VietRacingGuy

a shop near my house said it would be around 450 dollar, parts and labor, all new four brake pads and 4 new rotors with labor. the pads and rotors are the same as factory, i think ac-delco.

what you guy think? is it a good deal?

thanks in advance.

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Is there ANY way you can do it yourself? Its actually really easy and requires only the most basic of tools. You could literally buy all the tools, equipment, and high-quality parts you need to do the job, learn how to do it, have confidence its done right, and STILL save probably $100+. JMO.

If you're game, all the torque specs and how to can be found here:

http://www.installuniversity.com/ins...ds_mwarren.htm

Just hate to see people throwing their money away on this kind of stuff...

Element

iTrader: (5)

I ordered Brembo blanks from Strano, and HPS pads from Thunder, and I think the total was around $230-240, shipped. That's front rotors and pads only.

If you look, you could proabbly pick up 4 new rotors and pads for about $350-400 shipped, and do the work yourself. It'd be only marginally less expensive than having the shop do it, but you'd be installing better components.

Took me about 20 minutes to do my front rotors (pads aren't in yet), and 5 minutes was spent fighting to get a ziup-tie attached to the brake caliper, before I finally just grabbed a bucket and let it rest on that.

Andros

iTrader: (5)

You should try it yourself first, I recently put on new front pads and it wasnt that hard.

VIP1

Use a bent metal coat hanger.

ESMsilver00SS

iTrader: (3)

Just over $300 front and rear doing it myself, Carbotech (bobcat) pads + blank rotors. I'll never go back to Hawk pads. Oh yeah, don't waste your money on O.E.M pads.

DarkblueTA

Kinda long..just a warning..LOL

My daily driven Z28 (not my Turbo TA), I went to carquest and put their top of the line blanks with the blue ceramic 'performance' pads. I believe it was aroudn 160 for everything. WIth simple hand tools (1/2 drive w/sockets, 3/8 drive with sockets and straight screw driver), it took me 2 hrs to swap both sides in a hotel parking lot. That's getting tools, jack/stands out of the car taking my time, being interupted a few times and just taking it easy and then cleaning my tools/putting everything away. Some bolts are on there a bit tight so be ready to use some muscle.

The rears were 140ish using top of the line disks and ceramic pads also. Same, about 1.5 hrs and just remember to keep your ebrake off. You may have to bang the rear rotor with a hammer or the end of a wrench to loosen it from the ebrake. Its not big deal, just take your time and its very easy.

Basically take off the wheel, there are two bolts holding the caliper on(If I remember correctly 18mm front, 15mm rear on my 01 Z28). Remove the caliper and support it so it doesn't hang from the line. Remove the pads(they just slide right out). Then there are 2 smaller bolts holding the pad holder on(15mm front 12mm rear if I remember correctly). Take off the rotor. Its just reverse to put the pads/rotors on other then the compressing the piston back in which you can borrow the tool from autozone/etc or go to sears and pick it up for 10.00.

Seriously, I would tell ANYONE who can use a wrench or rachet to do their disk brakes themselves. I am seriously in the wrong business for what they charge people to do brakes. Remember to get the top parts, where as the brake places use stock or the cheaper stuff.

00'WS6Rocket

iTrader: (3)

I agree 100% its really easy even for beginner. you'd be surprised at how easy it is.

01Z0H6

iTrader: (63)

VERY EASY!!
Even a "Caveman" could do it.....

00'WS6Rocket

iTrader: (3)

^^^ haha I love those commercials

VietRacingGuy

yeah, i do wanna change the brakes on my own but i kinda short on time, i work full time and in college full time, too.
i knew the installuniversity.com 3 years ago when i did some free mods to the car. i worked on the car when i have time, but lately, i don't even have time to get a car wash. and another thing is that i like to take time when i work on my car. it took me a good amount of time to put in a new sway bar and an adjustable pan hard rod, and it was on january the 1st of this year.
i remembered back in high school, i got so much free time to riced up my honda accord.
anyway, i'll do some search on here to see which pads and rotors are goods and leave them in the garage for good sunny day (LOL)

thanks everybody for all the info.

Ripper415

iTrader: (6)

good to see you left the dark side of the force haha.
yeah, i was hesitant at first to put new brakes on my car because im about as far from a "mechanic" as you can get (putting on the damn slp lid took me almost an hour), and the fact that it was something as serious as brakes made it worse. i mean, if you mess up with that and the brakes fail on you when you need them you're looking at an accident/serious injury. but then i started thinking about the fact that i could do it myself for less money AND have better parts in the car then what the shop would use. there are plently of good writeups and knowledgeable people online that i feel confidant of doing this later this spring myself. until then i'll be scouting websites for good deals on rotors and pads.

suburbanlife866

iTrader: (9)

Did my brakes in my garage....rotors and pads. Took about 2 hrs, and that was the first time I did any kind of brake work. I used the guide on InstallUniversity.com. VERY helpful. Just follow that and you will be fine.

lsx24

iTrader: (45)

That price seems kinda high. I would look for another quote. Try a few more places. Talk to the service manager directly.

As a cheap alternative, pep boys offers lifetime rotors and pads, (I think they still do), if you are a casual street driver this adds up to a good deal over time. Good for DDs. Not recommended for performance applications though.