Tim
Owner · ASE Master Technician
Opened the doors in 2015 with one lift and a rule he still enforces: nobody sells a repair they wouldn’t do on their own car.
Certified & approved
ASE CERTIFIED
NAPA AUTOCARE
AAA APPROVED
REPAIRPAL CERTIFIED
What we fix
Everything a dealer does. None of the dealer theatre.
Domestic, Asian and European. Gas, diesel, hybrid and EV. If it drives into Onondaga County, we work on it.
01
Brakes
Pads, rotors, calipers and lines. Measured in millimetres and photographed before we quote you a dollar.
View service → 02Oil & Maintenance
Full-synthetic service with a 40-point digital inspection every single visit. Factory intervals, kept honestly.
View service → 03Check Engine & Diagnostics
We find the cause, not just the code. Factory-level scan tools, live data, and a real explanation.
View service → 04Transmission
Fluid service, valve bodies, rebuilds and replacements — including CVT and dual-clutch units.
View service → 05AC & Heating
R-134a and R-1234yf recovery, UV leak tracing, compressors, blend doors and heater cores.
View service → 06Tires & Alignment
All major brands, mounted, balanced and road-force checked. Four-wheel alignment on every set we sell.
View service → 07NYS Inspection
Safety and emissions while you wait. If something fails, we show you the part and the rule it failed.
View service → 08Suspension & Steering
Struts, control arms, bushings and wheel bearings — the parts CNY winters eat first. Road-tested after every job.
View service →
Big repair at a bad time? We offer interest-free financing for 6 months on approved credit — apply in about two minutes.
Apply for financing →
Schedule service
Book your appointment.
Pick a day and a drop-off time. You’ll get a text confirmation, and we’ll call before any work begins.
Rather talk to a person? Call (315) 476-0122 — Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:00.
Two ways to book
Call us, or send the details.
Most appointments are available within two business days. Same-day slots are held every morning for anything unsafe to drive — if the car isn’t safe, call rather than book.
HoursMon–Fri 8:00–5:00
Dropping off earlyKey box at the door, 24h
Getting homeFree local shuttle
Bring
Your keys and, if you have one, the code your dashboard is showing.
Waiting
Lounge, coffee and Wi-Fi. Oil services and inspections are usually under an hour.
Leaving it
Ask for the shuttle or a loaner when you book. Key drop box is at the front door, 24 hours.
Brake Repair in Syracuse, NY
Pads, rotors, calipers, hoses, master cylinders and ABS faults — measured, photographed, and quoted before anything comes apart. Same-day service on most vehicles.
Central New York is hard on brakes. Road salt from November through April corrodes rotors and seizes caliper slide pins; stop-and-go traffic on Erie Boulevard and West Genesee cooks pad material. A brake system that was fine last spring can be metal-on-metal by the following one.
We inspect brakes on every visit, whatever you came in for. Pad thickness is measured in millimetres, rotor thickness with a micrometer, and both numbers go into the digital inspection we text you — alongside a photograph of the actual corner of your actual car. If your pads have 7 mm left, we’ll tell you that and send you home. We are not interested in selling you a brake job you don’t need yet.
When they do need replacing, we use premium ceramic or semi-metallic friction matched to how you actually drive — a commuter on I-690 and a contractor towing a trailer need different pads. Rotors are replaced rather than resurfaced when they’re below spec, because a thin rotor warps again within a season. Everything is torqued to the manufacturer’s specification and road-tested before it goes back to you.
Signs you need brake work
In plain words. If any of these sound like your car, don’t wait it out — brakes are the one system where a small problem gets expensive fast.
A squeal that goes away when you brake
That’s the wear indicator — a small metal tab designed to make noise when the pad gets thin. You have weeks, not months.
Grinding when you stop
The pad material is gone and steel is riding on steel. Every stop is cutting into the rotor. Stop driving it and call us.
The steering wheel shakes when slowing
Usually warped or unevenly worn front rotors. Often felt first at highway speeds coming off I-81.
The pedal sinks slowly to the floor
A fluid leak or a failing master cylinder. This is the one that does not get better on its own. Have it towed.
The car pulls to one side when braking
Typically a seized caliper or a collapsed brake hose — extremely common on salted roads after five or six winters.
A burning smell after a hill
A brake dragging. Left alone it overheats the fluid and the hub, and the repair grows from a caliper to a bearing.
Our brake process
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01
All four wheels come off
Not a peek through the wheel spokes. Wheels off, so we can see the inboard pad, the rotor face, the hose, and the parking brake hardware.
