YACT: Rear brake caliper replacement

[Garion]

I need to get my rear brake calipers replaced on my '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The local repair shop (which we've used in the past) quoted me somewhere between $500 and $600 installed. Is this reasonable? They use good parts (Brembo) and have always done good work for me in the past, but I have NO idea how much they should cost. I understand cars well, but I'm not much of a mechanic (even shade tree) and generally don't like to do this kind of thing myself.

Thoughts?

- G

 

[chowmein]

buy the parts from Jeep and have the repair shop install it. save maybe a few hundred

 

[NutBucket]

Seems a bit high.

 

[kevman]

yeah,

i think that is quite a bit steep for jsut calipers? Are they doing calipers, and pads and rotors? are your calipers siezed or something? I dont see why you would replace them unless they are siezed,

for a DIY brake job on my car I got the parts: rear pads and rotors for ~200 bucks.

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: kevman
yeah,

i think that is quite a bit steep for jsut calipers? Are they doing calipers, and pads and rotors? are your calipers siezed or something? I dont see why you would replace them unless they are siezed,

for a DIY brake job on my car I got the parts: rear pads and rotors for ~200 bucks.

It's for calipers and pads - Rotors are fine. They need to be replaced since something in the caliper is wearing out. Whenever I hit the brakes, it goes "clunk" and rattles when I hit a bump. When he took it apart, he showed me it moving around and making the noise.

- G

 

[iamwiz82]

Was it the piston that was moving back and forth or just the pad which had a broken clip? I ask this because I trust no auto repair place.

 

[PricklyPete]

I paid just $100 for a '99 Mazda Millenia OEM Calipar for one of my rear breaks....that didn't include labor...but that was like $15 more since they were already changing my break pads. Sounds a bit outrageous unless they are doing your break pads on all 4 tires and throwing in a couple new rotors.

 

[Thegonagle]

For both sides? Then it's probably not out of line, if you really need both of them replaced. However, I do almost all of my brake work myself, and I've never needed to replace more than one caliper at a time. (Pads and rotors should always be done in pairs though.)

Since you don't do your brake work, if you don't let them replace both calipers, don't expect them to do a top notch job on the side they don't replace, so you might just be back soon in a year or two anyway for another caliper and another pair of pads on both sides. (By "top notch job," I mostly mean properly lubricating the caliper pins and parking brake mechanism, and replacing worn dust seals--which brake shops, particularly chains like Midas, don't do anyway; they always tell you that you need an entire new one even though dust seals and other parts are readily available for most models.)