brake service
 

Does anyone have any experience with Mazda's value line brake pads? I was quoted a price that is less than half the price of the OEM's and they are still from Mazda. What's the deal here? Are they less robust, wear out quicker, or have less desirable specs? The service shop says they've never had a problem with them, but before I go and spend a couple hundred dollars (since I'm not putting them on myself), I figured I should do my homework. Also, the local brake and muffler place quoted me $89.95 installed per axle, which is the dealer's labor rate alone per axle (pads/shoes extra). The price gap between the dealer's service shop, and the other chain service shop is very large (~$80) and that's not even with the OEM replacements. I only consider having the service done at the dealer because I'm taking it in for an oil change and fall check-up (have coupon). Any thoughts?

OR buy the pads yourself and bring to an independent garage. You could have Hawk high perf pads installed for the price of budget OEMs....

I do mine myself - it really is one of the easiest jobs on this car.

you suck at life if you pay a brake shop to do pads....

after throwing meaningless tantrum and howling at the moon, p5chemdood is over it! :rolleyes:

Back to my original post... I've opted to purchase the pads on my own and install them on my own (with help from my sister's mechanic BF) so that I'll be comfortable doing it next time.

calm down there bro....it WAS just a joke.... :tear:

good for you for doing it yourself...once you've done it and see how easy it is you'll get what I mean though...

it requires a jack, tire iron, 1 socket and a c-clamp...

you jack up the car, take off the tire,use the socket wrench to undo top bolt on the caliper swing it down, pull the pads out, use the c-clamp to compress the piston back down, slip in the new pads, and put it all back together...then pump the brakes until you get pressure again...

it's that easy...if anything, it's EASIER than the maintenance you've already done

that $89.95 per axle sounds good, but it NEVER ends up being that much...

I've seen friends pay $400.00+ for brakes

You'll feel sooooo good when you do it for 20 bucks and 45 minutes of your time...

Thanks for the helpful info! It turns out that I have to go to Philly next week so that's when I'll get to do the brakes... now I'm excited!

If I were you I'd pick up a set of Hawk HPS pads (if you want performance), NAPA AE (premium oe replacement) pads if you want better than OE quality

or Auto zone budget pads if you want to die in a fiery crash.

^agreed. Hawk FTW!

Use a jack stand too. The car you save (or your life) may be your own! Chock the opposite wheel too.

Add Brake Cleaner to the list too.

Find the link to ugly.net for the manual.