Cost of Brakes

[winstonb]

Just been phoning around for front discs and pads...

sh!t fit wanted ?200+   (why can they never give you a exact price and always want to "have a look"?). breaks down to around ?70 for the pads and ?100 for the discs - i could get Black Diamond discs groved and cross drilled for that!

VAG, ?70 for the pads, ?50 for the discs.  Fair enough i thought.  ?154 for fitting!  wtf    How the hell can VAG justify ?154 for an hours labour?

anyway, local garage, recommended by someone on "the other forum" came in for ?125 fitted.  result.

[golfvr6]

?125 fitted is very very cheap.
I don't know what you lot expect, changing front discs and pads will take more than an hour, depending on model, more like 2.
Try changing it yourself if you don't want to pay, its the only way  

[winstonb]

?125 seemed about right given the cost of the parts else where (lockheed brand, any problems with them?) and ?40 for 1hr labour.  Cant see why it would take longer than that.

i would have done my self, only im lacking tools in London and the missus gets upset when she sees the car jacked up with no wheels  

[golfvr6]

What ya got? mk2 8V?
If so easier than later 16v type brakes, depends if the allen key bolts come out easily, probably not on an old car as they will be rounded off.
I doubt you have been charged 1 hour for labour, as on an old car it would be impossible to do the job in an hour, unless the brakes had been off recently.
What usually happens is they would have probably not used vw bits, so nice and cheap. They would then bump up the price of the parts and then only charge an hours labour.
I see you have been charged 85 quid for parts, if bought cheap then would be about 45 quid.
So all in all which ever way you look at it, you have still been charged for 2 hours  

[Blue MK2]

talking about pads and disks.

I heard the rear disks are a pain to get out on Gti's. this true and why?

[golfvr6]

Rear discs are a pain cos the rear wheel bearings are in the hub of the disc.
The worst bit about the job is getting those dreaded caliper carrier bolts out, the allen key ones.
No offence to anyone, but i think people need to be more realistic about how much they pay to get repairs done.
I have spoken to a few people on other forums as well as this one. The general impression i get is people think its easy, but they don't have a clue because they have never tried themselves...
Cars repairs don't always go to plan. If only it was that simple
 

[Golfgal]

No thats true but it still costs a blooming fortune and to be perfectly frank I haven't come across a garage near me that I would trust as far as I could throw them.... Dont have much choice but to give them the money.

[Dizzie]

I bought a set of rear discs and pads for ?59 from my local parts shop. both mintex. then got Jambo (a mate) to drill them for a ?10er. Just for the look really.  

then went round to quik fit next to my work and borrowed one of their ramps and did them myself. Took me about 4 hours. I've never even taken the brakes apart before so it was mainly guess work. Getting the bearings out of the old brakes is a right pain. almost as much as when I hit my thumb with the hammer doing it!

You're right about the allen bolts (8mm btw) that hold the carriers on. also the one side handbrake cable wouldn't come free so I had to just move it out of the way to get the calliper over the disc.

Braking is a lot better now with new brakes on the back.

[winstonb]

To be fair, ive done brakes on a Type 3 (drums, pain in the arse to setup), a mk2 golf gti, a Scirocco (yes they where a pain) Ford Granada (mate cars, honest)and most recently a Karmann Ghia.  The Ghia took me about 2 hours, which included the time taken to drift out the old bearing shells to use as a tool to knock the new ones in.

The car is a MK3 valver, and id do it it myself if ihad the tools and space.  Why are they particularly difficult? Either way, ?125 for parts and fitting sound ok to me and the garage come recommended from another Golf user.  

I know that you like to use VAG parts VR6, and theres nothing wrong with that.  But for some things, like brakes or shocks, they just repackage another brand and double the price.  Ive not heard anything good or bad about Lockheed before, but it appears they are used on Range Rovers which is good enough for me.

[golfvr6]

The job isn't necessarily difficult, just that it is really a 2 hour job not a 1 hour job.
Its not realistic to expect a garage to only charge 1 hours labour, unless they are already making a good profit on parts.