Did I overpay for new brakes?

[street]

When I checked on prices to do my brakes in a shop it was 600$ labor after I prices the parts, also. I just didn't want to pay that kind of wages for them to do my brakes.

 

[CRLLS]

Last year I was quoted about the same price from the dealer for my own 2012 Elantra with much lower mileage. I DIY for<$150 in parts. If you cannot do your own work, then you will pay for the labor. It does seem a bit high on labor IMO, but the price you were quoted is in line with dealer prices.

 

[cooch96]

In the old days, you would turn the rotors on a lathe if they were warped. But new rotors are so cheap and easily available now that they just replace them instead.

Yes, they’re also frequently thinner and more fragile. Frequently so thin, you can’t safely turn them down more than once. This saves weight, which improves mileage; and rolling inertia, which allows better acceleration. But it leads to more frequent replacement.

Also, if you don’t drive the vehicle regularly enough, the surface rust on the rotors can become deeply pitted, which then chews the pads. I lost my last set of rotors that way when I only drove my car once or twice a month last winter and spring.

 

[SmallCityDave]

It's been a long time since I had to have brake work done. The car is a 2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring GLS. It's primarily driven by our daughter.

The car has 4-wheel disc brakes, original from when we bought it new, and has 88k miles. The pads were down to just 2 - 3 mm and the rotors were too thin to resurface.

The shop replaced all four rotors and installed new ceramic pads. Total cost out-the-door was $749.99. Lifetime warranty on the parts & 12k mile warranty on the labor.

The cost seemed high to me, but we want our daughter to be safe! What do you think?

Bonus question: We didn't have the fluid replaced. Should we do that too, considering the age & mileage?

Brian

Looking at RockAuto the parts are between $150-200 shipped my mechanic charges $100 per axle and it doesn't matter to him if he has to turn the rotors or replace them, the brake fluid should have been flushed.

 

[Chuckanut]

I like to get a deal as much as the next guy. But, the real test of whether I over paid, under paid or fairly paid, is how long the job lasts. If your brakes are working well, just write off the extra money to experience. Next time shop around if you must. Me? I have a trusted mechanic whose prices are certainly not the cheapest, but they are 'fair' especially considering I have never had to go back and get a repaired item re-repaired.

 

[travelover]

........... I had a '94 Thunderbird which had a frustrating habit of warping rotors.

A the risk of thread diversion , rotors rarely actually warp, they develop disc thickness variation as the pads just touch a tiny amount more in one area than another and over millions of revolutions wear unevenly. Compounding this, different chassis designs react differently to the same amount of thickness variation. On one car, the brakes would cause steering wheel vibration and seat shake and on another you'd scarcely notice it - all with the same thickness variation. In recent times, this has been a characteristic that is more closely monitored and designed to be robust. Sensitivity to tire balance is similar.

 

[Bamaman]

Rock Auto sells 4 wheel kits including rotors for $100 to $150. I agree with above that it's a 3-4 hour job for an amateur. I've done a bunch of brake jobs and could do it in an hour tops with air tools and a lift.

Rotors couldn't be turned? That's a $50 job at one of the national auto parts stores for 4. If they have never been turned, rotors still have life in them for at least 1 turning. They might have just said they'd rather buy all new parts instead of fooling with machining the rotors.

And never think about taking a car to a dealership for brakes. A service writer's job is selling $300 brake jobs to little widows for $900. Brakes are a license to steal for them.

 

[Montecfo]

To some degree it depends on local cost of living, but that sounds like high end of normal range to me. Not outrageous, but perhaps a bit on the high side.

Agreed with the above about not pinching too many pennies when it comes to my tires and my brakes.

In my locality, I have found shop labor rates can vary 15-30%. This is illustrated if you get bids for a labor intensive task.

You can also test this by simply asking your favorite independent and your local dealer what their shop labor rate is.

Prices can vary pretty sharply if the task is labor intensive.

 

[John Galt III]

I think most places do overcharge quite a bit for labor for brakes. Shouldn't take more than one hour to do all four wheels on a typical disc brake setup, at a professional place with a lift. It only takes me two hours to do all four wheels at home in my driveway. One hour labor at $120 an hour = $120. Not $300. Not $400.

 

[mountainsoft]

The car is a 2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring GLS.
The shop replaced all four rotors and installed new ceramic pads. Total cost out-the-door was $749.99.

Yikes, I have no idea if that's a good deal or not, but as someone who does their own car work that seems astronomical to me. Heck, I only paid $1900 for my car, I'm more likely to buy another car than spend $750 on brakes! I guess I'm out of touch with what the rest of the world has to pay for things.

