Estimate for rear brakes: reasonable?

Since you guys had a lot of helpful suggestions about the air conditioner problem I'm having (which I thought might be due to mechanic error), I thought I'd ask for opinions on something else.

Again, I have a '97 Corolla.

The rear brakes need to be replaced. I had some money problems a few years, and I've been getting out of debt, so I have to admit that I put off doing a bunch of maintenance work. However, it's also true that the kind of brakes I have don't give any warning when the pads are getting low. There's no squeaky noise. All of a sudden I noticed there was a scraping sounds, like metal on metal.

So I took it to the mechanic (same one as before) and they checked out the rear brakes - yes, they definitely need work. Their estimate was close to $500 for the work. This just the rear brakes. I've never paid that much for one set of brakes, usually it's about half that. I'm sure prices go up, but double seems a bit extreme.

I'm just asking whether that sounds like a reasonable estimate. I'm in the SF Bay area, btw, in case locale makes a difference. It's possible they have to replace the drum, so that might be why it's so expensive.

Thanks!

Reply to
bastXXXette
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you already posted this last night at 10:30, and have some replies to your questions. Why the dupe post?

Reply to
mack

HOLY CRAP!!!

I'll do it for $300 and still make money!

Reply to
hachiroku

Sorry about that. We had a long news server outage at my ISP yesterday, and when it came back online last night, I posted that message. But I never saw it, so I thought it was possible that the ability to post still wasn't working quite right. As of now, I still have only seen my post once.

Unfortunately, I missed all the replies, too. :( To those who replied, if you can remember what you said, would you mind reposting?

Thanks...

Reply to
bastXXXette

Exactly what did they say needed to be done? Because if they don't itemize the estimate, then the garage probably isn't honest.

Toyota list prices:

rear shoes: $39.97 x 1 = $39.97 drum: $89.68 x 2 = 179.36 wheel cylinder: $40.08 x 2 = $80.16

So if you bought all of those parts from Toyota and gave a mechanic $150 to install them, you'd still have $50 left over from what your garage quoted. But fat chance you need wheel cylinders (no drips, brake pedal doesn't sink?), and not all scraping sounds mean dead brake drums (my Ford drums scrape but are fine, and I know this because I pull the drums every other oil change).

BTW, some car dealers charge higher than list for parts, so shop around. In my experience and from what friends have reported, the dealers that charge above list tend to be the worst ones.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

You can't tell if they're honest or not. If you ask for a price, and they give one, whether or not it is itemized, they could be honest.

Not proving an itemized estimate, however, is a bad sign.

Reply to
Jeff

That price seems about average, given the high labor rates in the SF Bay area. You can do it yourself for under $200 with aftermarket parts. Get instructions at

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Reply to
Ray O

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