Fair price for a brake job?

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Originally Posted by The Critic
Originally Posted by Ddub
Ok, so consensus opinion is maybe a little on the high side, but nothing egregious. I do not mind paying for quality, but I despise being taken advantage of. Thanks to (most) all of you for the thoughtful and informed replies. I appreciate your input.

We are somewhere between $450-$550/axle for aftermarket rotors and dealer pads so your price is fairly average, if not a bit low. But my market is different than yours; dealers here get $350-$400/axle for new pads and resurfaced rotors.

I can understand that given the cost of living. I do business in the OC and marvel at 1 bedroom condos for 350k.
 
Originally Posted by Ddub


Total cost with tax was $376.71, which was $66.95 for the pads, $180.70 for the rotors, and $107 labor.


Sorry if I missed it, but one thing to keep in mind is a shop is going to use quality parts. They can't afford issues that arise from cheap, unknown sourced parts.

I'm assuming parts store premium pads and rotors would run you ~$150+ So figure on doubling the cost to have the job done for you.

If you want to go cheaper or REAL cheap no name pads and rotors, do the job yourself. I get it. That's what I typically do for my own vehicles.

If you go the shop route, let them do what they do.
 
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
That's pretty fair, the OE rotors list out at $83.35ea and if a shop bought them from me they would get 20% off that.


I have NEVER seen a non-dealer shop use OE rotors or pads.
 
Originally Posted by Duffyjr
Originally Posted by mclasser
not that resurfacing crap

I've seen this mentioned here a lot, what is so wrong with resurfacing rotors? I'm do for a brake job on my Lucerne this spring and mech said about $180, this includes resurfacing and new pads for both axels. He said it looked like the fronts had been resurfaced once but the backs or still factory. 82k on Lucerne.



I listen to AGCO and what "they" say is most rotors now are so thin to begin with it's hard to resurface as there is not enough surface to remove to resurface. IDK?

From my experience, my experience with resurfacing, I will only buy OEM rotors. I have resurfaced rotors 2 times and the shake came back both times. I purchased some nonOEM rotors (I wasn't gonna give the dealership one weeks pay for two rotors.rotors!) and they didn't last 6 months before the shake came back. I finally bellied up and paid for Toyota OEM's rotors 3 years ago and never have had another shake. Of course, my experience is probably not an indication of your experience.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
Originally Posted by Duffyjr
Originally Posted by mclasser
not that resurfacing crap

I've seen this mentioned here a lot, what is so wrong with resurfacing rotors? I'm do for a brake job on my Lucerne this spring and mech said about $180, this includes resurfacing and new pads for both axels. He said it looked like the fronts had been resurfaced once but the backs or still factory. 82k on Lucerne.



I listen to AGCO and what "they" say is most rotors now are so thin to begin with it's hard to resurface as there is not enough surface to remove to resurface. IDK?

From my experience, my experience with resurfacing, I will only buy OEM rotors. I have resurfaced rotors 2 times and the shake came back both times. I purchased some nonOEM rotors (I wasn't gonna give the dealership one weeks pay for two rotors.rotors!) and they didn't last 6 months before the shake came back. I finally bellied up and paid for Toyota OEM's rotors 3 years ago and never have had another shake. Of course, my experience is probably not an indication of your experience.

IME the front rotors on most Toyota products can be resurfaced at least twice. Rears, probably once.

But rear rotors rarely need to be resurfaced or replaced as long as you use dealer pads on them.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
Originally Posted by Duffyjr
Originally Posted by mclasser
not that resurfacing crap

I've seen this mentioned here a lot, what is so wrong with resurfacing rotors? I'm do for a brake job on my Lucerne this spring and mech said about $180, this includes resurfacing and new pads for both axels. He said it looked like the fronts had been resurfaced once but the backs or still factory. 82k on Lucerne.



I listen to AGCO and what "they" say is most rotors now are so thin to begin with it's hard to resurface as there is not enough surface to remove to resurface. IDK?

From my experience, my experience with resurfacing, I will only buy OEM rotors. I have resurfaced rotors 2 times and the shake came back both times. I purchased some nonOEM rotors (I wasn't gonna give the dealership one weeks pay for two rotors.rotors!) and they didn't last 6 months before the shake came back. I finally bellied up and paid for Toyota OEM's rotors 3 years ago and never have had another shake. Of course, my experience is probably not an indication of your experience.


This.

You basically have to measure the rotors and make sure they're thick enough. Considering the cost and time involved, you mind as well get new rotors. Usually the rotors are too thin to resurface anyway. About $100 for labor isn't too bad, the indy I use is about $50, but then I supply all parts including brake clean.
 
Originally Posted by IronMaidenRules
Maybe on the high side of normal, but still normal. Not a ripoff IMO.



No it is a fair price nothing high about it. Now if your Son is brave enough to venture into the Barrio he could get about 50-100 dollars off of the price.
 
The price is fair for a shop that makes money for a living.

You can save alot more money doing it yourself, or teach your son how to do it..but that was not the case.

