nightowl

what a day......went to this local garage to drop off my co-worker so that he could pick up his RSX (got is summer rims put on)...well the machanic walks out to take a look at my car and notices that i'm missing 2 lug nuts on me left rear tire...i'm like OH **** so he offered to put new ones on for free....well they didn't have any of my size so i had to goto the dealership. Got the 2 Lug nuts from the dealership (14 bucks cdn) then went back the garage and got them to install it quickly. he comes back oout with my car says that i need a break job really soon or i'm going to ruin my disks. got a quote from them...going to cost $530 cdn with high quality break pads....

this sucks...i already spent $200 on a new sleeping bag last night

oh ya car has 47 000km on her

JJB

is this from a shop that you trust? I would imagine you can easily take the wheels off and take a look at the calipers, pads, and discs and see if there is aparent damage that would prompt them to make the claims. If not, I would take it to a shop you know and trust and get it checked out...

doclaw

you can just take off the wheels and look at the pads. If they don't look like they have alot left then time to get new pads. You do not want to score the rotors because then you would have to get them turned or resurfaced or get new ones. Also does the car squeal when you hit the brakes or does the pedal vibrate. If that happens you more then likely need new pads.

BTW does anyone know what the min rotor width is? Good to know when the brakes get done.

redrims

I wouldn't trust them. Sounds a little too sketchy for me.

Have it looked at somewhere else or at the dealership and see what they say.

DoBeR

I think a second opinion is always a good idea especially if you don't have a regular mechanic that always looks at your car. You can pretty much get ripped off anywhere. My friend had a suspension problem which ended up being ball joints, but instead of going somewhere else, he listened to the guys at Speedy and they told him he needed new struts. So 800 bucks later the noise was still there.

Mach 1

$530 for a brake job in any country is a rip off. Go buy you some $25 brake pads and change them yourself.

its a simple job and youll save tons of money. And no, your rotors or drums do not NEED to be cut unless they are damaged.

fraay

Never ever ever ever (have I mentioned ever?) get your brakes done somewhere you don't trust..

Brake jobs are one of the most common "shop scams".. not only are they quoting you a silly price to begin with.. but I imagine once they get into it they'll either mismeasure (on purpose.. happens a lot.. ) and claim they're too thin and need to be replaced.. or cut them for no reason.. thus speeding up when they need to be replaced.

Brakes are easy to get people to plunk down unnessisary money for.. because what are you going to do.. drive around with no brakes?

Seems unlikely that at 47k kms, without you noticing any nasty noises or shaking that there could be anything really serious going on.. not saying impossible.. just unlikely.

hihoslva

Do your own brakes!

First - at 47000 kms, you should only need fronts right now. Brakes do NOT wear at the same rate - not even close - the fronts take much more a beating. And there is no reason to change the pads on all four wheels if you don't need them.

Second - what kind of "high performance" pads is this guy selling you? I can tell you for a fact that changing brake pads on our cars takes like 15 minutes per wheel - seriously. So easy. Those better be some special brake pads, because the labor rate should only be about an hour total for all four wheels.

Took me about 30 minutes TOTAL do change my front pads, that's using: Standard lug wrench (shops have air impact wrenches) and the stock scissor jack (the lift in a shop is a lot faster and easier).

If you need pads, do them yourself. I got good quality Raybestos pads at PepBoys for $57, and have had fine performance from them. I haven't even had the increased brake dust many people warned me about.

All you need for the front brakes is the stock lug wrench and and an 8mm allen wrench.

You're getting scammed, IMHO.

~HH

Mach 1

I believe auto technicians are taught to cut the rotors or drums every time new pads are installed, for optimal performance and breaking in of the new pads. This in itself isnt entirely a rip off, just something that doesnt need to be done (normally)and makes the job simple to do at home without dragging your rotors in to be cut.

I had a mechanic freind of mine told me he would just replace the rotors on every brake change now (and this was many years ago he told me this) because new rotors were so "cheap", why not just replace them?

New rotors were around $30 for many of the smaller cars out there at the time.

ry_clark

Listen to hihoslva
If you have the right tools you can do these brakes yourself!! On scale of brakes 1-10 these are 1 with the right tools.

Mark_02DX

I agree. Front brakes are definitely a DIY job. And the only reason the rotors would need to be turned is if there's visible damage to the surface (usually from the pads wearing so thin that the rivets hit) or if the pedal vibrates when you hit the brakes (meaning the rotor(s) are out of round or warped).