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02
Measure and photograph
Pad thickness in millimetres, rotor thickness against the manufacturer’s discard spec, fluid tested for moisture content. Every number gets a photo attached.
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03
You get the report on your phone
A text link, colour-coded green, yellow and red. Approve the reds, defer the yellows, ask us about anything. Nothing proceeds without your tap.
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04
Replace, clean and lubricate
Premium friction, new hardware clips, slide pins cleaned and greased with high-temperature lubricant, hub faces wire-wheeled so the new rotor sits flat.
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05
Bed in and road test
Torque to spec, bed the pads properly so they don’t glaze, then drive it. If it isn’t right on the road, it isn’t finished.
Your brake job is covered for 24 months, anywhere in the country.
Parts and labor, 24,000 miles, honored at over 17,000 NAPA AutoCare shops nationwide. No deductible. If a pad or caliper we installed fails, it is our problem to solve — whether you’re on West Fayette Street or halfway to Florida.
Full warranty details →Brake questions we get every week
It depends on the vehicle and which parts have actually failed — front pads and rotors on a Civic and rear pads, rotors and a seized caliper on an F-150 are different jobs. What we will always do is measure first, show you the photographs, and give you a firm price before we start. No estimate over the phone that changes at the counter.
No. If the rotor is above the manufacturer’s minimum thickness, running true, and the surface is in good shape, new pads on the existing rotors is a perfectly sound repair. We measure and tell you which case you’re in. In Central New York, though, corrosion often decides for us — a rotor rusted at the hub or edge won’t give you a quiet, even brake.
Most pad-and-rotor jobs are done the same day, often in two to three hours once you’ve approved the work. Seized calipers, rusted hardware or ABS diagnostics can add time. If we need to keep the car overnight, we’ll tell you before we start and get you a loaner or a ride home.
No. Grinding means the friction material is gone and the steel backing plate is cutting the rotor. Stopping distances get longer, and a repair that was pads becomes pads, rotors and often a caliper. Call us — we hold same-day slots every morning for exactly this.
We use OE or premium aftermarket friction that meets or exceeds the original specification, and we’ll tell you which brand is going on your car. On vehicles where the factory pad is genuinely better — some European brake systems — we order the OE part. Your warranty is identical either way.
Get your brakes measured, not guessed at.
Free brake inspection with any service. You’ll see the photos before you see a price.
Since 2015 · W Fayette St
Old-world value. Modern-day convenience.
That’s the whole idea, and it has been since the first lift went in. Do the work the way a good shop did it forty years ago — then hand you the photographs on your phone.
We opened because we were tired of how it usually goes.
Everybody in Syracuse has the story. You drop the car off for a noise, you get a phone call full of words you don’t know, and you say yes because what else are you going to say. You drive away with an invoice and no idea whether any of it was real.
Syracuse Auto Works opened in 2015 on West Fayette Street with one rule: if we can’t show it to you, we don’t sell it. In practice that meant buying tablets before we bought a second coffee machine. Every technician here photographs what they find — the worn pad, the leaking seal, the cracked boot — and that photo goes to your phone with a measurement next to it. You approve line by line, from wherever you are.
It turns out that when people can see the problem, they stop feeling sold to. They ask better questions. They come back. Ten years and 175 reviews later, most of our work comes from somebody who told somebody else.
We stayed independent on purpose. No franchise quota tells us to push a fluid flush this quarter. No regional manager sets a labor-hours target. The person who prices your repair is the person who has to look at you at the counter, and who’ll be at the same address next winter when the salt comes back.
How we actually run the place
Show, don’t tell
A photo and a measurement beat an adjective every time. If we recommend it, you’ll see why.
Tell people what can wait
Yellow items are yellow for a reason. We’d rather see you in the spring than sell you the whole list today.
Fix it once
Clean the hub, replace the hardware, torque to spec, road test it. Cutting those corners is how a job comes back.
Stand behind it anywhere
24 months, 24,000 miles, 17,000 shops. A warranty that only works at our door isn’t much of a warranty.
Come see the shop before you need it.
The crew
Names, faces and certifications.
Certified
100%
Every technician here holds current ASE certification.
In the bays
5
Technicians, plus the owner — who still diagnoses the hard ones.
Recertified
5 yrs
Certificates are on the wall by the counter. Ask to see them.
You should know who is going to work on your car. Every technician here is ASE certified, and every one of them is on this page — not a stock photo of somebody else’s garage.
Tim
Owner · ASE Master Technician (A1–A8)
Opened the shop in 2015. Still diagnoses the hard ones himself — the intermittent electrical faults nobody else will take. Drives a truck with 240,000 miles on it to prove a point.