IF you get the wrong parts for the rear brakes then you may be charged labor to re-install the old parts.. then have to deal with shipping more parts 1000 miles to him.
 
Around here many places advertise for $180-200/axle. This is pads only though. The Ford dealers often have a coupon special for this price and I seem to recall that it includes resurfacing rotors. They're including rotors so adding $100 to these prices seems reasonable.
 
^ No need to go into the barrio to get a better deal than that. There are brake deals around here at $100 an axle, but then figure better pads would add $25 to that, and rotors another $120, and you end up around $245.

$377 is a bit excessive price but this is built into the ecosystem. A little markup here, a little more there, and bingo you arrive at a total, which is why so many of us DIY BUT choose quality aftermarket rotors instead of the two extremes of cheapest rotors vs overpriced OEM rotors.

You will find this is usually the case, that cheapest is junk and OEM is seldom (except for exotic vehicles) higher quality than mid-top tier aftermarket. OEM is usually a quality compromise to build a vehicle that is safe and reliable but at a bill of materials budget.

I can go through any vehicle and find hundreds of parts where the materials or design used was not high end, yet people will think that if you fixate on only one part at a time that OEM must be worth a premium. That's not logical.

I get it though, OEM is (hopefully, if still made by the same supplier/factory) an assurance of a certain quality level and you shouldn't gamble on brakes, especially if this is for a family member many miles from home. Then again, did I miss it or is there no detail that these were actually OEM rotors that cost $180? If not OEM, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the rotors cost them $30 each.

I doubt the same shop is willing to take customer supplied parts because then they lose $100 in profit and many won't do it because of policy after customers brought in junk parts which ended up in callbacks.
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
^ No need to go into the barrio to get a better deal than that. There are brake deals around here at $100 an axle, but then figure better pads would add $25 to that, and rotors another $120, and you end up around $245.

$377 is a bit excessive price but this is built into the ecosystem. A little markup here, a little more there, and bingo you arrive at a total, which is why so many of us DIY BUT choose quality aftermarket rotors instead of the two extremes of cheapest rotors vs overpriced OEM rotors.

You will find this is usually the case, that cheapest is junk and OEM is seldom (except for exotic vehicles) higher quality than mid-top tier aftermarket. OEM is usually a quality compromise to build a vehicle that is safe and reliable but at a bill of materials budget.

I can go through any vehicle and find hundreds of parts where the materials or design used was not high end, yet people will think that if you fixate on only one part at a time that OEM must be worth a premium. That's not logical.

I get it though, OEM is (hopefully, if still made by the same supplier/factory) an assurance of a certain quality level and you shouldn't gamble on brakes, especially if this is for a family member many miles from home. Then again, did I miss it or is there no detail that these were actually OEM rotors that cost $180? If not OEM, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the rotors cost them $30 each.

I doubt the same shop is willing to take customer supplied parts because then they lose $100 in profit and many won't do it because of policy after customers brought in junk parts which ended up in callbacks.


Keep your Ohio prices in Ohio. There is reason why you can get "deals" for that price. People have to make a living where it gets more expensive to live every day.
 
Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by IronMaidenRules
Maybe on the high side of normal, but still normal. Not a ripoff IMO.



No it is a fair price nothing high about it. Now if your Son is brave enough to venture into the Barrio he could get about 50-100 dollars off of the price.

I'm commenting based on pricing on my area, as are you.
 
Originally Posted by geeman789
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
That's pretty fair, the OE rotors list out at $83.35ea and if a shop bought them from me they would get 20% off that.


I have NEVER seen a non-dealer shop use OE rotors or pads.



Lots of shops around here order pads and rotors from the dealer. It really depends on the market and the clientele.

Originally Posted by ZZman
Yikes! I was thinking $ 200.00-250.00 is reasonable.

Prices have increased a lot since the economy improved.
 
Originally Posted by The Critic
Originally Posted by geeman789
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
That's pretty fair, the OE rotors list out at $83.35ea and if a shop bought them from me they would get 20% off that.


I have NEVER seen a non-dealer shop use OE rotors or pads.



Lots of shops around here order pads and rotors from the dealer. It really depends on the market and the clientele.


I sell a fair amount of pads and rotors to outside shops. Some only want to use OEM, especially with Mazda.
 
If the pads aren't making metal to metal contact, then the rotors just need a little sand paper to knock off the glaze, clean and lube the slides .Yes, it is very important to have good brakes, That doesn't mean it has to be expensive. Disk brakes are pretty idiot proof.
grin2.gif


PS. I'm also a fan of cheap, dusty pads,simply because they don't damage the rotors
grin2.gif
 
Last edited:
Regardless of what state you live in, there are shops that charge a ton of money and ones that don't. It seems like the new trend on bitog is defending high prices for simple work a high school dropout can do in 30 minutes.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
Regardless of what state you live in, there are shops that charge a ton of money and ones that don't. It seems like the new trend on bitog is defending high prices for simple work a high school dropout can do in 30 minutes.

That's true, but the same can be said about many blue collar trades.

There is often a huge disparity between what something should cost versus how much the current market allows for the price to be.
 
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