Extreme price for brake job
 

So I took my RX8 to the local dealer for an oil change. They checked the car over and said I need brakes. So I asked how much, the person on the phone respond back with a number over $600 dollars. For brakes pads, flushing brake fluid, resurfacing and rotating tires. I thought it was a bit extreme and I like to work on my car anyway so I did the job myself. Bought the pads and changed them. I was surprised at how little time it actually takes. So in the end it cost me about $100 bucks and 1 1/2 hours of labor and saved myself $500. I just dont know where the dealrs get their prices from sometimes.

That's why the call them the stealership

way to go! It feels good to accomplish something like that and save a ton of money at the same time!

Did you flush your fluid? Resurface your rotors?

If the rotors are grooved, they will just eat through your new $100 pads.

Did you get a quote on just replacing pads?

They'd probably charge around 250 (100 in parts + 1.5h labor)

I don't see where you saved $500 if you didn't perform all of the services you were quoted for.

All four brakes pads, rotors, stainless steal brake lines, ATE super Blue fluid.

Ran me 620 bucks and 3 hours of my time with a stop to advanced auto to rent the rear caliper tool.

They are charging you that for pads, and resurfaced rotors. For a dealer price thats not the worst I have heard. But you can save yourself tons by just doing it yourself.

Contact R1 Concpets on here and get a group buy/member discount and some great products they carry.

You really should get your rotors machined when you install new pads. You will have less than optimum braking performance if you don't.
It also helps to know the rotor thickness after machining them. You don't want your caliper pistons to extend beyond the minimum thickness specifications of the rotors.

I have never seen the benefit to resurfacing rotors, you spend 30-40 bucks getting them done when you can just get a new par for 120-140.

By the time you resurface them is when you need pads anyways so your around 25-30K, rotors are good for about 40 nowadays, why spend 35% of the cost of new rotors to only get sub par performance for another 25% of the life of the rotor.

Plus you do pads and rotors together and its less times you have to take everything apart, plus nothing beads better than new pads and rotors.

I actually disagree with this. Machining is nearly the cost of a new set of rotors, and machining removes mass from the rotor, which is the only attribute that actually matters for rotor performance. A proper re-bedding of the new pads is all that is needed as long as you have a similar compound. A dramatic change of compound should mean new rotors. Some compounds force this. Like after bedded in Carbotechs are on a set of rotors, a set of OEM pads will have the gripping force of a toddler with pliers. This is where the "machining" comes in, but new rotors are a better option is every way if machining would be otherwise recommended.

Coupled with how cheap parts are manufactured nowadays, all the reputable performance shops I know wont even bother trying to machine the rotors because when you are done you get very little to any actual usable surface area, they just replace them and be done with it.

Last time a dealer quoted me a price for brakes it was $900 on my Accord. Probably 10 years ago.

About $100 at Trak Auto got me new pads and rotors and rebuilt calipers for the front, and new shoes for the rear. Couple of hours of work and that was that.

Doing brakes right is important, but it's one of the most overpriced jobs that a shop will do. I've been impressed at how the labor cost for disks doubled from what drums used to be, even though disks are easier to work on.

Ken

I was responding in the vein of the OP obviously wanting to save money.
When I did brake jobs I would offer customers the option of new vs machined, & probably 8 out of 10 chose machined.
The machining was part of the labor cost of the brake job & quite a bit cheaper than buying new rotors.
I admit I am not familiar with the cost of machining rotors currently.
If machining costs are nearly equal to new rotors, then obviously new is better.
I am saying if someone wants to do their own brakes, they should not just switch pads & use worn existing rotors to save money.
I personally replace rotors when I do my own brakes.

Fwiw, I paid $240 for all 4 rotors for my 8 from Advance.
While I haven't paid to have rotors machined in years, I doubt it costs anywhere near that.

What to do with the rotors depends on what condition they're in. I've replaced them, had them turned, or just gone over them with emery cloth. Just as long as I pay attention to what's needed, and not just shove pads in.

Modern pad material tends to be hard on rotors. Back when they used asbestos rotors usually did not need much resurfacing.

Ken

Being a mechanic at a shop myself, I always hate when people make this comparison.

What the OP has done is compared buying a $10 steak from the store and grilling it at home to going out and dropping $75 on dinner at a nice steak house.

Its been beaten to death. Yes, its cheaper to do your own service. Yes, its cheaper to buy parts online. And yes, its a smart move. But only if you actually know what you are doing.

The amount of ignorance among the general public about the automotive service industry is absurd. Does anybody have any idea how much it costs for a repair shop to function? Even for just one day? We have a small shop with 2 employees and 2 owners (owners not counted in pay) To open the doors, be there all day, and close the doors, it costs about $650 a day. That does not include any parts we might buy or supplies we might use. If its a very busy day, that # can almost double.

