So Kimson, is she going to let you do the brake job for her then? It is a 12 year old car. Spending that kind of money for a dealership to do a brake job probably isn't justifiable. Service ain't cheap at a dealer or any shop. I don't think they are ripping people off. No one can charge more than the market can bear. Rent, taxes, gas & electric, tools, training, permits, insurance etc. It all adds up and after all that they need to make a profit too. I am thankful I can do much of these things myself on a Saturday afternoon. I've always said if I had a tire machine, a spin balancer, and an alignment rack, I wouldn't need to take a car in at all. Unless it is under warranty. I don't bother having rotors turned anymore. I just buy new and be done with it. I've been much happier in the long run doing this. :dollar:
I prefer to do my own work on basically every thing I own. The challenge and satisfaction of doing it myself is why I do it. The $$$ savings are a bonus. But, I do know my limitations, and will hire out jobs that I think are too difficult or dangerous, like: 1. Tree work - Pretty dangerous even for the pro's 2. Main Panel Electrical - I trust an electrician to go near the high power stuff 3. Asphalt/Concrete - Don't have the equipment On cars, about the only thing I farm out is front end alignments and tire mounting.
yea. front is one axle, rear is another. EDIT: The shop however isn't going to charge you what you can get the parts for. Most of the time around here they'll charge 50% margin, or double the cost of the part from lets say you or I buying them from Napa vs the cost from the shop.
After high school in the 80's, I worked as a painter's helper with a buddy who was head painter at a toyota dealer. We built a spray booth in his Mom's back yard with some visqueen, wood, a fan and some home A/C filters and did some side jobs at night and on week-ends. A friend wanted a paint job on his rusty 76 Monte , but was only willing to buy the paint and pay for the labor $500. He declined to do any prep work, taping or trim removal, and my painter friend asked me as we were hosing off the ground and getting ready to spray :" how well do you know this guy? This paint job will be bubbling up and looking like crap in less than a year!" Sure enough, the car soon ended up looking worse than before it was painted because the guy was a tightwad, lazy cheapskate, and refused to do the prep work under the guidance of someone who knew what they were doing. He could have gotten twice the paint job if he had forked over a few extra $ and some elbow grease
I have a 2000 Chevy 2500 4X4 Ext. cab.I bought it new -it now has 156,000 miles and has ORIGINAL pads,rotors ectt.....The pads are getting low and I will need to change them soon.I have NO pulsation and they will stop you on a dime.And people on board know me I travel a lot hauling cars on my trailer all over the country.When I do change them I will do it myself and have only an afternoon in them.I always use original parts ONLY.BUY AMERICAN :laugh: :bla:
The brakes on my '95 Riviera were not worn out but suffered from bad vibration from the rear under heavy braking after the rotors had warmed up. The previous owner of the car kept full records and always had the car serviced at the dealer, including the brakes. I can't say if the oem rotors hard ever been turned, but they didn't have much runout when measured cold. The EBC slotted rotors that I installed cured the vibration under heavy braking. We have very hilly and curvey roads in the mountains of NC. Maybe you've heard of the Tail of the Dragon? The rear caliper rebuild was easy enough with the correct tools. The parking brake mechanism isn't as much trouble to work with as most make it out to be. I had to order the caliper kits from Autozone. I think they wanted about $90 each for rebuilt calipers. The kits cost about $10 each. I guess I would qualify as an advanced do it yourselfer. I am an automotive design engineer (I design turbochargers) and former mechanic and automotive machinist. I try to do as much work on my cars as possible to save a little money and get the best quality of repairs. I know some excellent technicians, but most of them are not in my area. I have had some bad experiences with dealer techs when I had a '99 Dodge Ram. It had a lot of transmission problems that took many visits to correct because the techs (or service manager) simply did not take the time to properly diagnose the problem. i guess you can say I've been on both sides of the fence. Yes, I do get a little defensive when I hear someone say that all mechanics are rip offs. It just depends on the experience and knowledge of the mechanic.
