Just had a front brake job and new tires

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Had new front tires put on my car about 3 weeks ago, just got new ones on the back today as well as a front brake job because the rotors were warped. This is on my 2006 Accord. I saw on the paper that the rotors were 49.00 a piece, and that they put on ceramic brake pads. This is my local mechanic shop that I have grown to trust. With the new rear tires and front brake job it came to $450. How good would these brakes be? The tires are Yokohama Avid Touring-S, I like them they seem to ride quiet. Just wondering about the rotor quality, and quality of ceramic brake pads. Any good?
 
Not really any way to tell with the limited info we have. Rotor quality isn't as important as pad quality and given they are ceramics, most are above average quality. It semi metallic that can be really cheap or organic.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Just wondering about the rotor quality, and quality of ceramic brake pads. Any good?

Depends on the brand, which you have not provided.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Just wondering about the rotor quality, and quality of ceramic brake pads. Any good?

Depends on the brand, which you have not provided.


I would if I could, but they didnt list it....this is what it says
- Brake Rotor Only - Front - Premium $46.48 per rotor, $92.96 for both.
- FRONT OE CERAMIC PADS $39.99 for both.
 
We can start by pricing out oem ceramic pads and see if they are priced around $40. If so maybe they are oem. If not want can try to send I there are any known ceramic pads than are junk and go from there. In my experience ceramics are often at the top of the quality chain or high up after semi metallic. Every auto parts store stocks a ceramic as their top pad.
 
Those pads sound cheap.Imagine he probably paid around $22 for them.Sometimes OE means "cheap",and not "premium".Regardless of the original (OE) real quality (some OE dealer stuff is excellent).
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Those pads sound cheap.Imagine he probably paid around $22 for them.Sometimes OE means "cheap",and not "premium".Regardless of the original (OE) real quality (some OE dealer stuff is excellent).


The price on the invoice is what they pay for them...which was $39.99.
 
In the end Im happy I now have all new tires and new front brakes that are smooth when coming to a stop, no more vibration! Just have to pay off the bill now
eek.gif
 
Changing brake pads was the first piece of automotive maintenance I learned (1996 Nissan Sentra, 1972 VW Karmann Ghia) and later rotors and pads (1998 MB C280 - OEM rotors from the dealership, ouch!). I have done many sets of pads on mine and others' vehicles since then.

There is something about the relative simplicity and cleanliness (of the new parts and cleaned up old parts) of a brake job that is therapeutic. I love doing brakes! Maybe try your hand at the next brake job yourself. The cost should be less (no labor) and it is so basic that the time commitment is minimal.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Had new front tires put on my car about 3 weeks ago, just got new ones on the back today as well as a front brake job because the rotors were warped. This is on my 2006 Accord. I saw on the paper that the rotors were 49.00 a piece, and that they put on ceramic brake pads. This is my local mechanic shop that I have grown to trust. With the new rear tires and front brake job it came to $450. How good would these brakes be? The tires are Yokohama Avid Touring-S, I like them they seem to ride quiet. Just wondering about the rotor quality, and quality of ceramic brake pads. Any good?


To clarify, rotors never warp, but people like to say that term. Basically the rotor becomes of non uniform thickness. But its not warped.

As for ceramic pads, its not ceramic that makes a good or bad pad its the name and quality level. There is no standard for ceramic, so if someone sprinkles some ceramic dust in a vat of brake pad material they can claim its ceramic. Now if you say Akebono ceramic or Wagner TQ ceramic, now you have a quality ceramic pad.

Rotors won't make a good or bad brake job as much as pads.

But the true test will be if in 5000 miles they still feel good and no sign of "warped" rotors.

I think a lot of cars have some lateral runout and a brake job starts out feeling good turns to feeling not so good in say 5K miles.
 
Originally Posted By: Falken
Pads, Rotors, service, Tires and Labor?

450$?

They like you.


I like them too, they are good people.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Yeah even the cheapest stuff feels good at first. You'll know in short time if it cheaper than normal by how long they work smooth.


