Brake pads - was I overcharged?

Morgoth

I brought my '97 Starlet into a local garage (Galway city centre) that came recommended, both locally and over on the Galway City forum. Complaint was that I get a burning smell off the car after ~10 miles of driving, and occasionally notice a small deceleration when changing gears (feels like the brakes have been pressed lightly).

The mechanic investigated and told me the left front callipers/piston (not sure, don't understand cars!) was slightly rusty and the brake pad was sticking to the hub. He said he freed up the piston with some WD-40 and replaced the brake pad as it was worn, also replacing the right front pad so they would be even.

Damage was €79. Was this fair? Newbie that I am, I didn't ask for a breakdown of cost. How much are two brake pads? plus labour? Am desperate to find a local garage that won't overcharge for simple things like this.


Separate question - around the same time as noticing the above problem, the car has started to emit a dull 'tock' sound on each gear change. Kind of like the tock of a grandfather clock. Happens just after the clutch is released on virtually ever gear change and is quite distinct, although it doesn't seem to have any adverse effect.

I mentioned it to the mechanic before dropping in the car, but he didn't remark on it when I collected it and I forgot to ask. I will ring him tomorrow about it, but want to avoid paying anything more. Can't decide if it's a real problem or not, but in 8 years of driving the car I don't recall hearing it before. I'm suspicious about it since it surfaced around the same time as the brake problem, but surely if that is resolved this must be something else. Any ideas?

Thanks.

guil

theres 2 pads on each side, if ya paid 79 for the pads and fitting thats a good price

MagicMarker

Sounds pretty good to me tbh.

mickdw

Seems good. certainly not over charged given that he did a bit of messing with a stuck caliper too. Ive a feeling it will still again though.

Tefral

Set of motorfactor brake pads for the front are around €25, so he charged ya 55 for labour, which isnt bad. He would have been finished in around 50 mins so thats an alright deal.

The caliper will probably stick again if he only used wd40, should have used copper grease

freighter

cronin_j wrote: »

Set of motorfactor brake pads for the front are around €25, so he charged ya 55 for labour, which isnt bad. He would have been finished in around 50 mins so thats an alright deal.

The caliper will probably stick again if he only used wd40, should have used copper grease

+1 on that aswell. That reminds me of a thicko that was telling the boys in the pub his brakes were squealing and they told him to put grease on the discs to stop the squealing. Of course you know what happened:D:D.

Tefral

freighter wrote: »

put grease on the discs to stop the squealing. Of course you know what happened:D:D.

Oh no... Well thats evolution for ya, the strongest/smartest survive ha ha

CiniO

guil wrote: »

theres 2 pads on each side, if ya paid 79 for the pads and fitting thats a good price

I think it's usual price that garages charge for something like this, anyway it's still too much.

Last week my friend called me, if I could take a look at his car, as while breaking there was strange noise.
I came down, and pretty much after taking wheel of I showed him that his brake pad was completely finished, and the noise was metal part touching brake disc.
Disc was not destroyed yet badly, so I advised him to buy set of brake pads, and come to my, so I could install them for him.
Next day, I even called the car parts shop and fount the set of pads was 25 euros. My friend was busy that day, so was I for next 3 day, and finally he went to garage so they could do it for him.
They charged him 75 euros. So price very similar to the one shown in this thread.
Anyway - he said that changing pads took the guy not more than 10 minutes.
So pretty much 25 euros for pads, and 50 euros for 10 minutes of labour.

Please don't tell me thats usuall price, because if you count hourly rate then, it makes 300 euros per hour of labour.

I had similar situation few months back.
I was changing springs in my car. Rear ones were easy, but front ones I just took whole McPherson columns off, and tried to take springs off them. Even I had proper tool, didn't manage to do it.
Next day I took whole columns to garage. Yer man said, it'll be ready after lunch. So after lunch I came back, they didn't even started doing them. Finally he got one of his mechanics to do them in front of me while I was waiting. It took the guy no more than 10 minutes.
Again when I went to pay, he said it was 40 euros.
I was really shocked, because I used to do few different things in this garage, and they were always charing 45 euro per hour of labour.
So I told yer man, that 40 euros for 10 minutes work must be some kind of a joke. He said that if I don't like it, they can always swap the springs back for me. Finally after few minutes of not nice talk he came down to 20 bucks, which I say was more fair price. He had very good profit on in still.

Another example.
I had winter tyres on my car during the winter.
In March I went to change them over for normal summer tyres.
I had 2 (from last season) and I bought another 2 from the internet.
I called and visited few local garages, and the average price was about 50 - 60 euros to swap 4 tyres.
I found it still expensive, because in most of these garages, when you come with flat tyre, they charge 8 - 10 euros to fix it.
And pretty much to fix flat tyre, they have to take a wheel off, take tyre of, patch the hole, put tyre back, balance the wheel, and put wheel back to the car. All this for tenner or less.
But when it comes just to swap the tyres from winter ones to summer ones, which is even less work, price goes up by over 50%.
I even found one garage, where yer man wanted to charge me 80 euros to swap 4 tyres. When I told him it's way too expensive, he said that he's also selling tyres, so he won't fit my own ones cheaply.

