Need some new front discs and pads for my car, I had a quote from a dealership a while back but lost it and just got a different quote from National tyres this morning for £296 (-20% flyer). Or £664 including the rear (75% worn).

I'm sure that the dealership was slightly cheaper but having seen the price on Camskill for discs/pads front and rear for £153 how much would an independant garage charge for fitting them? (If any one has any recommendations between Crewe & Knutsford :wink:).

Anything I may be missing in the potential vast difference in price?

Thanks.

have a look on http://www.ebcbrakesdirect.com/ for your car see how much they would be, then add about £50-70 for a garage to fit them.

TBH – changing disks and brake pads is a fairly easy thing to do.
tho getting the disk off can take a bit of diplomacy with a hammer (and a bolt in the little hole)

If you are in the midlands I can give you a hand or lend you tools etc.

Did the rear disks and pads on my Alfa last week, cost me a grand total of £46!!

kwik fit might be worthwhile if you are going to keep the car for a while:

Once fitted we will replace worn out brake pads & shoes for free for as long as you own the vehicle.

Firstly what car is it? For anything over £200 I always makes circa 6 calls for quotes.. but what car is it first??

Once fitted we will replace worn out brake pads & shoes for free for as long as you own the vehicle.

1. They'll recommend that you really should change discs and pads at the sametime.
2. They'll use each visit to check all your tyres, suspension etc (and give you the 'one tyre needs changing asap mate').

I'd be amazed if the quick fit offer isn't a scam. Brake discs wear at a similar sort of rate to pads these days – you don't get several sets of pads to one set of discs on cars very often. So what will happen is that they'll (most likely truthfully) tell you that if they replace the pads on your car, the discs will wear below minimum thickness before the pads wear out. Which they will view as unacceptably unsafe. And recommend you have discs fitted. At several times the going rate.

Discs and pads is an hour to two hours work for a decent mechanic, depending if it's just fronts or front & rear.

Rear brakes on a car wear far more slowly than the fronts – as soon as there's any weight transfer the brake balancing valve stops almost all rear wheel braking effort. I wouldn't even consider changing your rear brakes unless the discs have become pitted / corroded.

Get a good idea of what the discs and pads are actually worth by looking for kits on Ebay. Mintex are decent, Brembo make the best discs by far. I'd only bother with Brembo if your car is heavy on its brakes and warps discs though. Add on £30-40 for an hour's labour (more if you're down south) and that's a fair price for swapping your pads and discs.

As other's have said, it's one of the easier DIY jobs on a car. People do get a bit funny about brakes, but disc brakes are so simple that you'd have to be some kind of special idiot to get it wrong. Rear discs can be more of a faff – that varies a lot car by car though. What car is it?

The day I bought my Subaru the owner had taken the car in for a quick check up and they charged him £200+vat to change just the front pads. Madness.

I bought discs and pads for my pickup from Milner offroad and fitted them myself for less than the cost of just the pads from a dealer.

There are a fair few good sellers of discs and pads on Ebay – I bought brand new discs and pads for my wifes car on Ebay and again fitted them myself and saved £££

You're looking at about 1.10 hours to fit…… I'd be looking at someone/garage fitting them for about the £70.00 mark (plus VAT) plus parts of course, you can probably get some cheap/nasty discs for £30 each similar price for pads, remember the more you spend on the parts the longer they will last & ultimately not cause any problems like squealing on cluncking/knocking!!

I'd be amazed if the quick fit offer isn't a scam.

It's the disc and pad manufacturer that are doing the offer, not kwik fit. I had the pads replaced at kwik fit last month – £60 odd quid for the front and asked how they can make any money from the offer – the answer was that's it's the suppliers offer. They didn't recommend I change the discs not did the attempt to sell me a battery, 5 new tyres and new shocks all round.

Obviously there job is also to sell you more parts but it's pretty easy to say 'no thanks'.

Can't understand how it could cost nearly £700 for discs and pads all round.

This job is so easy to do yourself. It's also so easy for the garage to do. The quotes are a joke.

Buy the tools and a Haynes manual (aka the Haynes Book of Lies), and do it yourself. Lack confidence? – got any experienced friends that can help? Plus the safety net of mobile mechanics (they exist) so the job is guaranteed to be finished on your driveway. But you won't need a mobile mechanic, pads and discs are that easy.

Paying for that sort of work is a mugs game. Inexperienced I reckon the fronts will take you 3 hours. 2 hours for the first side 1 hour for the second. You'd need axle stands and a socket set say £50. Say the disks and pads cost £50. You've still saved £196. Effectively you've 'earned' £196 for three hours work. That's £65 per hour – when did you last earn that rate?

Plus you've got the tools and experience to do the rear even cheaper once they're worn out. And a warm glow of satisfaction.

Spend the money on a luxury mountain biking weekend instead.

Paying for that sort of work is a mugs game.