Lets do the math a little. $650 cut into 8 hours is is $81.25 per hour we have to pay just to be there. Your brake job took you 1.5 hours. for conversation sake, we will use your time. That's $121.87 we have to pay ( in overhead and expenses)to do your brakes. Plus $100 for your parts as you said. That's $221.87 it cost us to do your brakes (With no mark-up on parts or labor). Remember I'm using your numbers.
And at the end of that job, as you stated it was just pads.
If the service provider went by your numbers only. For example, we charge $85 per hour labor. Labor cost to you would be $127.50 and no markup on pads, as you stated $100. that adds up to $227.50

Our total profit on the job would be $5.63 <--- $5.63!!!....


That is why labor charges and part mark-up seems so high.

Make sense?

Goddess, I have run a business before and I agree almost completely. But you have 2 people working not including owners. That is 16 Man hours a day and only about 40 dollars a hour for an hour.

That is how any businesses I've been involved in looked at cost. They take the total daily operating cost. Electricity, Rent, phones, payroll, insurance, disposal fees, garbage, water and all other costs then divide by the number of man hours they pay out. That gives your Average labor cost. Then most places will at least double it for profit.

Dealerships do normally have much more overhead and inflated Average labor cost. Plus most of them try to make a killing on parts markup.

VANSLAM,

I don't think rotors need to be resurfaced as often as brake shops/dealerships would like. I think every brake job I've ever had done told me to resurface the rotors. I would replace them before resurfacing. Check to see if they are grooved or to thin. Most shops just eyeball it in my experiance. The tools will cost you a little but it's a one time investment.

I don't know anything about your car, Age or driving habits. Brake fluid absorbs water. It will do it in your car. It should be changed out every few years probably 3-5. The harder you drive the more dangerous this is. On the extreme end if you are doing a lot of hard braking(track day) you could boil the water and lock up your brakes.

Doing the fluid yourself is cheap enough. A bottle of fluid for 10 Dollars and a hour of time. I try to get fluid that's a different color then in my car. I also have a vacuum tester with a little resivor just for bleeding brakes. It makes it very easy and there is zero mess. I bought my vacuume tool from harbor freight on sale for 25 USD.

Showing my age, but I remember when a 4 wheel brake job cost $32.

Ken

In the 80s/90s we charged $49.95 per axle for basic service.
I had a thievin boss that had a squirt can of brake fluid, he would want us to squirt fluid under the boots of wheel cylinders & tell the customer they were leaking.
He'd then charge them for new ones & leave the old ones on.
I refused. He didn't like me much cause I told him I wouldn't lie & cheat people.
At one time he even told us to try & sell a cat to every car that came in with a performance problem.
I wouldn't do that either.

I do not think the price the dealer quote the OP is "extreme." If anything, it is average for what a dealer would charge for all the things quoted on that list.

Thanks for the feedback but I am not here to support your business model. If I can do it, I will do the job myself. Whatever money is in my pocket at the end is what I saved. I been working on my cars for over 30 years and surprised at how high the prices have gone. Now some of this my be valid but I will continue to make the go or no go descision with my toys. By the way the rotors were in good shape and well within specs. I would have replaced them rather than have them resurfaced if they needed it. By the way I changed the battery myself as well and saved money as well. The RX8 is still an awesome car.

Welcome to the sticker shock club. :) Over 50 years for me, and I did not make up that $32. I also have trouble with what Starbucks charges for coffee. That dime I gave a homeless guy won't go very far.

Just had my own brake pricing adventure with a stealership. After an oil change the service guy said I could use brakes. I asked for a quote - mostly so I'd feel good about how much I'd save doing it myself. He came back with a special of $130 for pads for front or rear. $30 per rotor if they needed turning. That seemed like a good deal. But after I brought it in, the price for one end went to $350, with turning. So that meant $100 to turn each rotor.

Turned out the original $130 deal didn't even use Mazda pads, which was a big reason I thought it was a great deal.

I had them put the car back together the way I brought it in (assuming they even got as far as taking anything off for a look) and cancelled everything.

Ken

Man, I wish my brakes locked up if I boiled over. Boiled brake lines means the fluid/gas mix can compress more, meaning less braking ability. It starts as a soft pedal but can go to the extreme of being unable to brake to the lockup point of the tire, resulting in not being able to slow down as well. It's a real concern even on the street - a mountain cruise can get pretty scary with spongey brakes.

I understand dealers and shops have high operating cost but the real issue is honesty. The question we have to ask is why dealerships have such bad reputation? The general public did not just decide to give them a bad name. Recently, I took my Honda Civic in for a recall work and they said I needed a new rear cam plug because oil is leaking. This was correct. What was not correct was when they told me the price would be close to $400. Luckily, I said no. The seal itself is about $20 and the procedure to change it takes about 10 minutes (it was as simple as prying the old one out and push the new one in). I think the issue is about conscience.