I arrived in KC last year at the end of March. Once I got settled in, it became VERY obvious that our F150 Super Crew had become the victim of deferred maintenance.
Once we fixed the major problems, smaller problems became more noticeable. One of those was that the front wheels lightly “shimmied” when we used brakes.
The rotors on the front brakes were warped. They mechanic said they couldn’t be saved because they had already been machined once before. They had to be replaced and that would cost $400.
Since I was unemployed at the time, I was really trying to keep our expenses to a minimum.
“How long can I go before they HAVE to be replaced?”
“5,ooo miles…10 if your really careful.”
I figured that the less I used the brakes, the longer they would last. How do you not use your brakes? I had to get creative.
I started anticipating red lights. My goal was to not step on the brakes until I was going 30 MPH or slower. Then I made that the goal of whoever was driving! Guess what? It worked!
Yesterday, 15 months later, the brakes started grinding. The brake pads were won out.
I never recorded the mileage when he said that so I have no idea how many actual miles we drove. However, I do know that it gets used EVERY day. On top of that, we have taken trips to Fargo, ND, Nashville, TN and Denver, CO! That’s over 3,000 miles in three weekends!
And, perhaps because of the recession, the price dropped to fix the brakes dropped from $400 to $285!