Not at all, it's about using your free time how you want, I'd rather pay someone to do it than spend hours messing about on my driveway and use the time to do something nicer. Each to there own eh.

Depending on the car the rears can often be more difficult that the fronts. For example you may well need a piston wind back tool (about £20).

Not at all, it's about using your free time how you want"

The point has been missed, you earned the money at work. The average national hourly rate is about £13. That's about 23 hours at a desk to pay for a simple job you could do yourself. Any wonder people spend so many hours working?

But I do agree, each to their own.

Cheers guys, some could thoughts from you. It's a new shape Nissan X-trail, front discs and pads are completed knackered (even I know that) and the rears are about 80% warn.

I just always think that dealerships and national-kwik-hi-fit-q's are just out to make massive profits out of people. Granted they're convenient and some offers work well for some people, but like above if I can get full discs/pads for £150 from what I believe to be reputable source then why am I getting quotes between £500-£660 for the same thing fitted. Crazy I tell you !!!

If I had the time and confidence I'd probably do it myself as it sounds lie I have most of the tools for the job.

Owners Forum:
http://www.x-trail-uk.co.uk/index.php
Its always worth joining the owners forum!

Front Disks £35 each:
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Nissan_X-Trail_2.5_2009/p/Car-Parts/Service-Parts/Regular-Service/Brake-Discs/?104700518&1&8d721cd5827dd63722385e2c59cd89fceef2eb27&BDIS

Rear Disks £38 each:
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Nissan_X-Trail_2.5_2009/p/Car-Parts/Service-Parts/Regular-Service/Brake-Discs/?104701798&1&d18aae91196020a38ef4855e38e0d2f7175de7ac&BDIS

Front Pads £23 a pair:
http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl?a=i&k=s&p=U248DP1955D

Rear Pads £20 a pair:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NISSAN-X-Trail-2.5-EBC-ULTIMAX-REAR-BRAKE-PADS-2007-_W0QQitemZ190406129202QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=59fc78a51290a0aad3d58b45fee53b15

Total: £116

If your not happy shopping in loads of different places then these guys can sort you out for £158..

Rear Pads and Disks: £67
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m41b1076s3973p49998&rs=gb

Front Pads and Disks: £91
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m41b1076s3973p49997&rs=gb

Car brakes are easier than bike brakes, everything's bigger, more robust and far less fiddly! If you never do it you never will… over the last year rather than pay for work to be done on the car I have done it myself. From being scared of doing it myself, like you, I have done:
– Rear shoes and drums (springy goodness!)
– Front pads (far easier than drums!)
– Fuel Filter
– Oil, Air and passenger filter
– Oil
– Spark Plugs
– Idle control switch
– Engine oil pressure switch
– Rear shocks (rusty faffing bolts batman!)
– Rear driver side light cluster
– Clean MAF
– Clean Carbouretta / throttle body
– Handbrake cable

I couldn't have afforded to have all that done at a garage and would have been totally stuck without the car.(My wifes a teacher and needs it to get to work). Ok so its a corsa-b rather than a nissan x-trail but the feeling of being able to do it yourself is superb!

Its like everything, if you know how to do it, its easy…

TBH I have a local mechanic that looks after our cars, and has for years. Last month a basic service (oil and filters plus front brake pads) for my wifes' diesel 4×4 was £125. I have both cars serviced twice a year, and anything he says needs doing, gets done. Some stuff is dearer than other, as it depends whether he does it at home or at work (he pays his boss a 'fee' for using the premises out-of-hours. But I totally trust him, and of course pay cash on collection – unlike many of his other customers…

Waderider – Member
Not at all, it's about using your free time how you want"
The point has been missed, you earned the money at work. The average national hourly rate is about £13. That's about 23 hours at a desk to pay for a simple job you could do yourself. Any wonder people spend so many hours working?

But I do agree, each to their own.

I hear both sides of the argument. I used to spend ££££ having average mechanics build my bike/replace bits etc. Now I understand my bike more and trailside can sort anything (if ever needed)- thing is its not as I know my bike before I ride (if that makes sense).

The more you know your car- the more you can carry out preventive maintenance as well. My biggest fear is being stranded at night on a motorway hardshoulder. **** that.

my cars in the garage for something that would have cost me 50 quid — and maybe half an hours time all going well.

reason its in the garage is because – i CBA spending the afternoon on my back on the drive under the car trying to fit a pattern part exhaust – i dont have ramps or axel stands – i cant use them on my drive anyway – live on a hill … The part in question is exposed to lots of heat and cooling cycles and thus likely jammed solid and require gas axing ….

so rather than fanny around for half a day and then pay someone to do it … just pay someone to do it and enjoy the sunshine – could be doing it just now but im sitting the back garden with a coffee in the sun 😀

as said above – we dont get enough time off to fanny about with stuff like that – unless you enjoy it of course !