James
Service Manager · ASE Certified
The voice on the phone and the one who walks you through the inspection photos. Will happily tell you a repair can wait until spring, which is why people keep calling him back.
Alignment & Chassis Technician
ASE Certified · A4 Steering & Suspension
Runs the alignment rack. Can tell from the tire wear pattern what the car has been doing for the last 20,000 miles, and is usually right.
□ Content slot — supply name
Diagnostic & HVAC Technician
ASE Certified · A6 Electrical, A7 HVAC
Handles the check-engine lights other shops have already guessed at twice. Certified for R-1234yf, which not every independent shop in Syracuse can say.
□ Content slot — supply name
Tire & Brake Technician
ASE Certified · A5 Brakes
Mounts, balances and road-force checks every set that leaves here. Has strong opinions about all-season tires in a Syracuse February, and will share them.
□ Content slot — supply name
Hiring: ASE Technician
Clean shop, modern equipment, no flat-rate games. If you photograph your work and explain it plainly, we should talk.
Get in touch →Every technician recertifies with the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence every five years. Certificates are on the wall by the counter — ask to see them.
Book With Our Team
Coverage
24 months. 24,000 miles. Nationwide.
Parts and labor on every qualifying repair we perform, honored at more than 17,000 NAPA AutoCare shops across the United States and Canada. No deductible. Nothing to mail in.
What’s covered
- The parts we install, against defect and premature failure
- The labor to remove and reinstall them — the expensive half
- Diagnostic time required to confirm a covered failure
- Towing and roadside assistance when a covered repair fails on the road
- The same repair at any participating shop in the country
What isn’t
- Normal wear items used up in service: wiper blades, bulbs, filters, brake pad wear from mileage
- Damage from collision, abuse, racing, or continuing to drive after a warning light
- Parts you supplied yourself — we’ll still install them, we just can’t warrant them
- A repair we recommended and you declined, if the declined item causes the failure
- Commercial fleet, taxi and rideshare vehicles carry different terms — ask us
How to use it, at home or 900 miles away
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IN SYRACUSE
Just call us
(315) 476-0122. We have your invoice and your inspection photos on file. Bring it in, we make it right, you pay nothing for the covered portion.
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ON THE ROAD
Find a NAPA AutoCare shop
Show them your invoice, or call the warranty line printed on it. They verify the repair, do the work, and bill it — not you.
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IF YOU’RE STUCK
Call before you tow
Roadside assistance is included with covered repairs. One phone call arranges the tow to a participating shop and starts the claim at the same time.
Lost the invoice? We keep every repair order, inspection and photograph on file indefinitely. Give us your plate number and we’ll find it.
Every repair here comes with it. Nothing to buy.
The warranty is included on qualifying work, automatically, at no cost.
Google reviews
What Central New York says.
4.8
★★★★★
175 reviews · Google
★★★★★They sent me photos of my rear brakes before they did a thing. First shop that ever showed me what they were charging me for.
★★★★★Quoted me for four items and told me two of them could wait until spring. Who does that? Both our cars go there now.
★★★★★Check engine light two other shops guessed at. These guys found a cracked intake boot in an hour and it has stayed off for a year.
★★★★★Alignment after new tires and the car finally tracks straight on 690. They showed me the before and after readings on the screen.
★★★★★Dropped it at 8, had the inspection report on my phone by 9:30, approved it from my desk and picked it up at 4. That’s how it should work.
★★★★★A transmission line let go on I-81 in Pennsylvania. Called the warranty number on my invoice and it was covered, 300 miles from home.
★★★★★Took an extra day because a part came in wrong, but they called me twice to explain and gave me a loaner without me asking. Work itself was excellent.
★★★★★I’m a woman who has been talked down to at every garage in this city. Nobody here has ever done that. They just show me the picture.
Been here? Tell the next person.
Reviews are how independent shops survive next to the chains. Two minutes helps more than you’d think.
Get in touch
1224 W Fayette St, Syracuse.
Two minutes off I-690 at Exit 6. Parking in front and along the west side of the building. Key drop at the front door, any hour.
Hours
| Monday – Friday | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Saturday | Closed |
| Sunday | Closed |
| After-hours key drop | 24 hours |
1224 W Fayette St
Syracuse, NY 13204 Open in Google Maps →
Send us the details
Four fields. We reply the same business day. For anything unsafe to drive, please call instead.
Got it — thank you.
We’ll call you back the same business day. If the car isn’t safe to drive, call us now at (315) 476-0122.