D & H Enterprises

D&* Enterprises in Concord, failed to perform an accurate 4-wheel brake inspection and sent me away with brakes that had degraded below safe levels.
In January, I asked D&H about excessive squealing in my brakes. (They did my brakes in Oct 2011.) On the 1/30/13 invoice, they stated, "the front brake pads have 8mm and the rear brake pads have 4mm remaining... the right front rotor is slightly glazed. Todays pad compositions may have a squeak from time to time and it is considered normal." The squealing got worse.

On 3/21/13, I insisted that there was SOMETHING very wrong with my brakes. In the morning, the service tech gave what sounded like a canned speech, about manufacturers taking the copper out of brakes and, to protect the environment, we all have to live with a little brake squealing. When I picked up my car, they had inspected my brakes, and said they were just fine. In fact, in comparing the January invoice to the March invoice, it seems my rear brake pads had spontaneously regenerated. The 3/21 repair order stated, "there is 8mm remaining on the front and 8mm remaining in the rear. The front and rear rotors are within specifications... the brake pads currently have 250k miles on them since they were replaced... due to today's pad composition it is common for vehicles to have a brake noise from time to time." (My mileage on 10/03/11 was XXXXX, on 1/30/13 it was XXXXXX, on 3/21/13 it was XXXXXX.) [redacted], the owner, gave me the exact same speech about copper being removed from brake pads and, "we all have to live with a little squealing." In fact, I heard him give the same speech to another customer, complaining about brake noise. I think the March inspection and invoice could be considered fraud. Because of the speech, I wonder if they are defrauding their customers on a regular basis.

Because D&H is AAA approved, and the owner is a Rotarian, I trusted them not to send me away with a safety issue, and I figured I just had to live with squealing brakes. (That did not make me happy, but I didn't want to go to a different shop that I didn't TRUST.)

A few weeks later, I heard the metal on metal squeal when I was backing up - not even using my brakes! After telling him about a previous incident where D&H charged me $425 to figure out what a warning light was, and another $800 to fix it, my friend urged me to go see his mechanic, who actually IS trust worthy. I put it off another week, until I started hearing the squealing, metal on metal noise when I was driving forward, and not using my brakes at all!

I went into my friend's shop (D&K automotive Repair in Antioch, which happened to be AAA approved) and they inspected my brakes. Apparently, their inspection involves actually looking at BOTH brake pads - the inner pads were worn down to almost nothing. I had to replace my rotors, brake pads and calipers, on all four wheels. The 5/9/13 service order from D&K states, "technician noted front brakes were wearing unevenly with right pads at 8mm and left pads at 4mm indicating a faulty left front brake caliper. Also noted rear brakes are at 2mm on the inner pad and 8mm on the outer pad. Recommend replacing the front brake calipers, pads and rotors. Also recommend replacing the rear brake pads, rear brake rotors and also the rear brake calipers."

Not only did D&H fail to inspect my brakes, I was sent away with a car that could have failed to stop in an emergency situation.