What happened, in brief... I just picked up my "new" 03 Element today. 48K, mint condition, and I bought it from an older man who had regular service performed, and had the extended warranty transferred to me. Basically, I bought it expecting no problems.
Today, I get home with it and I'm reading in the book where you remove the sunroof glass and it mentions setting the parking brake, which I do, and when I go to leave the house, I drop the brake and the light stays on. I pull it up and drop it several times and still nothing. I found the switch for the light so I tinkered around with it and the attached cable, still nothing, so I took it for a drive. Honestly, I can't tell anything's wrong with it. Here's where it gets interesting though...
I hadn't had inspection done, so I decided I'd get that out of the way so I take it to some crappy little hick shop where I'm having these guys check it out. Right off, they noticed that my brake fluid was a little low, so they dumped some in and then the guy was telling me how my brakes were totally shot and my rotors were turned down really low and I'm gonna need a new master cylinder and booster and basically feeding me BS. In the end, the guy says that he can't pass my brand new car with 48k miles because the light on the dash is on. By now, I'm super pissed and my uncle shows up and he's talking with the guy and turns out he installed some security cameras or something for this guy and the guy instantly turns everything around and he's like "Well, I accidentally put down a sticker code on this paper so I guess I'm gonna have to pass ya, but get those brakes fixed."
So like I said, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with it except for it slows down (not decelerates) kinda quick after releasing the gas (i had a little 97 Grand Am before this, so the weight could be the reason) and it kinda lags taking off at full throttle. I don't know if it's just because it's an SUV with a 4 cylinder, or if those brakes really are sticking, but if anyone has any ideas, they'd be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Today, I get home with it and I'm reading in the book where you remove the sunroof glass and it mentions setting the parking brake, which I do, and when I go to leave the house, I drop the brake and the light stays on. I pull it up and drop it several times and still nothing. I found the switch for the light so I tinkered around with it and the attached cable, still nothing, so I took it for a drive. Honestly, I can't tell anything's wrong with it. Here's where it gets interesting though...
I hadn't had inspection done, so I decided I'd get that out of the way so I take it to some crappy little hick shop where I'm having these guys check it out. Right off, they noticed that my brake fluid was a little low, so they dumped some in and then the guy was telling me how my brakes were totally shot and my rotors were turned down really low and I'm gonna need a new master cylinder and booster and basically feeding me BS. In the end, the guy says that he can't pass my brand new car with 48k miles because the light on the dash is on. By now, I'm super pissed and my uncle shows up and he's talking with the guy and turns out he installed some security cameras or something for this guy and the guy instantly turns everything around and he's like "Well, I accidentally put down a sticker code on this paper so I guess I'm gonna have to pass ya, but get those brakes fixed."
So like I said, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with it except for it slows down (not decelerates) kinda quick after releasing the gas (i had a little 97 Grand Am before this, so the weight could be the reason) and it kinda lags taking off at full throttle. I don't know if it's just because it's an SUV with a 4 cylinder, or if those brakes really are sticking, but if anyone has any ideas, they'd be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!