Got a call from my daughter yesterday. Unfortunately the conversation went like this: "My car is making a noise" "Ok, how long has it been doing this?" "A little while." "How long....?" (silence) "Since about a week after you dropped me off at school." (August 17th) "So you drove to Purdue (in Lafayette) and back last weekend with it making a noise..?" "Yeah. It was ok on the highway, but it started to get louder this week." (silence) "Ok. I have to go now. Your Mother wants to say Hi..." I tried getting some feedback on some of the shops in Muncie. I ultimately decided to just do it myself, so I'm now getting ready to drive down to Ball State in Muncie on Thursday morning to replace the rotors and brake pads on my daughter's 2000 Dodge Intrepid R/T. The person we bought the car from works with my wife, and she had it taken to a shop in March to have it checked out before we purchased it. My daughter drove the car locally all summer. I even drove it to work once or twice. Shame on me for not checking them before I took her down to Muncie.
As a stealership tech, I agree with "most" of the comments on here. Guys just keep in mind, THE ONLY ONE GETTING RICH THERE IS THE OWNER!!!
Nicely done!! Why didn't you rebuild the front calipers yourself too? Back in the 80's, I recall rebuilding every caliper on RWD disc brakes jobs. The parts were cheap and readily available. Then the pistons seem to get more expensive and needed to be replaced more often. It then made more sense to buy reman calipers, when needed, as the price of the complete caliper was less than a seal kit and piston. Never been on the Tail of the Dragon, but even the "main" routes from say Asheville to Murphy are hilly and curvy. My wife's 2010 CTS 3.6L DI does real well in the mountains and on the twisties between Asheville and Murphy. Nice country down there!
I agree. The mechanics don't make near as much as they should considering how much the consumer has to pay per hour for a dealer to work on a vehicle! The American way: expecting way too much for way too little.
A couple of years ago I got an estimate for new brakes including rotors and it was 900ish, and this was not a dealer. I ordered everything from Rockauto and did the job myself for around 250.00...and it took maybe 2 hours.
I can tell you that the original equipment brake pads for my '03 Silverado are right at $300. from GM now- nearly double what they were pre-government.
That is crazy!!! $132 for four wheels worth of OEM Motocraft pads from Ford; even cheaper if I buy at Amazon.com. You should consider that option; I was surprised they were available there.
The cost of rebuilt calipers was about $25 each w/o the core charge. It wasn't worth the extra time to save about $30 total between the two front calipers. The rears, on the other hand, are outragoeusly priced for rebuilt units. I can justify a higher core charge but the labor is not that much more than the fronts, if you know what you're doing.
Got down to Muncie today to do my daughters brakes. I find the car in the lot, use my key and take it for a drive. I immediately notice a "squeak" that is running at wheel speed. I ride the break and the squeak is still there. I bring the car back to the parking spot and my brother feels around the rotor and notices what feels like a real rough spot on the backside of the rotor. I reach around and notice that when I rock the car back and forth, the rough spot is stationary. We jack up the car, pull the wheel and then I see it. A metal tab that's called a "rotor shield" and it's got nearly no air gap between it and the rotor. I look at the other side and see that it's spaced about 1/4" away from the rotor and decide to bend the offending piece accordingly. Squeak all gone. There's a shot of what it looks like: That little tab cost me 3 hours there, three hours back, and a day off. I'm just glad I took the time to go and check it out myself instead of having her take it blindly into a shop. I'm not saying that she would have gotten taken had she gone to one, but not everyone has the integrity to say "Oh hey, look at this" if you know what I mean. Besides, it was a good excuse to see my little girl.
Phil nice fix. sucks with the driving. It looks like a Ford part. is it? if so. when you do the brakes, be careful with the pins in the spindle. If it's a Focus the threads in the spindle strip easily. They actually make an oversize thread on the pin for this reason, or use a heli-coil.
Exactly the point I was attempting to make....It amazes me the amount of "customers" that think the techs make that $80-$100 an hour, or that the company provides the tools.............