As car repairs go, replacing pads and rotors is one of the easier jobs. I usually only replace the pads unless the rotors are warped, scored, or otherwise questionable. That said, I replaced all four pads and rotors on my daughters 2003 Jetta last year. The parts cost me about $250, and took less than two hours to do all four wheels. Of course, having the right tools makes the job go a lot quicker.

 

[mistermike40]

I just had the front pads/rotors replaced on my wife's Ford Escape... $318 out the door.

 

[travelover]

I just had the front pads/rotors replaced on my wife's Ford Escape... $318 out the door.

Let me quess, this wasn't a Ford dealer?

 

[kgtest]

In comparison, I bought new rotors and pads for about $100 for DW Camry...The rotors looked pretty good so I just replaced the front pads (@100k). Will do back pads here before snow flies(@140k miles). I'll check rear rotors at that time to see how they are looking.

I might pay someone $400 if the brakes were life or death and it was below zero temps. Otherwise slowly heat the garage, and figure out the problem replacing the bad parts myself.

I've never paid someone to do breaks. Always did them myself, I replaced brake fluid once and might do it with my new truck here, otherwise you get lots of noticeable black break dust.

Truck is at 65k and I haven't done the pads yet. Probably before snow flies

 

[Badger]

Back when I could do these things I replaced the bake pads on my 83 Toyota Tercel. The rotors were fairly smooth, no scoring, and not warped. At that time the pads cost me about $60 for all 4 wheels. It was a simple R&R that took maybe an hour for my first time.
The prices now days just blows me away. I may just trade my car in the next time (probably in about 10 years).



Cheers!

 

[CRLLS]

The toughest part of the disk brake pad change on all 4 wheels is the resetting the rear axle caliper where you have to retract (screw in) the piston due to the parking brake systems used now. Having the tool makes it relatively easy(ish) most of the time.

The rotors are being made today are thinner for the sake of weight savings. It has been some time since I even tried to have them turned. The last few times I tried, there was not enough metal to do a proper turn. I just buy new ones when I'm doing brakes. I figure I can splurge on replacing them since I am saving all the shop labor rates.

 

[38Chevy454]

I just had the front pads/rotors replaced on my wife's Ford Escape... $318 out the door.

X2 for all four wheels and your price $636 is within ~$100 from OP's cost.

 

[My Dream]

I thought this might be an interesting read for some

Why you shouldn't ever go for the cheapest brake pads

"Using charts to analyze the relationship between pedal force, temperature, and frictional coefficient, Fenske is able to discern the cheapest pad is by far the least consistent and worst-performing among the group."

Question for those that are not very experienced when it come to automotive work. I know the total price definitely matters, but how do you know the quality of the parts you've just paid for. In other words, If you've just paid $700.00 for brake work, are you getting an amazing price with high quality parts throughout, or did you get ripped off by having low quality parts installed on your vehicle.

Members state, I've paid "X" amount, but without knowing the brand and quality of the parts, how do you know you got a good deal? The price of parts can triple depending on manufacture as well as whether you got their good, better, or best quality.

 

[travelover]

...............Question for those that are not very experienced when it come to automotive work. I know the total price definitely matters, but how do you know the quality of the parts you've just paid for. In other words, If you've just paid $700.00 for brake work, are you getting an amazing price with high quality parts throughout, or did you get ripped off by having low quality parts installed on your vehicle. ................

This is a great point. I do my own brakes, but take DW's car in to an independent shop. When I picked it up last time, I asked that very question - what quality parts did you install? All I got was a shrug and a "well we've never had any complaints". When I do my brakes, I buy from Rock Auto and get branded parts, probably from China, but someone stands behind them.

 

[My Dream]

As an avid diyer in many aspects I've been asked hundreds of times, is this, or did I get a good price from friends as well as forum members. I'd say about 99% of the time when I ask for more details in order to give an educated answer, the person asking the question can't answer 10% of my questions. In other words, they have no clue as to what they're getting other than what they believe to be a completed job.

When people believe they've done there homework before showing me 3 estimates and asked the same question, "are these good prices and which one should I go with". My answer is always the same, the estimates are so vague, that it's impossible to compare apples to apples, as the contractors have made sure to not give enough information to both, make it impossible to compare as well as be in a position to lower the material cost (quality suffers) and or labour cost to meet what ever price the customer is willing to pay in order the get the job.

