Midas Brakes Consumer Reviews

MEDFORD, OREGON -- I again review Midas. I had a supposed $3000 brake service on my 2005 Ford Excursion. They are now denying ever servicing the fronts although I have invoices listing it which will be attached. The front wheel bearing failed one week after they changed the rotors but for some reason the so called tech did not replace the pads on either wheel which were metal to metal? They also left out the rear caliper bolts? And both on the other side were just finger tight? Several lug nuts were missing or only finger tight?

At the time of the disastrous and completely preventable bearing failure I was going 70 mph on the freeway. It threw me across two lanes of traffic. I and anyone near me could have been killed WTH? This is the third scathing review I have posted about their criminal negligence and I shall post many more. The owner Daniel refuses to contact me to give me my money back or even apologize. The vehicle was repaired by Midas Roseburg and their report will be attached. I shall be suing all involved in California where justice will be done. Timothy **

GREENWOOD, INDIANA -- First off I'm not a Midas employee or affiliated with Midas in any way, shape or form in case you may think I'm offering this favorable review to amp up their business. I have worked on commercial and military aircraft for 40 years and some automotive jobs. I find it more convenient to have it done by a reputable business. On two recent, separate occasions I've had great service from Midas without upselling or gouging. I had been told by a reputable auto repair facility that my brake pads were getting close to replacement dimensions so I took it to Midas since they installed the rotors and brakes 40,000 miles ago.

I also figured that maybe I should be glad I got 40k out of the brake job. The Midas maintenance technician removed all four wheel assemblies on my 2008 Quest and discovered that my brake pads and rotors were satisfactory at that time with 30% left on the rear and 60% left on the front. The rotors were also well above minimum replacement dimensions. The maintenance manager then took me into the shop area and showed me the brake pads and rotors on my vehicle. The Midas tech. installed all four wheel assemblies, torqued the wheel nuts to manufacture specifications and there was no charge for this service.

One other time I had an issue with a trailer hitch that was corroded on and couldn't remove the receiver. This time it was a different Midas dealer. After analyzing the problem the tech advised me that they would not heat the hitch since this would take the temper out of the metal and cause a failure down the road some time. He did give me a course of action that I could take on my own. Here again, there was no charge for this service or any upsell of any sort. I want to thank Midas for their honest and professional service over the years that have proven to me they can be trusted.

I believe that most people think that auto maintenance or any type of maintenance is an exact science. That is not the case. When you look at a particular system i.e. brakes, exhaust, electrical or suspension, at first inspection prior to disassembly, there may be 'hidden' issues that can only be discovered after the job is started. No one likes to be hoodwinked and it is fairly easy to take advantage of a customer who may not be automotive savvy. However if you are in doubt about a certain procedure or maintenance action, most reputable businesses will try to make their customer happy because they want their future business.

That being said, if a business continues to dissatisfy their customers they won't be around very long. Midas started their business in 1956, if you do the math that's 60 years. That's not fly by night by any means. As a kid I took my vehicle to Midas for shocks and mufflers. They've always treated me fairly over these 45 years. I'll leave you with this parting thought. 'The next time you think you're perfect, try walking on water'.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- My brakes were struggling and squealing after a trip to the mountains. My usual mechanic said I needed to have the brakes looked at. I'd taken my car for the Brakepads for Life warranty 2-3 years prior at Midas and decided to take my car to them to save money on the pads instead of using my usual trustworthy guy. Big mistake. I spent all day Saturday getting this done and they overcharged me, which I expected so bit the bullet and paid it. Coming out of the parking lot the brakes sounded worse.

But I know new pads, etc, often squeak or make noise for the first 100 miles or so, so I tried to ignore it. A week later, it's still making that sound, so I call them and they said bring it back. I leave work early to get there before they close. They ask me, has the car been sitting without being driven. I say, no I drive it everyday. They say there's a little bit of rust that could be causing it to squeal. I reiterate what I'm hearing is not just a squeal but a grinding and knocking. They drive it for about a minute around the block and say they don't hear it. Give it another week they say.

