Cost of Service D and Brake costs

[emrliquidlife]

Friend has a 2006 E350. 28k miles on it. Had a service D done. I think this is the brake flush, and tranny fluid change, with a tranny filter replacment. Cost was some $567. $175 in parts and $392 in service. I thought this was a bit high until I got to the costs on the brake service. Front end had new pads put on, rear had new rotors and pads. How new pads and rotors were needed at 28k miles.... Costs were Sensors 23.26 Brake Shoes 102.96 (this is how it is listed on invoice) Brake discs rear 108.56 Misc bolts and etc Total cost of Brakes Labor and Parts 1058.46 So, if parts were $450.96 and Labor on this job was 608! I don't know the shop rate per hour, so, I'm assuming it is approx 100. Maybe 110. But 6 hours to do front and rear brakes! Anyone know what the appropriate number of hours should have been? I'm a shade tree, and on my worst day, driving to pick up parts, and install the brakes, it wouldn't take me 6 hours. I want to be fair, so I'll not mention the name of the dealer just yet, until I get some input. $1641 for brakes and Service D just about blew me away. Is this the standard rate? Anyone have a good independent they can recommend in Pasadena area? Thanks, Ed

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[patrick_y]

Not unusual to have brakes last a very short amount of time on these cars. It does cost around $1000 to have the brakes replaced on the car at the dealer if one needs pads and rotors on all four wheels.

[emrliquidlife]

Originally Posted by patrick_y

Not unusual to have brakes last a very short amount of time on these cars. It does cost around $1000 to have the brakes replaced on the car at the dealer if one needs pads and rotors on all four wheels.

I don't think that you read it very well. Front and rear, pads only the rear needed rotors.

I did some searching and I see that that the standard shop charge seemed to be 6 odd service hours. That is simply ridiculous.

So anyone have an independent they recommend in Pasadena area?

[patrick_y]

My apologies, I misread. Yes, that does seem excessive for front and rear pads and only rear rotors.

An experienced technician working quickly can get everything changed in well under 2 hours.

[SZMB]

The price you got is pretty standard from dealers. The dealer quoted me $625 for new pads and rotors for the rear. The rear rotor in your car is probably single solid disc (as in my 2004 E500) and only lasts one set of pads. The front rotors are ventilated and generally can last upto 2 sets of pads. Next time you need brakes done, take the car to an indy shop and save 50%. It's an easy DIY, it takes less me less than one hour to change the rotor & pads on each corner. One reason that these high performance cars use thin rotors is to reduce weight.

[vettdvr]

Originally Posted by SZMB

The price you got is pretty standard from dealers. The dealer quoted me $625 for new pads and rotors for the rear. The rear rotor in your car is probably single solid disc (as in my 2004 E500) and only lasts one set of pads. The front rotors are ventilated and generally can last upto 2 sets of pads. Next time you need brakes done, take the car to an indy shop and save 50%. It's an easy DIY, it takes less me less than one hour to change the rotor & pads on each corner. One reason that these high performance cars use thin rotors is to reduce weight.

You are correct. I paid about $1100 for front pads/rear pads rotors and 3 sensors @ $6.00 each.

Since then I have done my own work on brakes. I measured the front rotors at 60,000 miles and they had 60% of the allowable wear material remaining. So my estimate was they would run another 40,000 miles with new pads. Now at 90,000 miles and 30,000 miles on the pads they still look new. The sensor on the front wheel triggers at about my estimate 40% of wear on the pads. The second sensor "visit workshop" warning will be around 70 % of allowable wear. So you really don't have to change the front rotors so soon, and they should last around 100000 miles. Now for the rears, I haven't measured them. I predict that many pads and rotors are changed too soon. Now for labor.. $110 - $125 is pretty standard on a MB. I did the total front job in 3 hrs including jacking, documentation, not count ordering parts. consider the job includes getting paperwork, parts, jacking removing tires, doing actual job and reverse all the previous. So if you pay the total time including the service manager, parts guy,, tool rental the actual dealer price really isn't out of line. Too many times at home we forget about overhead a dealer has to contend with. If he does a full job at $1100 F/R and does a good job, that sounds pretty fair.

Now if you just want to consider how long it takes to pull the pads and reinstall without the other prep work sure it will be very fast.

So summary I would consider $1100 for the fr/rr brake job fair, If it is really needed and in some cases I suspect they are changed out too early.

[E350guy]

I live in Pasadena and my mechanic is in Monrovia. Ward's Service (626) 357-8080. They used to be in Pasadena on Fair Oaks and Green. I've been going to Jim Ward for years. I took my 99 SLK 230 there after a $500 oil change at Rusnak. Same service at Ward's was about $70. Before the price of oil went up. Then, I crashed it on the 110 during a raining night. Oops. Now I take my 06 E350 and my wife's 2003 Toyota RAV4. Very honest and highly recommended. I had an issue with my SLK's transmission and since they knew I had a Starmark Extended Warranty they recommended I get it fixed at the dealer since it would be covered under warranty. They definitely want to keep their customers long term. The only drag is they're in Monrovia. They do have a shuttle service. Larry. Funny guy.

[rmeneses]

I had an 02 E320, was quoted about 1300 or 1500 for the brake job, I went ahead and bought the four rotors, sensors, pads and pad grease for about $575 and did my own brakes in about 2.5 hours...

[vettdvr]

Originally Posted by rmeneses

I had an 02 E320, was quoted about 1300 or 1500 for the brake job, I went ahead and bought the four rotors, sensors, pads and pad grease for about $575 and did my own brakes in about 2.5 hours...

That is about what I would expect for a DIY job. This is why I did mine on the last change.

What I believe based on my measurements is too many brake parts are changed way too early. My front pads were changed at the dealer at about 35,000 miles. The + showed up at 60,000 so I changed them and installed OEM parts. But I got out the calipers and started measuring. What I found on my car is the + goes off in the FSS at about 40% of pad wear. This is WAY above the minimum required replacement limit. There is a second sensor which will trigger the visit workshop. This will be about 30 % pad remaining. So what I leared on my car is for the + on the front brakes no rush to change as there are lots of miles left before the 2nd sensor.

For people who don't do their own work and have 100 % dealer service this pad replacement will become a normal thing at early mileage. Reason. If a car has not worn through the 1st sensor and goes in for service and pads aren't replaced. The car could leave the dealer with next service 13,000 miles away and then trigger the +. There would be enough pad to safely drive the full 13,000 miles to return for brake service. So there is some logic to the pad replacement.

I have also found on the front rotors they wear slowly. At 60,000 miles I had only worn about 35% of the rotor wear surface. So the estimate for my car front rotors would be about 120,000 miles before needing replacement. Currently at 91,000 miles the pads I installed are going strong no + and the rotors are true running and still within specs for safe operation.

Summary. If you do the brake replaement yourself you can make them run longer, safe and save $$.

If you don't do this type of work and you allow the dealer to do it you will drive safe and spend lots more $$.

I do believe 28,000 miles is a bit premature but if it was heavy commuter stop and go drivind, perhaps not.

[viku_st]

what should be the 100% widh of the rotors and pads, and I gues you measured it in (mm) metric? whe can i find that info. and for wich kind of parts you opt? OEM or some performance. Thank you