My sister was driving my mother to go shopping satuday afternoon in her 93 caravan--when backing out of the parking space,the metal brake line to the rear wheels finally succumed to the generous dosage of road salt and generally nasty new england weather--the pedal went to the floor.She panicked,and rather than leave the car there and take a cab the 2 miles home and let me retreive it later and fix it myself,or at my friends shop,they drove it about 1000 ft.up the road to a Firestone tire and repair shop /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif they took 2 hours to finally get up on the lift and look it over--they decided it needed the metal line(duh)and since it has 57,000 miles the rear shoes,wheel cylinders,hardware kit must also be replaced.They also pointed out the rotted dust covers on the shocks,and the original exhaust is ready to fail soon.They ended up replacing the metal line to the rear wheels from just under the drivers seat at the metering block,and the brake shoes,wheel cylinders,combi-kit,turned the drums--for 400 bucks /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif--if I bought all that at autozone,everything would have cost about 75 bucks,plus getting the drums turned.I'm not bashing them--I know they have to do things by the book,and have to warranty their work,but the shoes had plenty of meat on them,wheel cylinders werent leaking(but the bleeders may not have wanted to open)so I feel kinda bad that they didnt limp home the 2 miles in low gear with the 4 way flashers on,and use the E-brake,but being a woman they had no clue how to do this.,its all my fault for being at my frinds shop helping him(and he had a ramp truck at his disposal)and the fact I dont have(or want)a cell phone!.Woman sure know how to pass the blame for something thats not your fault!.The brakes feel much better--but now I have to tell my 77 year old mother that it needs a timing belt,its still original,and the 3.0 V6 is a collision motor,meaning the valves and pistons collide when it jumps time--and the water pump should be changed at the same time--its never had a fuel filter changed,or the tranny filter either(and I know dodge caravan tranny's arent very good,but this one shifts nice,hate to touch it!)the tires are getting thin,rust spots on the doors that just appeared this year on all the doors will be holes if you poke a finger at them--the metal lines on the front brakes are pretty rusty(but they didnt pop when they bled the brakes)the front struts are getting weak--how do you tell someone who just spent 400 bucks on their car it needs about 500 more just to remain roadworthy??--and tell them when its all fixed,its worth about 500 bucks on the used car market??. /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif--She wont listen to me--and she's such a PITA to deal with the guy at the store said he didnt dare call her and tell her it needed more metal lines because another one popped during the bleeding process--he just did it at the original estimate.I wish I fixed it for 400 bucks,not that I wanted the work,but that would have bought me a membership to CK5,a lot of booze,and maybe even,God forbid--a cell phone,it would have been handy when my tire went flat on I-495 this morning-but I hate those "electronic leashes"--now they can NAG you 24/7 anywhere with those damm phones!. /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif
