Reply to: Brake Pads.

[SupremeSpod]

£160! Might have been a visit to the local motor factors. Grab a decent brand like delphi as they're probably the OEM manufacturer anyway.

I used a company called "Brakes International" when I used to potter about with cars.

Brake Parts for Cars

[Sockpuppet]

Round these parts - London - you'd be looking at 1 hours labour: £70 from an indie, £140 from a BMW main dealer.

I did ALL the brake pads and disks on the same car about 5 years ago after an MOT failure. Quote from BMW was £800 all-in. Got the parts from a BMW Specialist on the web and did the work myself on a Saturday morning for £160 - and that included £10 for overnight delivery of the parts.

The old girl has just passed her MOT again now and lives to fight another year.

£160! Might have been a visit to the local motor factors. Grab a decent brand like delphi as they're probably the OEM manufacturer anyway.

[Sausage Surprise]

It's all very simple to do until you get one where the pins are stuck (rusted) in the caliper and the pin snaps off leaving a bit in the caliper.

Took off caliper and had to get it drilled out at a local engineering works!

Datsun 140j Violet c.1983

[Cliphead]

Round these parts - London - you'd be looking at 1 hours labour: £70 from an indie, £140 from a BMW main dealer.

I did ALL the brake pads and disks on the same car about 5 years ago after an MOT failure. Quote from BMW was £800 all-in. Got the parts from a BMW Specialist on the web and did the work myself on a Saturday morning for £160 - and that included £10 for overnight delivery of the parts.

The old girl has just passed her MOT again now and lives to fight another year.

Sounds very good, I was interested in price comparisons.

Current car is relatively new and hasn't needed anything yet but previous car needed front pads and discs.

Kwik-Fit quoted £240 if the job was easy and didn't need extra work to remove old and fit new (wtf?). Indie quoted £115 and did a fine job, parts and labour. I'm not confident about doing relatively straightforward jobs like this myself.

[nomadd]

I did get that

I was wondering what the actual cost differences were.

Round these parts - London - you'd be looking at 1 hours labour: £70 from an indie, £140 from a BMW main dealer.

I did ALL the brake pads and disks on the same car about 5 years ago after an MOT failure. Quote from BMW was £800 all-in. Got the parts from a BMW Specialist on the web and did the work myself on a Saturday morning for £160 - and that included £10 for overnight delivery of the parts.

The old girl has just passed her MOT again now and lives to fight another year.

[VectraMan]

Always wondered about the Kwik Fit lifetime promise on pads - if I'd have used it on my 16 year old 4x4 then would have saved a tidy sum on replacements

Of course they make their money on scaring people into buying things they don't need. I remember them trying to get me to spend £400 on new front discs and pads, when I knew they were fine. I probably did another 20K miles on them before replacing them for the next MOT nearly a year later, and then it only cost me about £70.

[Troll]

I got a quote for supply and one for supply and fit and the difference was only about £30.

Always wondered about the Kwik Fit lifetime promise on pads - if I'd have used it on my 16 year old 4x4 then would have saved a tidy sum on replacements

On the other hand it would have meant all my brake bolts been cross threaded or stripped

[FiveTimes]

I did get that

I was wondering what the actual cost differences were.

I got a quote for supply and one for supply and fit and the difference was only about £30.

[TestMangler]

I did get that

I was wondering what the actual cost differences were.

Depends on whether or not he dies in the next 72 hours from brake failure on the Motorway

[Cliphead]

as the OP is benched it gave him something to do and also saved spending the money at the garage.

Win/win

I did get that

I was wondering what the actual cost differences were.

[TestMangler]

Brake pads are about the easiest thing to replace on a car. Most the time it's only one bolt.

If you ignore the ones holding the wheel on.......

[FiveTimes]

Your cost v garage?

as the OP is benched it gave him something to do and also saved spending the money at the garage.

Win/win

[BigTime]

How ya going to get the calliper pots back in? (assuming disk)

Hopefully with a caliper spreader and do remember to open the bleed nut as I was told forcing fluid back up the pipe screwed the ABS. While you're at and have plenty of time on your hands, replace the brake fluid.

[Cliphead]

Your cost v garage?

[nomadd]

How ya going to get the calliper pots back in? (assuming disk)

Job done!

As regards pushing the pots back, I skipped the advice of the Haynes Manual: Clamp the flexible brakehose and undo the bleed nipple half a turn. Didn't want to get any air in the system. I used the "old way" of taking the top off the brake fluid reservoir, then levering the caliper pistons back in gently one at a time with a small tyre lever. Worked a treat.