Would You Use As Dealer For Brakes?

[BenRM]

Hi there,

Had a recent service and was warned brakes (pads and discs) don't have much life left in them. I was wondering... is it stupid to pay dealership prices to have these done, or would any decent MOT-style garage be able to do an identical job for a saving? One reason I ask is that it's a 2006 XT4 (with all the anti-skid/skid-correcting computer wizardry). I could imagine a scenario in which sensors for the above are somehow linked to the breaking system. Does a Toyota tech need to be involved... or are they just brakes?

On a similar topic... if anyone wants to message me off-forum with any recommendations for dealers in the SW area I'd be very interested. I've been taking the car to the garage where I bought it used-approved... and I'm getting fed up with the poor service (I've been chasing them about a warranty job for 2 years now, whenever I call them they tell me they're chasing Toyota and will call me back, which they've never managed to do in 2 years. This time... got the car back with scratch and a small dent from the service... again, everything needs to be "looked into" after which I'll get this mythical call-back).

I've had enough now, but don't want to jump from frying pan to fire.

Any advice re. brakes, and recommendations re. dealership service very much appreciated. This forum's offered me very good advice in the past. Wish I could offer some back in return (but I don't know enough!).

Cheers,

B

[anchorman]

They are just brakes!

Any good independant will help you. You can use a dealer if you prefer the thought of genuine parts but you will pay more and unlike some other repairs, there is no real benefit as long as you don't let them fit real cheap parts. Why not get some Apec pads and discs then have a local garage fit them. If you are competent you can follow the instructions in the pinned section and do it yourself.

[Parts-King]

Your dealer will be able to offer a "Fixed price" for brakes, take a look at the Toyota website and enter your registration number to find that fixed price. Genuine parts are used

Kingo

[Joylove]

Think back carefully to the wording, brakes are a real wheeze for a dealer who wants some fixed price business.

"Your brakes are worn sir..."

"Well what the hell else would they be? Show me the measurements and the limit and I'll make my decision then"

[Parts-King]

Yes i agree it's the level of wear that is important, however, the low mileage customer may well get to next years service without the need to replace brakes, the high mileage customer might have to make another visit in say 6 months. Everybodies driving style is different, whats good for one is not good for another, any decision to change worn brakes should be based on your own driving type / style. We measure what is left on the pad and report that, it is difficult to put a time line on when it should be replaced

Kingo

[BenRM]

Thanks, fellas.

Bob - I've no doubt they need doing. Been warned about them for a while, to be fair, but each time I brought the car in they said not to bother yet, since they weren't deteriorating as fast as they expected. This time, they said 90%... and discs pitted too, so I'd better get them sorted.

Anchorman - cheers, as always. Felt quite "competent" until I had a look at that PDF! If it was my car I might have a go, but it's mainly driven by wife, with kids, so I'm not going to experiment.

Parts-King - I'll compare prices. The thing is, though... it's a 40 minute motorway drive to the dealer, rather than five minutes into town, and - like I said - I'm not exactly impressed with them at the moment. (Hoping to find a better one, now, to take over regular servicing of Rav and Land Cruiser.)

Thanks, again, to everyone.

[mnl]

Take a look at Kwik-fit, they offer lifetime free replacement on the padsonce you have had a set fitted BUT they will try and sting you for new discs every time, that you do have to pay for.

Modern politically correct eco-friendly pad materials wear the discs out very quicky indeed.

[Parts-King]

Thanks, fellas.

Bob - I've no doubt they need doing. Been warned about them for a while, to be fair, but each time I brought the car in they said not to bother yet, since they weren't deteriorating as fast as they expected. This time, they said 90%... and discs pitted too, so I'd better get them sorted.

Anchorman - cheers, as always. Felt quite "competent" until I had a look at that PDF! If it was my car I might have a go, but it's mainly driven by wife, with kids, so I'm not going to experiment.

Parts-King - I'll compare prices. The thing is, though... it's a 40 minute motorway drive to the dealer, rather than five minutes into town, and - like I said - I'm not exactly impressed with them at the moment. (Hoping to find a better one, now, to take over regular servicing of Rav and Land Cruiser.)

Thanks, again, to everyone.

If you want, PM your vehicle details to me and I will price a set mail order for you, that way you can just get someone to put them on......if it helps

Kingo

[NMaria]

Take a look at Kwik-fit, they offer lifetime free replacement on the padsonce you have had a set fitted BUT they will try and sting you for new discs every time, that you do have to pay for.

Not to mention the fact that Kwik-Fit will telephone you every day for the rest of your life to try to sell you insurance.

We replaced the front discs on my car (2006 model) recently. Hunted around for aftermarket ones, trying to save some money, but found that the genuine Toyota parts were not significantly more expensive than aftermarket ones so plumped for those. Interestingly, the replacements seem to wear and perform better than the originals.

[Big Kev]

Thanks, fellas.

Bob - I've no doubt they need doing. Been warned about them for a while, to be fair, but each time I brought the car in they said not to bother yet, since they weren't deteriorating as fast as they expected. This time, they said 90%... and discs pitted too, so I'd better get them sorted.

Anchorman - cheers, as always. Felt quite "competent" until I had a look at that PDF! If it was my car I might have a go, but it's mainly driven by wife, with kids, so I'm not going to experiment.

