Laceyj91

This is my first post, and I am so glad I found this forum! Anyways, I have a m3 itouring with 51k miles. I drive a lot. I know I need brakes and I have previously had the rotors turned when it was at the dealership for something else, but now it's time for pads. Any idea how much that should run me? When I called the dealership by my house, it was like $600 and change. That can't be right for pads can it? Also, the cabin air filter is "dirty" but they want to charge me $100 to change it because it's hard to get to. How do they know it's dirty if it's so much work to get to and they didn't charge me to check it? Anyone know if doing this on your own is worth it or should I just cough up the money and have them do it? My parents own racecars so I do know my way around a car and my dad is going to help me. Another thing, a few months after I bought it, it had this noise in the rear end and when I took it to the dealership they said my suspension bolts were loose. They tightened them enough to cover their liability but I didn't pay them the $150 they wanted to tighten them completely cuz that's just bs. Anyway, now my rear tires are wearing weird and my parents think I should get a rear end alignment. Does that sound right? Omg sorry this post was so long! I am considering trading in this car as it is only 2 years old and already needs all this expensive maintenance!

JetzM3

wow! one thing for sure is dealerships always rip you off. check around in other local small auto shops. they might offer the same service for less. if you know how to change the pads, do it yourself.
personally i would never spend 600 for changing break pads, that's just too much.

icspots

Replacing just the brake pads is easy. A few hand tools, a C-clamp and the replacement parts and you're ready to go. If you've already had the rotors turned you may want to consider simply replacing them outright. Most modern rotors can't be turned more than once as it takes them below the minimum thickness they need. Pads and rotors should come in at less than $200 easily. Just pads should be less than $100. Do some checks on places like mazdabrakes.com

For the suspension..... so let me get this right. They said the bolts were loose and wanted to charge you $150 to tighten them. You refused so they tightened them just a little bit? W.T.F.? It's never a bad idea to have the alignment checked. If you have a firestone around you you can get a lifetime alignment for about $150 and they'll align it for free every six months.

As far as the rear tire wear it could be from a messed up alignment... it could also be normal. The 3 has a significant amount of negative camber already, so if the tires aren't rotated pretty religiously it can give you uneven wear pretty quickly.

Laceyj91

Thanks for your help! I still haven't had anything done besides the transmission fluid and oil changed :/ I found a small shop that does really good work MUCH cheaper than the dealership, so I am going to take my car there for the brakes. They also told me about the tires wearing thing could be because of bad/old struts and shocks as my car has over 50k miles already. And yes the dealership tightened the bolts enough to where I couldn't hear the noise anymore, but they wanted to charge me $150 to tighten them more I guess. Idk either way the car stopped making that noise. I am going to get two new tires, brakes, shocks/struts, and an alignment all at once soon. Hopefully. lol