average price of a brake job

[upstatedoc]

$1000 for 4 rotors and pads on our '04 Acura MDX and the pads were guaranteed for life, I think. This was at Midas.

[ELVATO]

Heh, just did my roomate's rear brakes on his Mustang. The fronts were a piece of cake. The rears were a little harder since the parking cable was pushing the bottom of the caliper out. Had to use the C-clamp to get it back in line.

Then there was the deal with the rear piston calipers needing to be "rotated" in, instead of pushed in with a C-clamp.

Either way, I just follow the directions in the service manual and add some Lock-tite to the caliper bolts (funny story about that...), torque everything up, and break them in.

IIRC, he paid 26 per rear rotor, and 22 for the pads (with lifetime replacement from Autozone), plus 4 bucks for Locktite. Everything else was just common tools that I have.

My first brake job was on my Expy. Heh, I remember thinking "WTF was that" as the anti-rattle clips/springs shot off. Took a little bit of guess work figuring out how that went back together.

What car are you driving OP?

[supercowpowers]

Prices from my last professional service on my Mazda6. Normally I'd do this kind of stuff myself, but it needed inspected and this garage has done me favors in the past.

Brake Fluid 4.00
Front pads 77.78
Machine front rotors 30 (no idea what they'd cost new)
rear pads 67.47
rear rotors 73.50 (no idea why the rears crapped out first)

Labor: 127.8, which included pulling the spark plugs to check them, adding wiper fluid and other miscellaneous stuff.

Total: 380.55

A couple years ago I had the same garage replace all the pads, turn one set of rotors and replace another on a Miata and it was around $250. Monro muffler wanted $700 for the same thing. Stay away from the chains...

[PMoth]

I drive too hard to use those lifetime replacement stuff. Doesn't matter if it has 100hp or 500hp, if I can't make repeated hard stops without fade, it's the wrong brakes..... for me.

[jmichalakjr]

Then there was the deal with the rear piston calipers needing to be "rotated" in, instead of pushed in with a C-clamp.

I just ran into this on the wifes former 2007 Honda Accord. I was using those quick clamps to push them in and they weren't budging. I was like WTF is going on here. I was trying for a good 10 to 15 minutes and then hit the ol internet. Seems like a lot of new cars have this style on them. You can get the tool from places like harbor freight or what not for under 10 bucks, otherwise I think the dealer socket tool is like 50 bucks or something. I managed to make my own crap version.

[The Funk]

It cost me just under $500 for parts (pads and rotors for front and back). It cost $142 to install at a local place. Dealer wanted over $900 total. Once local place wanted $700 just for labor. WTF.

[dereknelson]

All depends on what kind of pads and rotors. As others said above..learn to do it yourself.

[Jag42]

Brake pads and rotors are simple. Brake drums i don't do.

[TRun]

Drums are actually very simple

[dr_King]

Stealership price = parts price x 4. The ony good thing about a dealership work is OEM parts as opposed to getting questionable aftermarket stuff.