Jumping in here...
Half of our business is fixing other guys' crap. Half of our customers come here because someone else couldn't fix the problems they were having.
Furthermore, I'm a very "There it is" kind of technician. I prefer to put my finger on the root of the problem so that we can fix it right...the last time. Simply throwing parts at something is NOT a quality repair and is akin to wasting/steeling a customer's money. Going to Autozone and having some Freckle-Faced kid read the trouble codes is NOT diagnosis.
Back in the day (circa 1986), I was working in a small Lincoln Mercury dealership in FL. We had a lady with a brand
new Town Car come in with the front brakes melted. The rotors were a lovely shade blue, the pads were half gone and crumbling, even the boots on the steering linkage were melted...these babies had been HOT. When we checked it out, everything looked OK. Everything turned freely, nothing was jammed up, it all looked fine, so we jammed a set of rotors and pads on it, rebuilt the calipers (we did that back then), fixed all the melted stuff and sent her on her way. Low and Behold, the car comes back 2-weeks later on a hook with the front brakes melted again. This was around the time that Kelsey-Hayes was doing the ABS systems. So this time we went further. We replaced the master cylinder, ABS module and HCU, 2 new Ford calipers along with the rest of the blue stuff. this time we kept the car for a period of time and put some miles on it for ourselves to try and duplicate the problem. One day while driving it, I felt the brakes start to lock down. It wouldn't move from a stop without the throttle and it started to smell like hot brakes. I pulled over and looked around. Sure enough, the front rotors were way too hot. I could feel the heat coming thru the wheels. I looked under the hood at the brake fluid and all was well. I decided to pull the cap and as I did, I heard a Pfffft noise and the level came up a little. I thought to myself, "Son of a Hillary, I just found the problem". As the car was driven, heat was expanding the fluid and the cap was not venting the pressure. So a $3 reservoir cap fixed the problem.
Fast forward 10 years, I was an experienced tech and an avid fan of the Taurus SHO. There were 5 Factory Trained SHO Specialists in the country of which, I was one. The '91 SHO's started having a problem with dragging the rear brakes. Same sort of thing where the car wouldn't roll on its own but if you lifted up on the brake pedal with your toe, it would work fine. I found that the brake pedal was not returning properly. Turns out, the booster in the cars were a standard Taurus piece and not SHO specific. These engines made more vacuum than the regular Taurus engines, especially downshifting with its manual transmission and could overcome the spring in the booster and drag the rear brakes. the solution...a throttle return spring added to the brake pedal under the dash to act as a helper spring. Problem Solved.
I guess the point is that a good Technician, that has all the information and gives a Barak about doing the job right can find the real problem and fix it right. You might find this guy in a dealership or in a private shop like mine. It may even be worth a trip to Atlanta.