I give it 3 weeks and it gets worse and worse. I call them riled up and ready for bear, but the receptionist seems very sympathetic and says they can squeeze me in ASAP and that their top ASE certified brake experts are "all in today" and my problem would be resolved. So I spend another Saturday sitting in their office, but optimistic it will finally be resolved. It's not. After redoing the whole process according to their tech the sound is worse than ever and I am at my wit's end as I already paid so much and spent so much time on this simple repair. They still say they can't hear it. BS.

I take it back to my regular guy today. He finds the problem immediately. They use the cheapest pads that do not come with hardware, so they use the old barely compatible rusty worn hardware which has been scraping the calipers. Another $500+ repair. So now I've paid about $1200 for simple brake pads and turned rotors.

My mechanic is telling me to take the original Midas parts back to them and they usually refund the amount for the parts as they can get a defective reimbursement from their side. But still this is ridiculous. Even if I am reimbursed for some of it, I'll have spent numerous hours and approx. $1000 on brake pads which were supposed to be free for life of the car. I'll avoid this place like the plague and will most likely learn how to do it myself from now on.

LOMBARD, ILLINOIS -- On 3/6/09 I went to Midas because I needed new brakes after getting an estimate for $777.31 for new rotors/pads in the front and new drums/shoes in the rear. I had the work done and everything was fine for about a month and then the rear brakes started to squeak and squeal. So on 5/23/09 when I was finally able to get in back into the Midas shop in Lombard, IL. they looked at it and I watched as the tech took some emery cloth and sanded the rear shoes.

So OK they gave me back my vehicle and said it should be fine now and as I drove away, I heard the same noises and went back right away. I didn't even make out of the parking lot before hearing the noise again. I went right back and told the manager that it was still noisy and he said it would take about 100 to 200 miles till it cleared up and I said OK and got back in my vehicle and set the trip speed to 0 and drove home and after 100 miles it was still noisy and getting worse and then at 200 miles even worse and at 929 miles.

I was finally able to get it back into Midas on 8/29/09 and they looked at it and told me I needed rear axle bearings and that rear end lube was getting on the shoes which I said I couldn't afford at the time for $632.60. So they put it back together and I took it home and told my husband and he said enough is enough and jacked the backend of it up and pulled the wheels and drums and became very mad saying, they are idiots and morons there at Midas.

He explained that first off only one rear axle bearing had a slight leak with no lube getting on the shoes, nothing to worry about and then he said that when they did the brakes they didn't clean and lube the rear backing plates where the shoes meet with them and they didn't clean and lube the star wheel self-adjusters. And that looking at the brake shoes he could see that they were cheap remanufactured ones because they had glazed over from the heat that they created when stopping and that added to everything else caused them to be noisy.

He went to PepBoys and bought new shoes and cleaned the backing plates and lubed them properly and cleaned and lubed the self-adjusters and put the new shoes on and adjusted them and Oh My God. No Noises No Problems what so ever NOW!!! Midas gave a lifetime guarantee with the brake job, But my husband says that he will disown me and leave, if I even think about going to Midas ever again. Even if it's to just have them check the tire air pressure!

By The Way my husband is 69 yrs old and when younger worked as a certified General Motors Tech for 19 yrs. But he is lazy nowadays and figures he can pay others to do the work. The real chat about this all is that my husband told me to take it to Midas, since they had a guarantee and seemed to have been in business long enough to know what they are doing.

WOONSOCKET, RHODE ISLAND -- I just returned from Midas. I arrived there Saturday morning at about 8:00 am. As I walked into the office, I had my paper work showing that I paid $780.00 the last time I was there and that my ceramic brake pads should be free. This whole trip to Midas is because I had a front wheel come off while I was driving a couple of weeks before, which had nothing to do with the brakes other than the mechanic who put the wheel back on said the pads were worn by 80%. I next thought was that the brakes have a lifetime warranty and I should go back to Midas and have them replaced free of charge, only having to pay labor and taxes. Here is where it gets interesting.

