Ok so the other week I had the pleasure of my brakes dying on me. Fun as it happened in the middle of rush hour. I luckily kept my head and easing on the e-brake stopped me short or rear-ending someone by about a inch without filling my pants with yucky stuff. I take it to a brake shop as this is my daily driver and I need my baby for work so I can pay to fix the little bugger. I get quoted $1100 and nearly die of wallet failure. Ok so not that bad, I can afford it but I don't like it. I call a good friend who knows old cars (I won't tell you what kind as he really is a nice guy) and while the brake shop has my car hoisted up he comes and has a look. They want to replace Master Cylinder & all Slaves plus new drums and shoes. He says no way, life left in drums and shoes, just do cylinders. With a bunch of mucking around (two slaves had burst, the others were fine), going between a few stores and five hours in the rain getting soaked so I can drive again we get her fixed for under $300 (this includes paying the brake jackasses $90 to look at my car) and many beers and food for my buddy that night. Anyway, back to my point. There is still life left in the drums and pads but I do want to replace them within the next couple of thousand miles. Anyone know of somewhere for good prices on these parts or would you suggest I convert the brake system? I personally don't mind have drums but I'm a novice to all this so will bow to superior knowledge.
brake shoes are a 1hr job all 4 ..........on a bad day drums have them turned not sure where your at....... but I think o-rallys ..autozone...advance auto parts will turn them ...find a hanes or motors manual you can do it and save $$$ ......... 90 bucks just to look at them was there a Tow fee ....places around here will do it for free ....hoping to Hook some old lady for the full shaft treatment
That shop was a joke. No way does a brake job like that cost $1100. I could see maybe $400 if everything was replaced, but that's more than double. A master cylinder is $25.00 and takes less than 30 minutes to replace. Wheel cylinders are $15 each (although the shop tripples these parts prices). You got ripped by having to pay them $90 to look at it. Brake shoes are $12 to $15. Machining rotors & drums: $8 to $15 each. Labor is....well....I've seen it anywhere from $74 to $90 per hour. All of that does not even come close to $1100. Anyway, now that they are working again, save up for a front-disc swap. You'll be glad you did...
Yeah, $22 for Master $20 each for rear slaves but it was $90 for front. They have the weird bit where the bleed nipple is pointing at a different angle and they didn't have the cheaper ones in stock Yeah they charge $90 an hour (I'm in CA, Marin County to be exact which is well expensive) so charged me an hour for the 'free' quote that was promised. At that point in time I wasn't going to argue, I'd already made my mistake by going to these guys. I didn't want to screw up more and risk them not putting things back on the car. They wanted $540 for parts, the rest labor Asses! So front-disc swap? Any good tutorials, pricing for that?
I think a call to the Better Business Bureau and your states Attorney General, should be your next move.
I hate to be the other side, but unless you have worked in the Auto repair business you have no idea how much it cost to operate a garage. What they should have done is given you options. This is the min we can do to get you on the road but we recommend a complete overhaul. Price at 1100.00 isn't that bad to pay somebody else to overhaul your brakes and get parts and labor warranty. An electrician comes to your house to put in a 2.00 light switch but it ends up costing 150.00 when it is all said and done. You pay for professionalism. However i will say unless I personallyy inspected your brakes I would not trust anybody ekses assesment of them. YOu would think by now the whole rip of thing wopuld be a dead issue as consumers have a huge amount of backing and support these days. Good Luck and glad you got your brakes fixed. I always say get a second opinion or even a third if you think there is anyt doubt.
First off your being charged a fine for driving a Maverick in Marin County,if it's not a BMW they most times won't talk to you.TL is kinda close on the price of the parts,in the bay area (ya know cross the Golden Gate) you can get 4 new drums,new Bendix shoes all the way around,4 wheel cylinders,and a master cylinder for about $375.00 ,that would be your total if you can do it yourself,labor on the other hand is whatever the going rate is. Like you said you came close to hitting someone,brakes are #1 on the list of must fix.
I had my enitre system rebuilt with NEW drums etc.. in Santa Rosa for less than $500.00. The bonus was, they did the exhaust at the same time. So I killed two birds with one raise of the car.
For giggles I sat down at work today and ran our standard mark up and labor and it came out to $880.00 the parts cost us 225.00 all good raybestos parts. Sometimes the "white box" parts are just as good as the name brand but...... NOw if I knew you that could be alot less but just for the average customer this would be a general idea. YOu know the sad part the pure profit on this job would only be 80 to 100.00. Garages are not as profitable as most people think. Demographics play a part in pricing as well. If I did that job on the side I would charge 150.00 plus parts for somebody I did not know very well. Somebody I really liked might get it done free
1100.00 not that bad???????????? Give me a break! Anyway you look at it......this guy got it up the butt and broken off!! Sorry for ya dude. We live and learn.
] If you read the entire post I dont think he paid that. After reassessing the whole thing like in my last post yes I think 1100.00 is too much and agree that it sounds like they gave him that price so he would leave. My dryer broke and I have been extremely busy so i paid a professional to fix it 140.00 to put a belt on. I priced the belt it was 12.00 at sears. They charged me 24.00 plus labor. I could have saved alot of money doing it myself but I paid that price because it was the fastest, easiest way to find a solution to my problem(my wife nagging me ) DO I feel ripped off, nope, just know that when somebody else does it for you on a business level with warranties and trained personel you pay more.
Heh, yeah as 1badmav said, I ended up doing it myself. I do understand overheads and the like but still. They may have wanted me to leave but the guy was trying to sell me on how good a deal it was that they were only charging me $500 and something for labor. If my friend and I had all the proper equipment to be able work on the car like this brake shop we could have done the entire thing in under an hour.
Maybe I'm over reacting....I just can't stand businesses, that knowingly take advantage of people that are in a tough situation. Happened to me and my wife once in West Virginia....we had our infant daughter with us travelling from PA down to TX...we were tight for money when the alternator went bad going down the highway. People raped us. I just wish people were as honest to me as I am to them. Its all about itegrity. I don't mind paying a fair wage, hell I'll pay a little more....just don't rip me off.
