Unprofessional Dealer?

October 16, 2014

Would you call it unprofessional conduct for a main dealer to release my car back to me after the six year annual service and mot with seized brakes?

The symptoms are that the car felt held back and the engine sounded noisy on the way home but I wasn't sure as it has just been serviced and things always feel different. Notice the indicated mpg was 2 mpg down after the service, probably normal as the car will have been running and not going anywhere. When I reversed out the drive last night it felt held back and squeal noise came from the brakes and it has never done that in the six years of ownership. I tried reversing again when I got back home and the squeal is there even after the car has been driven for a little bit, so not just because it was parked for afternoon.

I did notice that the brake discs were shiny, I can't help but think that a cowboy has been at the car and rode the brake pads down until it was shiny like that.

My car sits for most of the week on the drive, and I don't use the brakes much when I drive. So I can guess that it is possible that a combination of lack of use and poor maintenance by Toyota dealers has led to the brake caliper seizing up and only exposed when the braked hard during the service/mot. But why leave that as an unpleasant thing for the customer to discover after they have taken the car back? In my mind, I'd rather have the unpleasant phone call saying during testing the brakes have seized and we'll need to investigate and fix it and it will cost this much! :(

The spark plugs were replaced at the six year service, I'm not convinced it was needed and because the engine sounds louder (could that be because it is working harder against the brakes??) but I can't help but think they have damaged the engine/used the wrong spark plugs but I could just be paranoid :(