Prices

[Craig234]

For an older American sedan with front wheel drive:

Is a brake job for quite worn brakes where the pads are almost totally worn and whatever they do to rotors is done, is nearly $200 a fair price (with a listed $80/hour labor rate)?

To remove a door interior to look for why a window has stopped working, is $140 labor fair?

I saw a local coupon for a brake job including those rotor services for $50, so made me wonder.

 

[hardhat]

I had a window motor replaced in my sedan for $150. You can buy the parts relatively cheap, about $75 for most vehicles, and do it yourself.

 

[Yuriman]

I dunno about other vehicles, but a brake job takes me about 15 minutes per corner, including jacking the car up. Pads themselves are ~$5 for 4 pads from RockAuto, and a pair of rotors is $4. It's one of the jobs I simply wouldn't consider taking my car to a shop for.

Pulling the door panel off can be a bit more involved, and messy because of the goop holding the weather shield in place, but I wouldn't pay someone $140 for that either.

 

[DaTT]

I dunno about other vehicles, but a brake job takes me about 15 minutes per corner, including jacking the car up. Pads themselves are ~$5 for 4 pads from RockAuto, and a pair of rotors is $4. It's one of the jobs I simply wouldn't consider taking my car to a shop for.

Pulling the door panel off can be a bit more involved, and messy because of the goop holding the weather shield in place, but I wouldn't pay someone $140 for that either.

$10 for brakes? Not sure I would trust $10 brakes.

For an older American sedan with front wheel drive:

Is a brake job for quite worn brakes where the pads are almost totally worn and whatever they do to rotors is done, is nearly $200 a fair price (with a listed $80/hour labor rate)?

To remove a door interior to look for why a window has stopped working, is $140 labor fair?

I saw a local coupon for a brake job including those rotor services for $50, so made me wonder.

Is the $200 for all 4 corners?

 

[Yuriman]

They brake just fine. I did my brakes a few months ago for the first time and went with some more premium ceramic-based pads for ~$15.

 

[jlee]

I dunno about other vehicles, but a brake job takes me about 15 minutes per corner, including jacking the car up. Pads themselves are ~$5 for 4 pads from RockAuto, and a pair of rotors is $4. It's one of the jobs I simply wouldn't consider taking my car to a shop for.

Pulling the door panel off can be a bit more involved, and messy because of the goop holding the weather shield in place, but I wouldn't pay someone $140 for that either.

You're getting brake rotors for $2/each.....?

 

[Yuriman]

The joys of driving a Honda.

 

[jlee]

$4/each is twice as much!


also....that's ridiculous.

 

[bruceb]

Depending on the brake rotor and brand of pads, it might be okay. I would expect to spend about $40 per rotor on my Grand Prix and the pads, of which I use Performance Friction brand, run about $40 for the fronts, a bit less for the rears. Now on my Cadillac ATS things are going to be more, as it uses Brembo brakes. Pads should not be much more, but rotors might be. As to the door, figure on 1 hr of labor and then what ever it takes to fix whatever is wrong. Plus parts, if needed. Around here, labor is about $100 per hour (more at the dealerships)

 

[Wuzup101]

$4/each is twice as much!


also....that's ridiculous.

Agreed... I never knew they made rotors that were that cheap. That's nuts.

 

[mindless1]

When you write "brake job" do you mean both front and rear? If so, $200 is almost too cheap, I'd ask questions about it.

You can get cheap rotors that get hard spots quicker (aka warping) or get eaten away by the pads quicker and develop ridges. You can get cheap pads that are noisy, and filthy semi-metallic or worse gripping (cheaper grade of) ceramic.

These cheap combos can work fine for someone who drives conservatively (OR be noisy the whole time, especially on a lazily done job or not broken in right) but generally have shorter service life and a worse braking experience towards the end of that. They can easily be a false economy if you pay someone else a shop labor rate to fix them later, and aren't planning on getting rid of the vehicle before it needs brakes done again.

It would've been easier if you had mentioned make and model of vehicle, but decent quality rotors for an older midsized sedan run about $35 ea, +/- $5 depending on make, model, and special discounts. Decent ceramic pads run about $20 to $35, again depending on the same variables. These are Amazon or Rock Auto price ranges (Rock Auto including at least $16 addt'l shipping if not $25), at Autozone for the same quality you'll pay about 30% more. At Advanced Auto you may pay about 50% more but then be able to use a 30% to 40% off coupon. YMMV.

That's about $100 for parts alone on the front, from the lowest cost place for midrange parts. If it has drum brakes in back, they tend to need done half as often if that and drums themselves, seldom need replaced until after 200K mi. (or less with aggressive driving or already replaced with inferior to OEM, aftermarket drums).

$50 brake job is too good to be true for an older midsized sedan. Either it's a new place trying to gain customers and eating a loss to do so (and even then using low quality pads and turning the rotors at most), or severely cutting corners and may easily find *some* reason why it's going to cost more, once they have you at their mercy.

Then again, you can go to a place that quoted $200 and find out that they want to replace more at addt'l cost to you too. Sometimes they're being honest about that, but sometimes not.

 

[sontakke]

I saw a local coupon for a brake job including those rotor services for $50, so made me wonder.

By default, you NEVER take your car in for a service where they have coupons. There is NO free lunch in the car repair business.

 

[RLGL]

BTW ; I have never found aftermarket rotors that last on Honda Accords. Napa, Carquest, auto Zone..............
OEM is all that has worked

 

[mindless1]

^ OEMs make, or determine crucial specs on custom parts their vehicles use, but not so much brake rotors. If you want OEM quality-level, you can try to determine who makes them and just skip one layer of middleman. However, more and more are made in China now so unless you find new old stock, even an OEM part today may not be as good as what came on an older vehicle.

FWIW, I keep seeing Brembo suggested for Accords but don't know for a fact that they're the OEM manufacturer.

A lot of the time what I suspect happens with aftermarket rotors is that the shop or DIYer doesn't torque the lug nuts evenly to the correct ft lb, whether it be due to rust, uneven tightening sequence, use of an impact wrench to over-tighten the first lug then proceed from there.

Poor quality pads can also contribute, losing material in an uneven fashion that get embedded in the rotor. This I see more towards the end of pad life, patches on the pad that aren't as smooth.

 

[herm0016]

I guess I overpaid for parts. Ohwell. The oem parts for my pickup were about 150 per side and the shop charged me a total of about 500 to do them, and another 200 for axle seals. Odd thing, there are 2 grades of "oem" pads for a Sierra and the all terrain model gets the better ones. First set lasted 75k and could have gone another 10, but I was starting to get issues with heat soak in the mountains. (No, I do not ride them, and I always downshift)