They took my vehicle for a test drive and then parked it in the repair bay and inspected the brakes. Then they called me into the work area and asked if they were the pads that they had put on the vehicle. I replied they were in fact the pads they had installed at my last visit. Then they showed me the wear on the rotors in the rear and explained that they could not be turned down as they had too much wear as he felt the difference with his finger.

The two rear rotors were changed the last time I was in for brakes. They showed me the front and said they should be changed also. The long story is that the way the warranty works is the brakes pads are free but for the warranty to continue, you must change all the components that they say need to be changed.

So even after getting free pads, the price to do the job came to $733.23 and the warranty continues to the next time I need brake pads. My suggestion is you find the cheapest place to do a complete and professional job and have it done there as the warranty at Midas is not worth the paper it's written on.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- I am about to go on a long road trip, so I took my car into a nearby Midas to get an oil change and free tire rotation, as well as two new tires if they felt I need them in the front cause it's front wheel drive and they are significantly bald. I dropped my car off and they said they'd call me before doing any work. I got home about an hour later and they soon called. The guy said my car needs several repairs adding up to $1300. I told him I cannot afford that and the car is barely worth that much. He told me he will do the main repairs, which were two new front rotors and pads and a brake fluid flush, because it was contaminated.

These repairs, he said, were necessary for the car to be safe and totaled a $530 after-tax/everything. This did not include the tires I wanted even though the front ones are very bad. I said OK do the repairs because he made me feel like 'THEY HAD TO BE DONE OR MY CAR AND SAFETY WOULD BE IN GRAVE JEOPARDY'. I asked a buddy, who knows more about cars than me (which isn't hard to do), about Midas' price and if it was really an emergency. He didn't get back to me until an hour later after the repairs were almost done, but he said it is very unlikely I needed new rotors.

Now neither him or I know the truth about how bad my rotors or pads were, but the point of all this is I feel like they pressured me into those repairs by making them seem much more serious than they were. They charged me $530 (front rotors, front pads, and a brake fluid flush) and didn't even put two new front tires like I wanted. Also, labor costs a fortune here, the mechanic I used one months earlier was $50 or $60 an hour; MIDAS CHARGED $200 FOR LESS THAN AN HOUR AND A HALF OF WORK!

And I know buyer beware and I am to blame for saying yes but Midas did not show me the old rotors or pads and there did exaggerate the extremity and need to replace them. These scare tactics are unethical. So I think people should not have any repairs done at Midas, or any mechanic, until they see the old parts and get a second opinion if possible because many will try and scare you to get repairs that aren't an emergency. I should have looked at my old pads and rotors myself before agreeing and as for the 'contaminated brake fluid', I don't even know what that means so I should have researched it before getting the repairs.

NOVI, MICHIGAN -- I had my vehicle brakes serviced at Midas store at Novi, Michigan store on 4-9-2009. Midas suggested me to change front rotors and pads, which I accepted. Midas didn't mention anything else about the brakes though Midas did suggest me to change transmission fluid, which I changed at every 50,000 miles so I declined the change transmission fluid suggestion.

About three month later, on 7-13-2009 I experienced losing brake while I was driving in the neighborhood at a stop sign. I stepped on the brake pad all the way to the floor managed to stop the vehicle and slowly I had my vehicle back home. I noticed that the brake fluid is dripping on the driveway. This is the first ever that I drove a vehicle with bright brake lights on. It scared me to death to say the least. A friend of us suggested me to call the tow truck and don't ever try to drive the vehicle again.

A tow truck towed my vehicle to Novi Midas on 7-14-2009. It was around 11:00am. The person at Midas wrote the order and I mentioned to him that I'd wait on it. About five and half-hours later, about 4:30pm, the Midas guy told me that I had busted brake line. The brake line is all rusted and it has to be replaced. This is a five/six hour's job. It'll cost me about 450 dollars and the vehicle will be ready about 5:00 PM 7-15-2009.

