is $50 plus parts fair for a brake job?

[T2urtle]

my dad's friend has been bugging him about getting his brakes done. He finally agreed, in other words i'm doing the brakes.

Normally i do brakes for friends in exchange for a meal or something, cash is hardly transferred. Dealership asked for $600 bucks for either front or rear brakes. I didn't get the whole story on which one it is.

Its a Mk5 Jetta 2.5. last i recall VW doesn't use drum brakes since the mk3 line. So it will be pads and rotors. I didn't bother looking up prices as i dont know front or rear but,

High side of things $50 pads and $50/each for rotor. plus my $50 labor rate He ends up walking out with $200 price tag.

Is $50 a fair price? I know brakes at a shop is about 1-2 hours @ $75-150/per hour I did the common sense math, it would take me 2 hours and i would like $25/hour for this job. I dont know the guy, its my father's friend which i would consider not part of my friend as i've never met him.

 

[angry hampster]

Sounds fine to me. I can't believe the dealer wanted $600.

 

[onza]

anything under 600bux is fair in my book.

 

[T2urtle]

i dont know how much was labor and how much was parts.

$600, $100 pads, $100 each rotor and $100 in shop fee/tax and $200 labor seems like a very general break down.

anything under 600bux is fair in my book.

I would feel ripped if $600 from a person, unless i had performance brakes like brembos or etc.

$600 for front and rear, pads rotors and a flush i think is fair

I think he is going to walk away with a $200 price tag. $50 labor to pull of 5 lug nuts, 2 caliper bolts and 2 bracket bolts. I smash of a hammer and its all good.

 

[Eric62]

$50 labor is a great deal if you're replacing both the pads and rotors on a Euro car. Problem is if he's not satisfied with the work it could cause personal problems between you, your father, and his friend.
Personally I wouldn't get involved...

 

[PhoKingGuy]

$50 labor is a great deal if you're replacing both the pads and rotors on a Euro car. Problem is if he's not satisfied with the work it could cause personal problems between you, your father, and his friend.
Personally I wouldn't get involved...

This

 

[T2urtle]

$50 labor is a great deal if you're replacing both the pads and rotors on a Euro car. Problem is if he's not satisfied with the work it could cause personal problems between you, your father, and his friend.
Personally I wouldn't get involved...

i told my father this... he says he isn't that type of guy. I'm well aware of issues that can come up. This is why i dont offer working on people's car that i really dont know/trust.

$50 is a great deal then, not too low or high?

 

[theeedude]

I change my own brakes, but I probably wouldn't do it for a friend. Maybe help them do it if they wanted to do it themselves, but I wouldn't want to be personally responsible for their brakes, should anything happen.

 

[Zargon]

great deal

 

[angry hampster]

I change my own brakes, but I probably wouldn't do it for a friend. Maybe help them do it if they wanted to do it themselves, but I wouldn't want to be personally responsible for their brakes, should anything happen.

I really don't see what the issue is. Replacing pads and rotors is an extremely simple procedure.

 

[olds]

Where do you live? I'll give you $50 to do my brakes.

 

[IcePickFreak]

$50 is what I charge for doing either front or rears. If they're drums on the rears sometimes I'll charge more, depending on who it's for.

$600 is crazy for doing only one pair.

 

[CraigRT]

I always charge $50 for a brake job (labour) but that includes me using my own tools and supplies like brake quiet product, anti-seize compounds, and caliper/hardware lube..

 

[alkemyst]

Damn you guys doing front and rear brake jobs for $50 have way more free time than me.

I usually charge at least $50 for front or rear. That's just pads...if I am doing rotors more...most just don't come off easy. If they have the bolt hole to pop them I can charge less.

I charge about $75-100 for a virus cleanup too.

I have a lot of happy customers. IRS gets happy too.

Most shops will end up using dealer parts. That's why a brake job can be $600+ easy.

I can get Brembo blanks for my rear for 1/3 the cost of the dealership. I can buy budget rotors for less than 1/2 the Brembos.