Really? well I would hope that they would use decent quality parts for brake jobs. Is it bad when they vibrate? Will it do any damage?
 
It is unlikely the discs were warped.
"In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation (TV) or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures.

"Friction is the mechanism that converts dynamic energy into heat. Just as there are two sorts of friction between the tire and the road surface (mechanical gripping of road surface irregularities by the elastic tire compound and transient molecular adhesion between the rubber and the road in which rubber is transferred to the road surface), so there are two very different sorts of braking friction - abrasive friction and adherent friction. Abrasive friction involves the breaking of the crystalline bonds of both the pad material and the cast iron of the disc. The breaking of these bonds generates the heat of friction. In abrasive friction, the bonds between crystals of the pad material (and, to a lesser extent, the disc material) are permanently broken. The harder material wears the softer away (hopefully the disc wears the pad). Pads that function primarily by abrasion have a high wear rate and tend to fade at high temperatures. When these pads reach their effective temperature limit, they will transfer pad material onto the disc face in a random and uneven pattern. It is this "pick up" on the disc face that both causes the thickness variation measured by the technicians and the roughness or vibration under the brakes reported by the drivers."

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths

It is entirely possible that your bargain priced pads won't be up to the job you expect under hard braking. Even if they're safe and don't fade, they still may overheat and put uneven deposits of pad material on the disc. Your brakes will be "warped" again, which isn't warping at all. You'll feel the judder through the brake pedal. Removing the discs and sanding off the pad material, that you can't see but it's there, will correct the judder until the next time.
 
I don't think you should worry about vibration til it occurs. Lets assume the pads are halfway decent. You should be okay without vibration for the largest part of the pad life.

I don't think vibration causes much damage but it's surely unnerving and annoying.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24

I would if I could, but they didnt list it....this is what it says
- Brake Rotor Only - Front - Premium $46.48 per rotor, $92.96 for both.
- FRONT OE CERAMIC PADS $39.99 for both.


Maybe this is a dumb question or I missed it somewhere in the post, but why not just ask the shop what they put on? I go to a single shop for pretty much all of my work unless I attempt it myself. A good portion of the time the wording is similar to what you're describing. They are almost always able to tell me what they used off the top of their head (or at least can say we probably put on brand X or Y).

Personally I doubt the price you're seeing on your invoice is going to allow you track down the exact pads and rotors, you're not seeing any discount the shop is getting and subsequent markup.

If the above isn't an option, price whatever parts stores are around town, you'll probably have a short list to ask about than.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
The price on the invoice is what they pay for them...which was $39.99.


It's *extremely* uncommon for a shop to not mark parts up. That's a critical part of their profit model; it's how they stay in business. If they aren't doubling-up on their labor rates, they're giving you a very good value by not marking parts up. I suspect they don't do this for everybody (they couldn't stay in business). I'm curious: do you personally know the shop owner?
 
Originally Posted By: Falken
Pads, Rotors, service, Tires and Labor?

450$?

They like you.


Note that it was just rear tires. Pads and rotors at $133 plus what is likely an hour of labor at around $60 or 70 puts the brake work at about $200.

So that's another $250 for two tires mounted and installed, which is average-to-high in my opinion. I don't know what the OP paid for the tires, but they sell for about $75-90 each on Tire Rack in sizes that might be on the OP's Accord. They're decent tires, probably no better than average in any one area. But decent tires.

The rotors are probably standard white-box rotors that you'd get at Advance or Pep Boys, and at $39.99 for a set of pads, are probably the house-brand ceramic pads. For instance, Advance's Wearever Gold ceramic pads are $35.99 for the front set. Other house brands will be similar (AutoZone, Pep Boys, etc). Note that the OES pads (06450-SDA-A10) list at a Honda dealer for $190 for the set, so it's very unlikely that they used true OES parts.
 
Up in Canada it is Gouge-City.

Just the two tires with mount and balance would be expensive.

We get no sweet deals on car parts up here.

450$ to me is fair.
 
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