Most people don't do their due diligence when looking for quotes.

 

[John Galt III]

There's a 'book rate' for all auto mechanic labor, which states how many hours for a specific job. I can't believe they would have more than 1.5 hours for doing all 4 wheels on a car. 1.5 hours times $150 an hour (the highest rate I can imagine) is only $225. Not $500. It seems a lot of manual labor guys and skilled labor guys are overcharging these days, simply 'because they can'. Supply and demand, therefore not overcharging, lol ?

 

[NW-Bound]

Wow, brake jobs cost a lot more than I thought for just replacing external parts, and not disassembling engine or drive train or anything as involved. I have been doing car maintenance myself, so would not know.

Fewer people nowadays want to do dirty work, so this type of work pays well.

 

[NW-Bound]

I thought this might be an interesting read for some

Why you shouldn't ever go for the cheapest brake pads

"Using charts to analyze the relationship between pedal force, temperature, and frictional coefficient, Fenske is able to discern the cheapest pad is by far the least consistent and worst-performing among the group."

Question for those that are not very experienced when it come to automotive work. I know the total price definitely matters, but how do you know the quality of the parts you've just paid for. In other words, If you've just paid $700.00 for brake work, are you getting an amazing price with high quality parts throughout, or did you get ripped off by having low quality parts installed on your vehicle.

Members state, I've paid "X" amount, but without knowing the brand and quality of the parts, how do you know you got a good deal? The price of parts can triple depending on manufacture as well as whether you got their good, better, or best quality.

Yes, the above video about brake pad testing is very interesting.

I ran across this video a couple of days ago, as I was surfing the Web looking for brake pads for one of my vehicles, and MSN recommended this video.

The thumbnail of the video with the brake rotor turning RED-HOT was a good clickbait and of course I could not resist.

The way they test brake pads by simulating hard braking to bring a car from 60mph down to rest, and do it again and again until the rotor turns red hot blows my mind. I cannot imagine myself driving like that. Do you? And in real life, would the tires not explode?

Under the above condition, I have to say that I am very impressed that even the cheapest brake pads did very well. Of course they have to pass a certain minimum requirement for safety, and maybe that is more than most people need.

 

[NW-Bound]

One more thing to add about the extreme testing that caused the rotor to turn red hot.

The chart shown in the video indicated that the temperature of the brake pads reached a temperature of 650C. That is 1200F.

----> What would the temperature of the brake caliper be? How about the piston seal? <----

Here's my real-life story. In my 1st ever motorhome trip with a toad, I forgot to fully release the parking brake on the toad, and pulled it about 10 miles with the brakes lightly set. It was dragging enough that I felt the motorhome was working a bit harder, but not enough for me to realize what I missed.

Luckily for me that time, when I reached the intended stop only 10 miles away, when I got out of the motorhome I noticed the brake burning smell. Oh sh*t! Of course I immediately realized my mistake. I felt the wheels. They were indeed hot, but did not burn my fingers.

I took the toad to a nearby garage for an inspection. They saw that the rear brake shoes were worn, but said there was no other damage. As they did not have the shoes in stock, and they had to order them from out-of-town and I would have to stay there a night or two, I pressed on.

Two weeks later, in the same trip, while I was driving the toad on an excursion, the seals on the brake piston failed suddenly, leaking brake fluid all over the wheels. Good thing I detected it in time, so as not to kill myself. Yes, the latent damage was caused by excessive heat.

 

[travelover]

..........The way they test brake pads by simulating hard braking to bring a car from 60mph down to rest, and do it again and again until the rotor turns red hot blows my mind. I cannot imagine myself driving like that. Do you? And in real life, would the tires not explode?..........

Brakes burn up descending long mountain grades, especially with a trailer or a load. When I worked at MegaMotors, we had pickups lose their braking because the brake fluid had absorbed water and when the brakes were used heavily on a long grade, the contaminated brake fluid turned to steam, which is, of course, compressible.

 

[NW-Bound]

Brakes burn up descending long mountain grades, especially with a trailer or a load. When I worked at MegaMotors, we had pickups lose their braking because the brake fluid had absorbed water and when the brakes were used heavily on a long grade, the contaminated brake fluid turned to steam, which is, of course, compressible.

Yes. And I don't know if young drivers know to downshift anymore going down long grades.

In my class C motorhome pulling a toad, I have encountered such slope that I had to go from the 4th gear to the 2nd gear, and occasionally even the 1st gear. There is no brake pad that can help. And I do not see the rotors being red-hot as a good sign.