Well, I thought I'd always heard that the third time was the charm...But on Sat afternoon, I found out differently.
We had decided to just get away for a couple of days and head about 50 miles to the west over to Henderson Beach SP at Destin, FL. got a couple of nights there, Sat/Sun, which was kind of a shock since they pretty much stay filled up, and left home in Panama City about noon. We got about 25 miles that way and finally got out of the beach traffic and into a nice section of 4 lane road for about 12 miles without any traffic lights, etc and a 65 mph speed limit. I ran that stretch at about 60 mph, pulling our Vue, and all was well. Had just put the new Koni FSD's on the front and except for still getting the vibration through the steering wheel, I was VERY pleased.
Then there are two traffic signals about 3 miles before you get to the US 331 intersection which didn't really present any problems as I just coasted towards the first one which was red and it changed before I got there so I didn't even touch the brakes. The second one did turn red and I had to stop but it was a gradual and easy one. The signal at the US 331 caught us and when I started back up from that one, I had a sickening feeling in my stomach as my MH wouldn't move until I got about 1k on the tach. Shift into 2nd wouldn't happen until about 3500 and into 3rd the same. Had traveled about 1/2 mile at that point so I pulled off on a turn lane and got over to the right on the grass.
Took my infrared temp gun out and got the brake temps. Front rotors were at 140 and the rear calipers about 250...both of them. I got on off the main highway and went a couple of hundred yards to the entrance of an industrial park developmnet (absolutely nothing there but some roads and overgrown building sites) and took temps again. Fronts about the same and the rears were up to around 390. Knew I had heard that song before.
As I had already had the right side front AND the left side front calipers lock up and overheat, I was familiar with the smell and situation. I dug into my info bag and got out the glove box card from Workhorse that I got with my Interim Recall Notice and called the number provided. I was connected to the Workhorse Roadside Service who could ONLY set up a tow, at my expense, to the nearest WSC. Told them no thanks as I could get the tow from my ERS if I had to have it. Also was given the Customer Relations number at WH and was told they were only there 8-5, M-F so all I would get if I called was a busy(?) signal. Called anyway, sort of PO'd at this point, and did get a voice mail so I left a nice little message..... actually it WAS MUCH nicer that I felt like leaving....mostly to have a record of my problem. (They did call back Mon am after I had called them)
Well, as I have experienced twice before and have read reports from others, I waited at this desolate location with my not so happy wife (after making sure my legal carry weapon was loaded) for about an hour, checking the temps about every 10 or 15 minutes and when the rears had cooled to about 140, they released and I continued on about 15 miles to our destination.
Monday morning I called WH Customer Relations again and talked with a real nice lady, Erica, who listened patiently to my story and reaffirmed that the waiting to cool, etc was the proper thing to do and I needed to 'gingerly' drive it to my nearest service center to have them 'check' the brakes....at MY expense if they find nothing wrong. Drove on back to PC, using gearing instead of brakes as much as possible to slow down, and dropped it off at Bill Cramer Chevy, Caddy, Buick, GMC (WH Service Center), etc, etc Monday afternoon and now waiting to hear from them. We have a necessary 3 day trip next weekend and have planned a 9 day long trip over Thanksgiving to head from FL up to IL and sure don't have a lot of confidence in my 'ride'.
Oh yes, before you start questioning my maintenance, etc, I have had the brake fluid flushed and changed last fall (actually pulled the resevoir off and cleaned it out as it had the sticky honey like substance in it) and when WH replaced the caliper on the driver's side this summer, they went over the rest of them, at my expense, and pronounced them OK.....except for the fact I had to return for an ABS light which turned out to be caused by a warped center on the rotor which kept pushing the senson out of place and caused the light to come on (again replaced with MY $$$)!!!!
Anyway, I sure do hope we can get this recall underway soon and hope it will be able to help us out with these brake problems. I also got some more info out of Ericka at WH concerning the recall but since this post has gone on so long, I will start another thread or add to the 'Update' one with that info.
Thanks for reading and letting me vent.....
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