BoostFrenzy

Friday October 18 I dropped off my 1991 Audi 80 Quattro with a rear right wheel bearing problem.

At around 3:30pm that day he replaced the RR wheel bearing and the thermostat, a "mechanic" of his drove it and certified it to be fine.

At 6:15pm I picked up the car and proceeded to drive, first noticing that the steering wheel needs to be held about 4 or 5 inches to the left to maintain a straight line.

Then I get on the highway and the rear end is awful, jumpin everywhere.

Everyone was closed by that time Friday except for Sears so I stopped by for a free inspection.

They said that either one or both rear calipers were stuck, or possibly stuck due to ebrake usage and couldn't explain why the steering wheel was off, so I had them unstick the calipers manually with a crowbar and they advised me not to use the ebrake until it's fixed.

Saturday October 19 I dropped off my car at the shop again while they were closed with a note on the steering wheel that explained the situation and how the car drove straight and ebrake worked perfectly prior to the wheel bearing replacement.

He calls this morning kinda upset at me for complaining telling me how he doesn't see why i'd have alignment or caliper problems due to the wheel bearing change, I agree and say it's weird but tell him "you drove it prior to working on it NOW go drive it and notice the difference"

He says he'll make it right but I think now i'm going to have to be buying a bunch of new parts to correct something that worked in the first place!

what did he do wrong?

Nervikterklieb

ebrake problems could be various mistakes they could have made with the rear wheels off, they'd have to be idiots, but it kind of sounds that way. why did you have bearing prblems in the first place? could the caliper have been sticking before, only less? about the alignment, they could have lifted it wrong maybe, or done some kind of damage along the way.

BoostFrenzy

ebrake didn't stick @ all before, bearing was wore and loud so it needed replaced

Don@STaSIS

Howdy! Maybe you had a working e-brake, but were both sides connected? Sounds to me like you may have had the right side cable undone, possibly the previous owner undid the right side e-brake cable to avoid replacing a sticking caliper on that side, I've done this before. The e-brake works fine with just one side connected, but the handle comes up a bit higher than usual. Mechanic did the bearing job and popped the e-brake cable on, you crank the e-brake, bingo stuck caliper on right side. With the right side only stuck then you must steer to the left to go straight, the car wants to pivot around the slower rear wheel on the right side, also makes the car kind of skate sideways.

The mechanic then did the proper thing, pry the cable back. I would remove the e-brake cable on that side and drive away. Might have decent e-brake function if you have thick pads and the center yoke is tight, just no function on the right side until the caliper is replaced or rebuilt.

Just a theory, but only thing I can think of...

Good Luck,

BoostFrenzy

already thought of this, he says both were connected at disassembly

Don@STaSIS

Howdy! I would suspect he may have just not remembered, but if this is the truth it sounds like a spot of bad luck, replace one thing and another fails. Those rear calipers have a tendency to just go bad one day, ask me how I know, been through it several times. It does just happen one day, a few weeks ago my right side caliper just locked up, no indication. Old 80t both rear calipers stuck at the same time, no indication either...

Cheers,

BoostFrenzy

turns out things got put back together wrong, everything is fine now!

Merkin

even for something simple like our cars, imagine what they screw up on a new audi and how much it would cost.