DIY YOTATECH ALL THE WAY!

Well I dont know about that here in texas drguitarum2005, it was a freind thing...so that wasnt a problem, I am going to call a lawyer sometime this week, but my dad is getting the brakes fixed at a really well known place tomorrow, so it might be to late. The least I am going to do is leave them a peice of my mind. And show them the damage.

So, lemme get this straight, because I'm a little confused.

You took the truck to the shop to have the brakes done.
You leave the shop and the brakes feel the same. Shop closed.
You wait two weeks, then hit someone.
And it's Mieneke's fault?

Also, did you instruct Mieneke to repair/replace everything brake related, or just ask them to replace the leaky wheel cylinders? Do you have a work order? Do you know exactly what failed, causing you to lose all braking ability?

You're wasting your breath with a lawyer, and Mieneke, in my opinion.

I never trust those monkey's to do any real work Back when I had a camry the only exhaust shop I could find was a M. I took it there and I watched them dot he whole job and dang I wish I had a welder cause they charged me 200 bucks for nothing but welding in a new piece of pipe.

Long story short is I had a busted motor mount, in a 93 camry V6 XLE they are hydraulically driven and $$$. I waited to replace it and while driving it bucked and caused a odd peice of pipe that connected from my headers to the exhaust to shear off. Made it sound awesome though..

Anyway I wont dare take any vehicle to any of those junk shops, heck I ask around before I take my cars anywhere and although my good mechanic couldnt fix my brakes for me-all it needed was a matching set of pads..oh well he does good work and no one is perfect..stealership didnt even look at it much, they only drove it..thankfully I didnt pay for it.

See here for more info on that and the cause of possibly some peoples brake problems.. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...ghlight=brakes

It felt the same as when we put it in, but the thing is, the shop never told me what was truly wrong with it, or never mentioned if anything else was wrong. What if I was an old lady that didnt know anything about cars, and this happened to me. What if she/I was driving on the freeway. I/we could have died!! Seriously, I know that is my fault that I didnt bring it back, but they could have said something about it. Ya know. I just know I will never go back to the M's nor allow any of my freinds to do the same!

You might recognize the name better if anyone in this thread actually spelled it correctly. ;)

MEINEKE

And yes, they're all a bunch of crooks.