Anyway, I'm stubborn so I decides to shop around as long as I find garage which will do it for me in reasonable price, even if the phone calls and petrol used to find it would cost me more.
Finally after maybe 2 hours of searching, I found garage which changed over my 4 tyres with proper ballancing for just 30 quid.

Pretty much what I wanted to say, is that Irish garages overcharge people on little things, and most of them do it. Anyway, if you shop around properly, it's always possible to find someone who will do it for you at reasonable price. Most garages who overcharge, do it because this are small and cheap things anyway, and most people are too lazy to shop around to save 15 quid. That what this garages count on.
When it comes to some serious work (like clutches, timing belts, etc) there is proper competition because everyone would shop around, and prices of that things are not overcharged.

guil

@cinio

are ya sayin the op or ur friend got the pads pads changed in ten mins, whoever it was i wouldnt trust anyone that could do pads in ten mins, it would take that alone to get the tools ready and get the wheels off and car up on stands

Morgoth

CiniO wrote: »

Pretty much what I wanted to say, is that Irish garages overcharge people on little things, and most of them do it. Anyway, if you shop around properly, it's always possible to find someone who will do it for you at reasonable price. Most garages who overcharge, do it because this are small and cheap things anyway, and most people are too lazy to shop around to save 15 quid. That what this garages count on.
When it comes to some serious work (like clutches, timing belts, etc) there is proper competition because everyone would shop around, and prices of that things are not overcharged.

That's probably true. However, consider for my issue above I had no real idea of what was wrong. So I needed to leave the car with the garage during the day so they could take a look. How do you shop around for that? I guess you can't, unless you have an idea in advance of the problem and can ask "how much to replace two sets of brake pads?"

guil

Morgoth wrote: »

That's probably true. However, consider for my issue above I had no real idea of what was wrong. So I needed to leave the car with the garage during the day so they could take a look. How do you shop around for that? I guess you can't, unless you have an idea in advance of the problem and can ask "how much to replace two sets of brake pads?"

well thats all ya can do really, just ring around and ask for prices

CiniO

guil wrote: »

@cinio

are ya sayin the op or ur friend got the pads pads changed in ten mins, whoever it was i wouldnt trust anyone that could do pads in ten mins, it would take that alone to get the tools ready and get the wheels off and car up on stands

It was '96 Honda Accord.
I've seen that brakes, and to change pads you pretty much just need to take 2 screws off. If you have proper garage equipment i believe it could take 10 mins.
I could do it myself in say half an hour with just a nice set of toola from halfords

On the other hand, I know that at many models you might need well over an hour to change pads, expecially if something is stock because of the rust.

500sel

Most garages have a minimum charge as they have to buy the equipment to carry out these repairs, pay vat, rates, wages etc €79 sounds ok to me.

mickdw

CiniO wrote: »

It was '96 Honda Accord.
I've seen that brakes, and to change pads you pretty much just need to take 2 screws off. If you have proper garage equipment i believe it could take 10 mins.
I could do it myself in say half an hour with just a nice set of toola from halfords

On the other hand, I know that at many models you might need well over an hour to change pads, expecially if something is stock because of the rust.

Time is money so if you count the time from when customer turns up & explains to mechanic what the issue is to the time when car is parked outside finished, it would take a magician to bring car in, get it on a lift, get wheels off, have a look at brakes, go out the back and pull out a set of pads. Undo brake, pull out pads, push back piston, new pads in, tighten up, Then do all this on other wheel. Refit wheels, check fluid & pump brakes to get pedal back. Possibly brake bleeding & then test drive. 10 mins, I dont think so.

ottostreet

Morgoth wrote: »

I brought my '97 Starlet into a local garage (Galway city centre) that came recommended, both locally and over on the Galway City forum. Complaint was that I get a burning smell off the car after ~10 miles of driving, and occasionally notice a small deceleration when changing gears (feels like the brakes have been pressed lightly).

I mentioned it to the mechanic before dropping in the car, but he didn't remark on it when I collected it and I forgot to ask. I will ring him tomorrow about it, but want to avoid paying anything more. Can't decide if it's a real problem or not, but in 8 years of driving the car I don't recall hearing it before. I'm suspicious about it since it surfaced around the same time as the brake problem, but surely if that is resolved this must be something else. Any ideas?

Thanks.

8 years of driving...and you've never had to change anything on the car?

kasper

mickdw wrote: »

Time is money so if you count the time from when customer turns up & explains to mechanic what the issue is to the time when car is parked outside finished, it would take a magician to bring car in, get it on a lift, get wheels off, have a look at brakes, go out the back and pull out a set of pads. Undo brake, pull out pads, push back piston, new pads in, tighten up, Then do all this on other wheel. Refit wheels, check fluid & pump brakes to get pedal back. Possibly brake bleeding & then test drive. 10 mins, I dont think so.

totally agree at the end of the day you chose a qualified competant person to work on your brakes and you have the peace of mind it was done right and for that it sounds very reasonably priced