I used to work in a garage, and brakes are definitely a good place to pad a bill (no pun intended). Don't let 'em.

fraay

Of course.. if you don't want to do your own brakes.. don't feel bad either... just get the job done at a place that you trust.. I seem to be a pretty big chicken when it comes to this car (my first brand new car).. having only done my own work on much older and less valuable cars without all these fancy smancy computer parts and abs and such.. when brake time comes, I don't know if I'll have the nerve up to do it myself... but I'm blessed with a few mechanics in the family, and a really good local dealership..

And I know this didn't wreck the brakes.. but I'm just wondering.. could it actually damage your car to have only 3 of the 5 lugs on? I thought you'd only actually need 2 on there really good for everything to be fine..

hihoslva

Could definitely warp the brake rotors, if nothing else.

It's not like it WILL happen, but it definitely could. In fact, improper and/or overtigntening of lug nuts (even with them all in place ) is one of the biggest causes of rotor warping. Particularly with the relatively thin rotors on cars today.

I would suggest having all your nuts hehe. And there's no need for an impact wrench to put 'em on. Even if you don't use a torque wrench, making them as tight as you can with hand tools is a decent gauge as to where they are tight enough. If you've ever had a lug on so tight it couldn't come off with a hand lug wrench, it's on too tight.

~HH

nightowl

ya i know my car definately needs new breaks....i was at the dealer a 2 months ago, and they said that i only had 10% of my breaks left

also noticed some scoring on the disks over the weekend so ya..
going to phone the dealer tomorrow morning to get a quote from them see if its any cheaper

Old_Man_Wiggins

I agree with those that say to do the brakes yourself.

I can relate to the whole idea of being very careful if you select a shop/mechanic to work on them because I took one of my previous cars (a 1986 Toyota MR2) to Midas once... but I've never gone back since.

They broke off one of the bolts that holds the caliper in place, but they replaced it with a bolt they just found lying around the shop that happened to fit. Well, apparently whatever bolt they used was not up to factory specs and a few days later as I was slowing down to cross a railroad track, the bolt snapped at about 30mph! The caliper flipped forward and ground into the rim, causing the tire (right rear) to lock up. Fortunately, because of the relatively low speed, I didn't lose control of the car... but it sounded horrible and scared the sh*t out of me and my girlfriend.

I couldn't find the broken bolt, so in effect I had no physical proof of what happened. Of course, I was only 20 years old at the time and didn't realize the dynamics of the possible legal action I could have taken against Midas.

Nowadays,... sheesh... that would be an easy multi-million dollar lawsuit. I mean, can you imagine how much more severe it could have been if I had been going 70 mph out on the highway when the caliper bolt snapped?

I think Midas blows goats, but not just because of the stupid way they handled my car. I've heard countless stories of rip-off jobs, and poor workmanship from dozens of friends and co-workers who went to Midas throughout the years. Several Midas shops were even featured on an edition of 20/20 a few years back where an undercover journalist used a hidden camera while getting quotes for brake jobs on a used car that had about 30,000 miles on it. It was a GM car, but I don't remember the model, and they made it a specific point to have the brakes COMPLETELY REPLACED (they replaced every part on all 4 corners of the car with brand new factory parts... we're talking rotors, calipers, pads, lines... the whole wad) and they had it all done by certified GM technicians. Then, they put about 500 miles on the new brakes, and took it to 3 other GM dealers and had the brakes inspected again. They all said that the brakes were in TOP condition, requiring no maintenance whatsoever.

But... each of the Midas shops that looked at the brakes claimed that it needed a variety of items, such as new pads, seals, and/or that the rotors needed to be turned. One of the Midas shops even claimed that the brakes lines were worn out and would start leaking soon! Most estimates were WAY over $500! Some other shops they took it to were private, locally owned places, and also said the brakes needed work, but there were a couple shops that said the brakes were fine and didn't need anything. (It's also interesting to note that the undercover journalist was a woman and she pretended like she didn't know much about cars, which the mechanics took advantage of.)

There was another story I saw on TV done by a different investigative journalism team where they caught brake/shock shops deliberately squirting oil and other fluids on brake components and then showing it to the customer, claiming that the brakes or shocks needed work and the fluids indicated a major problem, thereby justifiying the high $$ quotes. Some of those shop workers and owners were arrested and jailed after that show. Yay!

It just goes to show that it's hard to know who to trust out there, and some are more untrustworthy than others.


Old Man Wiggins