I went in for an oil change today, ended up getting a front brake job (semi-metallic pads, rotors re-surfaced, etc). My wife was not too thrilled that the brake job cost $140. Is that price, high, low, or right in the ballpark?

 

Doesn't sound bad for parts and labor with turning rotors. At least your rotors weren't toast. Then it get expensive.

If you're mechanically inclined, a DIY is even cheaper. There are some brake job DIY here on SL. Not really hard, but you have to do it correctly.

How many miles on the car?

 

Just turned 80K

 

Maybe a little high, but not really bad at all. It's not like you got reamed...

 

$140...that's it! You are lucky cause at my dealership, we charge $285 for cars and $385 for 4x4 trucks...

 

That's not bad to get the brakes done with the rotors resurfaced.
I just redid my front brakes a few weeks back. Took me an hour (including hauling the 2 ton jack and tools from the basement) and $40 for higher end brake pads.

 

not a bad price at all, but i would have went ahead and bought cross drilled rotors and badass brake pads to go on and done it myself; but thats just me

 

What he said. There has to be somebody on the board where you live that would help you do a break job. You will save a lot of money in the long run if you do that.

 

and its really not a s difficult as it sounds and trust me im about the most non mechanical person in the world, so if i can do it you can!

 

Yeah, you could have had new front crossdrilled and slotted rotors AND pads for that price, but no, that's not a bad price including labor.

 

cool avatar Max

 

not bad at all

 

LOL thats pretty sad people pay that much for a brake job

 

Kinda high priced. For that much you could have bought "new" rotors and pads and just thrown them on yourself and prolly went out for a free dinner with the wife.

 

Yeah.. i got into an arguing match with my dealer about the brakes...

140 is for the FRONTS only.. its 140 per side (front then rear)

He checked my rears and told me they were fine. So i only got the fronts done.

He said cars use 70% front braking and like 30% rear. Is this true?

 

im sure 285 is fronts AND rears...... he's paying 140 for Fronts.... Which is the same as I was charged... (140 x 2 = 280)

 

yep most of your braking is done up front, that s why they go first than the backs, hey go easy on the guy(dougb415) maybe he doesnt know brakes and plus if you dont do it right you could be in big trouble like not stopping, so why not spend $140.00 , so whats more important the money or youre safety....

 

Me, changing out my own brakes.... by myself? At this point I am *very* mechanically uninclined; heck, I'm proud that I was able to reset the "maintenance needed" light after the oil change!

That's not to say that I can't learn, but right now? No, thank you very much. OTOH, it certainly would be good to learn how to do a lot of the maintenance by myself. This week I plan on filling in a couple of paint chips, see how that turns out before I spread my wings....

 

trust me its really not that bad!

 

yah that's the going price, the pads were prolly 30-40 bucks and turning and labor, so it sounds right.

When I have to do mine, I'll just upgrade them to slots and some nice pads, screw that OEM crap!!!