Here are my questions to Midas: If Midas is the Auto Service Experts as they claim they are, why they didn't even say anything about the rusted brake line needs to be replaced at the my first brake service job. I think that I, as a consumer, deserve an explanation. Is this the Midas policy to let the customer waiting for over five hours then inform the customer that the vehicle will be ready late tomorrow afternoon? If any person gets a service like this, will he/she come back as a returned customer?

MISHAWAKA/TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA -- I went to a Midas in Terre Haute, IN when I was visiting my fiance because I needed to get my brakes done. The price was OK but they "forgot" to reconnect the emergency break. I found this out because my brother was being stupid in my car and decided to pull up my e-brake when I was driving and we kept on driving. I called up the Midas in my hometown, Mishawaka, IN and told them about what happened. They kept giving me the runaround - "Our technicians have 20 some years of experience and would never be that irresponsible... blah blah blah." I told them to check it out for themselves.

They did and said they would reconnect it free of charge. Except that then they decided to take, tell me that I needed to get my pads done in the front and had taken them apart without even asking me. They also said that there were grooves in the discs and I needed to get those buffed out because that can affect the strength of my braking. They charged me $57 to run it under the machine for two minutes - I saw them do it. They also tried to tell me that the bushings in my car were bad as well as the struts in the back.

The other Midas said everything was fine, as did the dealer when I took it to them later to make sure. As for the brakes, they had only been done on the back in Terre Haute and the front ones should not have been taken apart. I told them to put it back together and I would have my dad do them over my fall break. They charged me for the labor of taking it apart and told me that I had wasted their time.

Oh, and as for that manager who wrote - "I'm so hurt that customers would say these things about our company" maybe you should try and figure out why people are saying it about your crappy company instead of crying. I've looked on the internet and there are thousands of complaints against Midas. Sure there are people who complain because that's what they do, but not this many. Anyone who reads this, I would avoid Midas at all costs.

GROVE CITY, OHIO -- I took my F-150 lariat truck into Midas branch in Grove City, Ohio one day to get my brakes and rotors changed. When I went to pick up my truck once they completed the job, I paid the manager at the Midas for his work. Everything seemed to be just fine, but when I was getting in my truck I noticed a hole in my leather seat. The puncture hole looked like something pointy had marked the leather before it finally punctured through. I immediately went to the manager and told him that one of his mechanics must have had a screwdriver in their back pocket when they drove my truck into the Midas shop.

He right away without even looking at my truck seat, said the hole was previously there and he had marked it in the paperwork. I assured him I did not drop off my truck with the hole in the seat, but he kept denying the whole thing. I have talked to several different managers in the corporate office and they told me the same thing that if he had marked it on his paperwork that there was already a hole there before they did any work then there was nothing they could do.

I then told him that he could have easily written this in the paperwork after he had punctured a hole in my seat and just said it was there before he ever got in my truck, but he assured me that one of his Midas employees wouldn't do a dishonest thing like that. Midas needs to make it right and admit they punctured my seat and take care of the situation by fixing the hole. I am thoroughly disappointed in my experience at Midas and even though I have a lifetime guarantee on my brake pads, I will not be going back to them again to work on anything.

TULSA -- Back brakes needed for my Kia. It was obvious by the sound. I just quit driving it once the sound started and took it in ASAP. Midas store Manager advised when he called me that the repair would come in at $333. Of course he was gone when it was time to pick the car up for a total of $400. I asked the clerk about the $333 and he said that was not enough (no kidding). A $67.00 (20%) swing may be small change at Midas but it's real money to us. Plan on adding significantly to your quote, better yet, ask then to fax the estimate to you or take a picture of the paperwork and text it to you.

Also this, be certain the location that does your work allows customer comments to be entered for their web located site, MapQuest in this case. The Midas store I went to does not allow any customer comments at a regular search result location... clever indeed.