 

[CraigRT]

Damn you guys doing front and rear brake jobs for $50 have way more free time than me.

I usually charge at least $50 for front or rear. That's just pads...if I am doing rotors more...most just don't come off easy. If they have the bolt hole to pop them I can charge less.

I generally charge $50/axle or front/rear if you will.

Most people who I do brakes for, just want their front brakes done. I always recommend rotors and pads together, never just one or the other, and can even get them for the people, for a good price. People save lots of money going through me, and because the work is so easy, I'm happy with $50 or $100.

I did a thermostat and EGR cleaning the other day as well, another $50.

 

[AMCRambler]

I've done work on friends cars before and I don't charge them anything. They buy the parts and we both do the work. I tell them that I'll teach them how to do the work as we go, or if I don't know it we'll figure it out together. That way they'll know how next time. Usually I'll either sit down with them and order the parts online or we'll just head to the auto parts store together.

The upside to this is they aren't paying me so they can't complain if anything is screwed up. And even if something was, I would certainly help them figure out the issue and not just tell them too bad.

And before you say well charity is nice and all, realize that if I ever needed help with something from one of these friends, they would gladly give me a hand. It's a two way street. Sometimes there's jobs on a car where you need two people and you just say "Dude, I need a hand bleeding some brakes" and they'll be there for you. I understand this is your dad's friend, but who knows, maybe he could give you a hook up on something. It's the barter system and it's been around longer than I have.

 

[Crucial]

$50 labor to pull of 5 lug nuts, 2 caliper bolts and 2 bracket bolts. I smash of a hammer and its all good.

There's more to a good brake job than that.

 

[eliteorange]

front or rear? IIRC VW rear calipers has to be retracted using computer or something

 

[StageLeft]

Seems cheap if anything. If you're doing it in a similar time to a shop billing $90-100/hour the guy makes off like a bandit. The problem is also if it's on a car you're not used to and there's some strange thing, like the rear calipers of some cars are held in by these fvcking screws that only an impact screw driver can remove, then you find yourself making trips to autozone and now the 2 hour job is 4 and you're making no more money than a burger flipper and just shot your evening.

 

[franksta]

$50 for brakes sounds a little low. If I were doing both axles on a regular passenger car I'd ask at least $100, assuming I worked for cash.

I've done work on friends' cars in the past. The deal they got was that they had to buy any tools required that I didn't have, said purchased tools would become mine after the work was done, and they had to buy me lunch/dinner. I got a nice set of Torx bits and a c-clamp.

 

[lavaheadache]

rear brakes on a vw can be an absolute bitch. You need to spin the piston in while pushing it in. This is no easy feat without the proper tools

 

[Meghan54]

DIY How To: Rear mk5 brake pad and rotor replacement, from VWVortex:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4234178

 

[StageLeft]

rear brakes on a vw can be an absolute bitch. You need to spin the piston in while pushing it in. This is no easy feat without the proper tools

I had to spin the piston on my 2000 maxima but it required only a $2 (?) tool. It fits onto a normal ratchet and you just push as you spin. If the calipers are old then it becomes substantially more difficult to do. It's not a huge deal generally, though.

 

[slag]

There's more to a good brake job than that.

Thank you! x2

Inspection of the caliper, paying special attention to the piston and seal area. Pressing the piston back into the caliper may require a special tool depending on the vehicle.
Regreasing the slide bolts with caliper grease, not just using regular marine grease, but the special moly lube.
Inspection of brake lines, paying special attention to the rubber line to the caliper.
Overall inspection of tie rod ends, ball joints, halfshaft boots, anti sway bar end links, etc.
Use threadlocker where applicable

There's more.. this is just off the top of my head.

 

[ViviTheMage]

DIY How To: Rear mk5 brake pad and rotor replacement, from VWVortex:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4234178

They are not hard ,you just need the device to spin the caliper back on the rears.

The fronts are easy as heck. I'd charge $100 for all 4, $50 for 2.