A customer named Katy came in after Les Schwab told her she urgently needed her rear brakes replaced, a whole new set of tires, and that one of her tires had a snapped wire. The car had just 47,000 miles on it. She wrote to us: “They were very nice to me, but I was hoping to get a second opinion.” Her family had been bringing their cars to us for years.
What we found
So we ran a full inspection. The brakes and tires were fine.
Front brakes measured 2mm, which means they’ll be due at the next service, not today. Rear brakes measured 3mm, so those have about two services left in them. Neither one is “urgent.” The car still had plenty of safe braking ahead.
The tires measured 7/32″ on the front and 5/32″ on the rear. Our tech’s note was blunt: “Don’t know why Les Schwab says you needed new tires, they all look fine.” The legal minimum is 2/32″. In other words, these tires had more than double that on the rears and triple on the fronts.
And the snapped wire Les Schwab mentioned? We didn’t find it anywhere.
What actually needed attention
The real problem was the 12v battery. The positive post was leaking and corroding the terminals, and it failed the load test, measuring below the minimum CCA rating for the vehicle. So we replaced it.
While we were at it, we also found three burned-out bulbs (the license plate and both front park lights), a dirty cabin filter, and an oil filter leak from whoever did the last oil change. The oil drain plug was wet too. We told her to take it back to that oil change shop for those.
The numbers
Katy’s bill with us came to $418.57. That covered the inspection, the battery replacement, and the bulbs. The brakes and tires Les Schwab called urgent? Still not due.
What this means for you
“Urgent” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in auto repair, and it doesn’t always mean what you think. At 47,000 miles, brakes and tires should have plenty of life left on most vehicles. So when a tire shop tells you everything needs replacing right now, it’s worth considering who’s telling you and what they sell.
In the end, Katy did the right thing. She didn’t argue, and she didn’t panic. She simply got a second opinion from a shop her family trusted. That second opinion saved her from replacing brakes and tires that weren’t due yet — and it caught a failing battery that Les Schwab never mentioned.