I was involved in a fender-bender back in April of 2014. My brakes in my 2003 Kia Spectra failed. I was in stop and go L.A. traffic so I was not going very fast, thank goodness, but I had new brake pads and routers so I was very shocked when they failed.
I took the car back to PB (my first mistake, I know more about cars then they do) and was told I needed rear brake cylinders which I did not question because the rear brakes were squeaking like crazy. Brakes were fine for about a week, then the brake light came on. Once again I took the car back. PB said I did not have enough brake fluid so I told them they were the last people to work on my brakes so if I did not have enough fluid it was because they did not put enough in after fixing my brakes. Brake light went off---for about two weeks and came back on again. I checked under the car for a leak and could not find one and I took the car back again and told PB to do a thorough brake inspection. (Yea right!) And once again I was told I did not have enough brake fluid. At this point I told them they had done a "Thorough" brake inspection and I was told there were no leaks in my brake system. This guy tells me my master cylinder must be leaking. I went out to my car, opened the hood and asked him where he saw a leak on or near my master cylinder? We went over it with a fine tooth comb and found "No leak" of course. I left and went to another PB location just to be told the same thing and when I pointed out the master cylinder was not leaking he told me it was probably leaking inside the housing.
OK, this was new but at this point I do not trust these guys to know as much as I know about cars, so I went home. The next day I opened my hood and take a good look around the area where the master cylinder is located and as the bright morning California sun shined down on the back wall under my hood I see a greasy-looking mess covering what I found out later was the brake proportional valves. Well, I had no idea what that was so I Googled it just to find out this brand of car has had plenty of problems and accidents related to the failure of this brake proportioning valve. I checked for recalls and Kia had not issued any recalls even though there have been accidents reported. This is crap!
Why do people always have to die before these auto makers are held accountable for their corner cutting and negligence? I will make my insurance company aware of the fact that the accident in which they said I was at fault was in fact due to this faulty brake proportional valve.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I was involved in a fender-bender back in April of 2014. My brakes in my 2003 Kia Spectra failed. I was in stop and go L.A. traffic so I was not going very fast, thank goodness, but I had new brake pads and routers so I was very shocked when they failed.
I took the car back to PB (my first mistake, I know more about cars then they do) and was told I needed rear brake cylinders which I did not question because the rear brakes were squeaking like crazy. Brakes were fine for about a week, then the brake light came on. Once again I took the car back. PB said I did not have enough brake fluid so I told them they were the last people to work on my brakes so if I did not have enough fluid it was because they did not put enough in after fixing my brakes. Brake light went off---for about two weeks and came back on again. I checked under the car for a leak and could not find one and I took the car back again and told PB to do a thorough brake inspection. (Yea right!) And once again I was told I did not have enough brake fluid. At this point I told them they had done a "Thorough" brake inspection and I was told there were no leaks in my brake system. This guy tells me my master cylinder must be leaking. I went out to my car, opened the hood and asked him where he saw a leak on or near my master cylinder? We went over it with a fine tooth comb and found "No leak" of course. I left and went to another PB location just to be told the same thing and when I pointed out the master cylinder was not leaking he told me it was probably leaking inside the housing.
OK, this was new but at this point I do not trust these guys to know as much as I know about cars, so I went home. The next day I opened my hood and take a good look around the area where the master cylinder is located and as the bright morning California sun shined down on the back wall under my hood I see a greasy-looking mess covering what I found out later was the brake proportional valves. Well, I had no idea what that was so I Googled it just to find out this brand of car has had plenty of problems and accidents related to the failure of this brake proportioning valve. I checked for recalls and Kia had not issued any recalls even though there have been accidents reported. This is crap!
Why do people always have to die before these auto makers are held accountable for their corner cutting and negligence? I will make my insurance company aware of the fact that the accident in which they said I was at fault was in fact due to this faulty brake proportional valve.
- owensca, Compton, CA, US