recommend-me-do: brakes

In message , ~Gifted~ writes

Phone a couple of motor factors and get them to quote for the parts. Disks are usually about £50 a pair. Pads about £30 for an axle set. It may be slightly more for a French car.

As far as fitted prices go, that's not absolutely terrible - find a local reputable motor factor (or someone like GSF or Eurocarparts - google for them) and see what the parts alone are. Often things like brake discs and pads can be more expensive than you might think, especially for French cars, so you'll probably find the equivalent amount they're charging for labour isn't all that hideous.

In message , AstraVanMan writes

I don't know what model of 306 he's got but looking at GSF, its unlikely to cost more that the £80 I mentioned earlier for the pads and discs.

It's one of these jobs where DIY will give vast savings. Under 60 quid for all this lot from Eurocarparts.

I've always thought that with discs and pads, but experience has shown them to always be a fair bit more than you might have thought. Slightly different to a 306, but discs for my 98/S Renault Master (for sale, very good van, reluctant sale) discs were about £60 each from a factors. Would have been about £75 or so each from the main dealer.

I never understood brake prices from fitting places. The pads are usually quite good value, given the amount of crap that has to be done to fit them. However, the discs are always vastly overpriced, given that they are changing the pads anyway and the additional work over a pad change is not far from zero. (i.e. remove screw, remove disc, insert disc, insert screw). The margin on pads must be minimal or negative, whilst discs seem to have a

Christian.

Must be different to anything I've ever changed discs and pads on then. Most of 'em have just involved removing one bolt to pivot the caliper away and replace the pads, whereas the caliper normally has to come off to replace the discs.

That's twice what I paid last time my Mondeo needed disks/pads. They were branded too, there were cheaper ones available !

I'm surprised that the consensus here is that French parts are expensive. I've not found this to be the case with any of my Peugeots or Citroens yet. Motoquip discs and Ferrodo pads from a local factors for the wifes ZX recently were £36.77 inc VAT.

In 50,000 miles of running a 206 SW HDi I've yet to receive a main dealer service bill over £200 (still under warranty) and the 306 1.9TD before that was also very cheap to run over 93,000 miles.

The AX 1.5D was ridiculously cheap. 70mpg and easy and cheap servicing & parts. No major faults in 87,000 miles.

Heh heh - it depends on the car. Some have the disc on the inside of the hub, and if FWD can be a real pain to change.

Christian McArdle ( snipped-for-privacy@nospam.yahooxxxx.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've usually found removing the caliper helps if you're changing the disc. That's not always a small job.

And the worst bit is cleaning the hub mating surface. Not that I suspect many garages do that anyway.

John

I can only judge from the cars I've done, which have definitely not required the caliper to be loosened. It was literally a case of removing the retaining screw and withdrawing the disc. The pads on the other hand have always been a complete pig, attempting to push the pads back into the caliper and knocking out the retaining pins.

Perhaps I've only done it to cars with unusually easy to change discs. One was a 1985 Vauxhall Cavalier. The other (I think, but it was a long time ago) a 1984 Ford Escort.

Christian.

The message from "Christian McArdle" contains these words:

What, to change a disc? I've always had to take the caliper off!

In message , John Greystrong writes

On current/recent generation Fords (Mondeo, Focus, Ka) I've usually had to cut the old disc off as they have been rusted on to the hub.

With the Celica I had, you could swap discs just swinging the caliper up like changing pads. great it was. did all 4 discs with pads in under 2 hours.

In my experience too...

I used a lump hammer, cold chisel and anglegrinder to remove my Mondeo's.

In message , "Tony Bond (UncleFista)" writes

I don't mess about these days. If a couple of clouts with the lump hammer doesn't budge them, its straight to the angle grinder. It only takes a few minutes then :)

The message from "Tony Bond \(UncleFista\)" contains these words:

Somehow I lost the apostrophe in that and it still made some sort of sense.