I'd tell them you want the old rotor (it's your right, you own it) and see
if
the story changes.

Personally, I would never turn a rotor, not when brand new they are under
$60 (aftermarket).

Lots of things are easy to check but the dealership is a business and
as a business they need to move cars through as fast as they can to
turn a profit.  They don't check all the bulbs either which is another
thing that should be done on a regular basis.  If the brakes are as
worn as they are stating they should have been making noise for a
while.

Not to bad mouth the dealers but to me it doesn't make sense to pay
dealer prices to have "easy" repairs done.  Find yourself a good
independent shop to take care of you oil changes, brakes and that kind
of stuff and save the hard stuff for the top dollar guys.  Those
rotors are pretty cheap in the aftermarket as are the pads but a
dealer is only going to use factory (expensive as hell) parts.

            Steve B.

Alot of dealers have a lube tech and all he does is oil changes. Doesn't
check the vehicle over just gets them in and out. If the dealer offers a
special on an oil change like having it done in a certain time or you get it
free they may not check your vehicle out either. You would also be surprised
of how many people come in and ask for and oil change and get mad that the
technicians pulled wheels to check brakes. Do an oil change and give the
customer an estimate of brakes and they said I never asked you to check my
brakes.

Glenn

Perce, I believe you need to look at the Maintenance Schedule in your
car's owner's manual.  It should have an interval for "Inspect Brakes"
in it, I believe, which is NOT each 3000 miles.  Be that as it may . . .

When you take your vehicle into almost ANY service facility, dealership
or not, and ask for an oil and oil filter change, that's what you get
and you get it in (sometimes) "30 minutes or less, or the next one's
free".  Some dealers also manage to get a quicky rinse off in their
automatic car wash, too, in that same general time frame.

In the "old days" of serivce stations, you didn't even get a brake
inspection with each oil change.  While the car was up on the lift, it
might be possible to look at the brake rotor surfaces to see if there
any unusual wear showing up, but that's about all--plus, you can usually
only see one side of the rotor anyway.  With the wheel off, then you can
see the entire outer rotor surface, but the inner surface is generally
hidden by the splash shield.  What you can see of it can still leave
much unseen with respect to wear patterns.

Sometimes, you can see how much brake lining is left on the brake pads,
but not knowing if the pads are "riveted" or "bonded", even that's a hit
or miss situation without pulling the caliper off.

With all due respect, this situation proves that if a dealership
"touches" the vehicle, they are magically supposed to see everything's
condition via "magic vision" or similar.  They are supposed to also know
that something going to fail next week, too, although everything looks
and sounds fine NOW.  And, when that does not happen, the dealership
gets bad-mouthed for not "knowing" something was as it turned out to be,
later, in advance.

Now, depending upon how much is being paid for the oil and oil filter
change, will depend upon how much time is spent on the vehicle by the
technician--just as YOU would do if it was your job to do (at a fixed
labor rate).  In other words, as already mentioned, it's about getting
the vehicles' processed and doing a quality job in a certain amount of
time.  There will be time to check the air filter element and see if
there might be something else under the hood that might need attention
(while they are draining the oil oil and putting the new oil in), but
not much else.  As modern vehicles now take less general maintenance
prior to 100K miles, there is less to check for.

One foreign brand dealership in DFW is advertising an oil change and
tire rotation in "an hour".  If that includes resetting the tire
pressure monitor, that would be about right.  Whether they might check
for nails in the tires might be open for discussion.

Also, a "brake inspection" would be a separate and different labor
operation than "oil and oil filter change".  Therefore, more cost
involved.

Now, Perce, as you perceive you have been taking good care of your
vehicle with the 3000 mile oil changes, have you ALSO been following the
Chrysler Recommended Maintenance Schedule at the same time?  Key point!  

As for what's better, a dealership or a private garage or chain service
store . . . that's debateable.  At least at the dealership, there should
be some guidance of what the particular  vehicle's supposed to be
"doing" (just as a prior service station mechanic, who was used to
seeing YOUR car every so often and knew pretty much how YOU drove the
car, might know when something needed fixing), but when you take a
vehicle into a chain store (of any kind), you might see the same techs
in the shop from time to time and you might not--and this can vary from
store to store, too.  And . . . an important thing to consider, they
might put some incorrect fluid in the vehicle (highly important with
respect to ATF with many newer vehicles, especially non-GM brands!) or
put the right fluid in the wrong place.  

These places might be more convenient and you might not have had any
problems with them, but it can all depend upon many factors.  And, they
might have "better" hours than the dealerships, too, which can be a
plus.  Generally, as long as you're in their area of expertise, things
can be ok and you can build a relationship with the people there, too.

Regardless of where you take your vehicle for service, it always helps
to build a good working relationship with those there--whether it's a
dealership or somewhere else.  The prices at a dealership can be higher
than at one of the other places, which can be a factor, too, but the old
"You get what you pay for" can become very operative if the
non-dealership entity does something wrong in what they did.

As for the brake job, you can request the dealership not use their OEM
parts, or at least ask them to get you a quote with OEM and using a
quality part from a local auto supply.  Sometimes, the OEM is more
expensive but NOT always.  

Also, Perce, you did not mention what the labor charges were, just the
total price.  I suspect that when labor and shop supplies are deducted
from the amount you mentioned, the parts prices might NOT be that
different from the aftermarket.  

Also, I need to mention that some brake repair chain stores will
advertise a really inexpensive price for their brake service.  But you
also need to listen to their "fast taking disclaimer" at the end of the
radio advertisement.  A friend used to work at an auto supply near one
of those places.  He said the brake shop was always calling over and
ordering parts and not asking about the prices as the customer was going
to pay them anyway (he claimed) so it was more important to get the car
repaired than what the customer was going to pay.  So, read the fine
print on those deals!

In the case of using non-OEM brake rotors, make sure that the ones you
get have the SWIRL FINISH pattern on them.  This "non-directional"
finish is there to keep the metallic pads from trying to "phonograph
needle" follow the cutter's grooves and cause chattering.  If the rotors
have just a satin finish, you'll need to carefully "bed" the pads in
with several medium-decel stops (which will probably cause smells and
early fade until the satin finish is more polished by the brake pads).
I know, that's what happened to me one time when I bought non-OEM
rotors.  Later, I bought some more (really good price, too!) that had
the swirl finish on them.  NONE of the prior "break-in" problems.  

As thin as the current production rotors generally are, not cutting them
is a better long-term option.

And, of course, make sure the brake pads are at least OEM spec.  The
"cheap pads" are just that, but something like Carbon Metallic are
generally a little more money, but worth it.  

Just some things to consider . . .


C-BODY