Parts-King - I'll compare prices. The thing is, though... it's a 40 minute motorway drive to the dealer, rather than five minutes into town, and - like I said - I'm not exactly impressed with them at the moment. (Hoping to find a better one, now, to take over regular servicing of Rav and Land Cruiser.)

Thanks, again, to everyone.

Linton,

Cracking name....if you have any doubts, like me, I would find the rear discs a bit more daunting so would wave bottles of malt under the noses of members on here and solicit their aid. The front ones, however, are a lot more straight forward as not complicated by handbrake linkages and shoe additions.

Point therefore...do fronts yourself with either Auld Kingo's official parts or Apec as suggested (very good pads...no experience of discs) and get a price from both an indie garage and a T for doing the rears.

Big Kev

[Cyker]

Getting the dealers to do them is very low-hassle as it's fixed-price, otherwise get some uprated pads (I've got my eye on some EBC GreenStuff pads as supposedly they produce less dust!) and get an indep garage or travelling mechanic to do them :)

[IanXT4]

On the subject of dust, my 2004 Toyota is still running on its original pads. I have been incredibly impressed with the lack of dust from these pads and was planning to replace them soon with Toyota pads, assuming the dust characteristics are the same.

What are people experiance with current Toyota pads in recent cars, are they still almost dust free ?

[Cyker]

The ones on my Yaris are deffo not dust free!

2 months of not cleaning my car and my alloys look like they're made of carbon fibre

[cabcurtains]

Over on the Verso side a member has just had front discs and pads fitted for £350, thats outrageous when quality discs and pads are £100.

Work out the rest!

[Big Kev]

Over on the Verso side a member has just had front discs and pads fitted for £350, thats outrageous when quality discs and pads are £100.

Work out the rest!

Agree further I could not, Dale.....just looked at price today for fronts and backs (discs and pads) when in at Mr.T.....it was proudly posted on his wall....I asked him when Jeremy Beadle would jump oot and shout "only kiddin'...."....steely silence.

(Car quoted was "Rav 4" )

Big Kev

[BenRM]

Cheers again, everyone.

Big Kev. The only thing I'm confident about is that I'm not confident. (Seriously, if it wasn't for the fact I'd be handing the car back over to the wife/kids etc. I'd probably have a go.)

Kingo. Thanks for the offer. I'll check with my MOT garage that they're happy to do it if I supply the parts and - if so - I'll probably come back to you, if that's okay.

Toyota website's quoting £230 for front discs and pads. But - like I said - they're a 45 min drive away and I'm not that impressed with them recently after getting the car back scratched.

Also asked them to look into whether I can get a Toyota contribution to the cost of fixing the steering click (intermediate shaft) problem (since l'd brought it up with them repeatedly while the car was still under warranty and they'd tightened something to make it go away for a few days). They've been "putting in a claim with Toyota" and promising to call me back within a week, now, for over two years. Now it's the same thing with the scratch. I'm beginning to think they've a corporate policy of dealing with problems by telling you they need to look into it and call you back, and then never calling back.

What annoys me is that I'm not one of those pain-in-the-***** customers either. I'm much more likely to just put up with something than spend a load of time hassling if it's small. But this is turning into a proper nuisance.

[blue monster]

Linton, had our T180 MOT'd today @ Kwik Fit and they advised that our front pads could do with replacing even though they passed. Their price = £104 with the lifetime guarantee - Toyota fixed price = £110 - for the sake of £6 more I would prefer to use OEM parts so ours is booked in to Toyota for Thursday

[cabcurtains]

Big Kev - How much all in out of interest £500+?

Anybody know who makes the Toyota OEM brake pads at the moment, i dont like the originals to much dust.

[Big Kev]

Sure it said £230.00 fronts / £220.00 rears ,which confused me as more work to do rears as alludicated to previously....will check as going back soon.

Big Kev

[jedi134]

Big Kev - How much all in out of interest £500+?

r

Anybody know who makes the Toyota OEM brake pads at the moment, i dont like the originals to much dust.

I belive a firm in China make parts for Toyota now :D. I posted a while ago about this.

http://mobile.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_08/b3921062.htm

[jedi134]

Sure it said £230.00 fronts / £220.00 rears ,which confused me as more work to do rears as alludicated to previously....will check as going back soon.

Big Kev

Rear brake parts are usually smaller, and cheaper........

[Guest]

As ever you are correct Mega Kev, save your fuel, it tis on the toyota website.

check this page under the fixed-price promise http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/generic_editorial.jsp?navRoot=toyota_1024_root&nodiv=true&fullwidth=true&noLeftMenu=true&forceText=TRUE&edname=as_ServiceMaintenance&id=AfterSalesService&zone=Zone+Ownership&sr=Mall

Gus

[BenRM]

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

[cabcurtains]

I couldnt do it, £250 labour for discs and pads, no way. The old boy does it for a cup of tea and a curry, whoop whoop for ex REME mechanics

[Big Kev]

Sure it said £230.00 fronts / £220.00 rears ,which confused me as more work to do rears as alludicated to previously....will check as going back soon.

Big Kev

Rear brake parts are usually smaller, and cheaper........

Absolutely Jed....but if one is renewing the discs with the pads (but not necessarily the wee handrake shoes unless needed) the amount of time to strip down rears and take off the wee shoes / remove the discs would incur a bit more labour charge, proportionately the largest oncost of the whole joab....?

Big Kev