Holy crap... $900 for pads, calipers and rotors?

[Shawn5800]

I brought my truck in the shop today to get the HORRIBLE shaking in the front end when i brake checked out. Turns out the rotors, pads and calipers are shot completely. This is a shop i love and trust so im assuming there not lying to me. The shake truly is horrible.

He quoted around $900+ for parts and labor. Is it me or does this seem high?

I priced out all the parts from Advanced Auto, all WearEver brand, which i never had a problem with for $340. So that tells me he is charging me close to $500 for labor? Anyone else see this is high?

I think he has gone up on his prices because today he:

-Balanced and rotated all 4 of my tires
-Greased up that yolk or joint that makes the nasty clunk when you come to a stop
-Replaced my fuel filter(which happily got rid of that nasty fuel pump whine)
-Adjusted and serviced my brakes all around as best he could without replacing.

All this and he charged me $220. The only part purchased was the FF for $40.

Time to find a new shop?

 

[MAD 69]

My trusted mechanic quoted me a price of $655. No way I can afford it so I'm buying piece by piece when I can find a decent deal on them. The mechanic is just calling Napa and they sell for about $180 a caliper and close to $125 a rotor - add that to labor and you see where the expense comes from.

 

[YotaZach85]

Thats outf-ingrageous! Time for the Tundra upgrade...can you do the work yourself?

 

[halo32c]

I brought my truck in the shop today to get the HORRIBLE shaking in the front end when i brake checked out. Turns out the rotors, pads and calipers are shot completely. This is a shop i love and trust so im assuming there not lying to me. The shake truly is horrible.

He quoted around $900+ for parts and labor. Is it me or does this seem high?

I priced out all the parts from Advanced Auto, all WearEver brand, which i never had a problem with for $340. So that tells me he is charging me close to $500 for labor? Anyone else see this is high?

I think he has gone up on his prices because today he:

-Balanced and rotated all 4 of my tires
-Greased up that yolk or joint that makes the nasty clunk when you come to a stop
-Replaced my fuel filter(which happily got rid of that nasty fuel pump whine)
-Adjusted and serviced my brakes all around as best he could without replacing.

All this and he charged me $220. The only part purchased was the FF for $40.

Time to find a new shop?

Buy a Haynes or Chilton manual and do they work yourself.
Recently did my front rotors and brake pads and doing the master cyclinder tomorrow. Alot of info on this site to help you out as well.

 

[CoMarc]

Thats outf-ingrageous! Time for the Tundra upgrade...can you do the work yourself?

Agreed on all counts. Buy the parts for the Tundra brake upgrade (several threads on this) and only spend $350 (all new pieces) tops if you do the work yourself. It's really easy to do! Practically bolt on procedures.

Good luck!

 

[8sm]

Call the Police ....

I believe that was an attempted robbery. LOL

I purchased my rotors, calipers and pads then, looked up the numerous brake jobs tutorials online . Read and followed each step and it goes very quickly. Do one side to completion at a time before moving on to the next wheel.

Believe me, it is very very easy, I was surprise how easy. You can do it with minimal amount of tools, a basic tool box will have everything you need.

 

[Jared Pabis]

Last weekend I bought rotors and pads for the front, from the dealership. After a 15% discount from an online coupon, I paid about $265 out the door. OEM parts may not be the best performance wise (and they are expensive), but they were designed by engineers and you know for a fact they will work.

Front brakes are fairly simple to do if you read some informational threads on here. Drums can be a pain in the bag if the springs aren't cooperating.

Just give yourself plenty of time to do it. Use jack stands and put a pipe on your wrench for those stubborn caliper bolts.

If the rotors don't want to come off, simply screw in a caliper bolt (without the caliper) all the way until it hits the rotor and it will pop off. It may also help to tap the rotor with a hammer to loosen her up.

Might as well give it a shot. If things go bad for the worse, just take it to the mechanic. Tell them your Dad bought the parts but couldn't figure out how to do it

 

[fightman80]

I did my front brakes for around $400.00....it's very do-able yourself...just take your time, do one side at a time, and save yourself a lot of money!

 

[Shawn5800]

Thanks for the help guys! I will def be doing them myself now that i see the prices quoted around here. I have not found a price under $800 around. Almost $1k for brakes? No F'in way!

I am going to find that Tundra upgrade thread and buy those parts. Its not that i dont have the skill and tools to do it, (Im an Equipment Engineer) lol. I just like to have the receipts of work done to my vehicle, and the piece of mind that if something did go wrong i can just bring it back to the shop.

I guess ill be doing more work myself from now on. Thanks for all the replies guys!

Your all the best!

 

[Shawn5800]

Can someone tell me if this parts list looks correct? Thanks guys.

 

[legokcen]

You could do them yourself. The front brakes are pretty easy if you have some common tools. Honestly, it shouldn't take much time or effort since they're disk brakes. I did both sides (caliper/rotor/pads) in about 1.5-2 hours. Then had a neighbor help me bleed them properly.

If you have a service manual, it lays it all out for you. If you have any questions, let me know, I'll be glad to help.

 

[Elton H]

yes the fronts are super super easy with basic hand tools take the 2 caliper bolts out slide it out of the way dont let it hang and the rotor just taps right off

 

[RonMAIDEN]

So what is fair for labor or are you just screwed. Remember some people don't have the means or the mechanical knowledge to attempt the job so if that's the case having a mechanically inclined friend helping can go a long ways and save labor.

I rewarded friends with steak and beers and a little cash and came out pretty good for anything I needed help with.

 

[Baja Runner]

You don't need to buy calipers.

Just buy 2 rotors and 1 set of pads. 1 set of pads will do the whole front end.

I would recommend Brembo rotors if you do not want to go through this again.

When doing pads, all you need to do is slide them out from the back, just removing 2 pins. To remove the rotors, you have to take off 2 17mm bolts on the back side of the caliper, and knock it off with a mallet. Its about an hour job.

 

[Shawn5800]

My mechanic said my calipers were warped or worn? Is that even possible? I just dont want to take my tire off to find that my calipers really are shot. If i can get away with just rotors and pads i will do that.

 

[jhaag]

My mechanic said my calipers were warped or worn? Is that even possible? I just dont want to take my tire off to find that my calipers really are shot. If i can get away with just rotors and pads i will do that.

its sort of strange that they wanted to put new calipers on. you rarely have to replace them unless they are leaking at the piston seal or overextended, and if either of those two things are happening then you would have crashed from not being able to stop. also, the pins that hold the pads in can rust in place and not come out. HOWEVER, none of these scenarios are known until you are doing the work, so i think your shop it trying to get more money out of you for no reason. or maybe just giving you the worst case price. at any rate, brakes are super easy to do, just do your research and follow a manual and you'll save yourself a lot of money.

good luck :cheers:

 

[whodini]

Lol I think he meant your rotors are warped or worn. First I've heard of warped calipers it probably could happen from a collision but he could have meant your calipers needed to be serviced but if thT was the case it'd be faster just to replace. And as mentioned you might as well upgrade to tundra brakes. Wish I had a friend who would feed me with beer steak and some cash for helping with their brakes I'm sure you know somebody who works on cars that can help you out.

 

[Dezert4Runner]

As everyone else has mentioned, rotors are what are usually being referred to when the word "warped" is used. Disk brakes are super easy, and the rotors come right off. Use a deadblow hammer or a rubber mallet and give the old rotor a good whack to "persuade" it to come off.

If you decide to do it on your own it'll likely cost you less than $150 for a new set of rotors and pads from your local autoparts store, and you'll be glad you know how to do them in the future and most likely kick yourself for not learning sooner. Just make sure to never get the cheapest pads they offer cause they aren't as quiet. A packet or bottle of brake grease for the back pf the pads is a must if the set doesn't already have some in the box. Good luck.

 

[cj80cruiser]

If there is still alot of pad left on the front brakes can you just replace the rotors and keep using the same pads even if the other rotors were warped? Basically do the warped rotors affect the pads? I'm curious

 

[Shawn5800]

I would imagine that the warped uneven rotors would cause uneven pad wear from constant braking, resulting in the pads being bad also.

I think replacing the pads is worth the $50-60 while your down there already doing the rotors anyways, especially if those old pads do end up wearing the rotors unevenly or at a faster rate.