[Bigpoppa09]

I took my Camaro to Firestone Saturday to have to front tires replaced. I get call a hour and half later oh just so u know your front brake pads are in dire need of replacement. If u would like us to proceed it basically came to $700. I told her hard pass on that i watched some youtube videos to see whats involved in changing them. Im mechanically inclined so i swung by Walmart and picked up a punch set all i was lacking and ofcourse pads. Removed both sets and they still had plenty of material left on them. They tried to take me for a ride.

[Iconic]

I'd love to see the breakdown of parts and labor. I've changed out brake pads on 1LE and several Grand Sport Corvettes and the hardest part of the work is jacking the car and removing the wheels. It's so simple I could walk a woman through it over the phone.

[CamaroDreams76]

Typically these rotors are done when you have to change the pads. But it's basically zero labor to change the pads. I mean unless you really turn the turn the rotors. But I have my opinion on doing that on cars like these.

Just food for thought, the first time I changed pads and rotors on my 5th gen, it was about 900 dollars for pads and rotors all discounted.

[SomeGeoffGuy]

They tried that on my mom once and she thankfully called me - they told her pads were at 50% and asked her if she wanted to replace them. I asked her how long she had the car - she had it six years - and in that time she wore the pads 50%. So she is probably OK for now.

-Geoff

[olrocker]

Any “name brand” garage - whether it’s third party or the factory dealer - is trained to try to upsell every customer they can to get as much money out of them as possible. These chain shops need the revenue to keep the stores running and the dealer needs it to cover the overhead of running a dealer.

When you take your car to a local garage, the guy who owns it is only paying his techs and taking some profit for himself, and paying rent/lease and utilities on the building. So not only are his labor rates going to be cheaper but there’s really no need to upsell anyone on anything unless they’re shady. Thats why it always pays to find a good, reliable mechanic/service garage in your area. Get to know the owner. Try to become a regular and be nice and talk to him as much as possible when you bring your car in.

Eventually he’ll be giving you oil changes for $15 + his cost on oil/filters. And when you need major work you know it will get done right at a good price and they won’t try to sell you on anything else - only fix what needs to be fixed.

I actually brought one of my old cars to my mechanic thinking I had a bad ball joint or bushing, as my front suspension was clunking. Turns out just one of the bolts for the shocks had worked itself loose. They replaced it with a good bolt, made sure it was nice and tight, and didn’t charge me a dime.

A lot of unsuspecting customers could easily get ripped off by chain/dealer for that.

Find a good private repair shop.

[Deacon Blues]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams76

Typically these rotors are done when you have to change the pads. But it's basically zero labor to change the pads. I mean unless you really turn the turn the rotors. But I have my opinion on doing that on cars like these.

I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts on this, as I always have read that you should get your rotors turned/resurfaced when replacing pads to ensure even wear. Is there advice to the contrary?

[ZED SLED]

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts on this, as I always have read that you should get your rotors turned/resurfaced when replacing pads to ensure even wear. Is there advice to the contrary?

Probably depends on type of car, but these days rotors are typically cheaper and thinner making them throwaways. You might get by with one turning but likely with the rotor even thinner now you stand a good chance of warping. For do it yourselfers there's also the time involved of removing the rotor, taking it to a shop, picking it back up, then reinstalling. Easier to just replace.

[Deacon Blues]

Originally Posted by ZED SLED

Probably depends on type of car, but these days rotors are typically cheaper and thinner making them throwaways. You might get by with one turning but likely with the rotor even thinner now you stand a good chance of warping. For do it yourselfers there's also the time involved of removing the rotor, taking it to a shop, picking it back up, then reinstalling. Easier to just replace.

Gotcha, thanks for the explanation. That makes sense. From watching Lethal Camaro on YouTube, he recommends turning the rotors when replacing the pads, so that was my plan (hopefully not for awhile with my '24).

[CamaroDreams76]

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts on this, as I always have read that you should get your rotors turned/resurfaced when replacing pads to ensure even wear. Is there advice to the contrary?

Yes you are supposed to but my advise is to just replace the rotor. This is supposed to be performance car, why cheap out. The throw away thickness is pretty close if not met when the pad life done. Then performance aspect, your making the rotors thinner so the heat resistance is less if tracking or doing any sort of performance driving.

[Evergreen6]

An Audi dealership did that to us once, said the front brakes are shot. Replacing pads on the two front wheels of a run-of-the-mill diesel A6 was going to cost $1100. No rotors, no brake flush, no calipers, just a box of pads, front only, installed.

NO THANK YOU, do not do any more work, I'll be by to pick up the car. Service Writer said he had to inform me it was a safety issue and would be noting the car's records. "Please do". The car had been in to have an AC condenser repaired at another Audi dealer just 5,000 miles earlier and the pads were checked then, noted at 80%. I said there's just no way on God's green earth that we went from 80% to "safety issue" in 5,000 miles and I absolutely believed we were being taken for a ride.

Got the car back, pulled the wheels off, measured the pads myself and they were better than 70%. That dealer hasn't (and won't) have any of our cars back in its shop ever again. Because if you can't trust them to be truthful about simple maintenance, what makes you think they're trustworthy with big maintenance?

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by ZED SLED

Probably depends on type of car, but these days rotors are typically cheaper and thinner making them throwaways. You might get by with one turning but likely with the rotor even thinner now you stand a good chance of warping. For do it yourselfers there's also the time involved of removing the rotor, taking it to a shop, picking it back up, then reinstalling. Easier to just replace.

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams76

Yes you are supposed to but my advise is to just replace the rotor. This is supposed to be performance car, why cheap out. The throw away thickness is pretty close if not met when the pad life done. Then performance aspect, your making the rotors thinner so the heat resistance is less if tracking or doing any sort of performance driving.

Sorry, but I have to add some color to this advice. Let's look at stock ZL1 front brake rotors as an example: these 390 mm diameter rotors have a new thickness of 36 mm, a minimum allowable thickness after refinish of 35 mm and a discard thickness of 34 mm.

First of all, it is very unlikely that the stock pads on a street driven car would abrade a full 2 mm off the rotor after both either start out new or are replaced together.

Second, these units are pretty hefty even at discard thickness, there is absolutely no way they would warp even down to 34 mm thickness (this sounds more like an urban legend to me); and third, the MSRP for one of these rotors is $800-900, and while one can get them at half price from other online sources, even that is almost a grand just for front rotors.

So yeah, replacing rotors and pads together is a very convenient and elegant option, but also a preeeetty expensive proposition that can very well be unnecessary, so IMO it's a bit flippant as a general suggestion.

[CamaroDreams76]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Sorry, but I have to add some color to this advice. Let's look at stock ZL1 front brake rotors as an example: these 390 mm diameter rotors have a new thickness of 36 mm, a minimum allowable thickness after refinish of 35 mm and a discard thickness of 34 mm.

First of all, it is very unlikely that the stock pads on a street driven car would abrade a full 2 mm off the rotor after both either start out new or are replaced together.

Second, these units are pretty hefty even at discard thickness, there is absolutely no way they would warp even down to 34 mm thickness (this sounds more like an urban legend to me); and third, the MSRP for one of these rotors is $800-900, and while one can get them at half price from other online sources, even that is almost a grand just for front rotors.

So yeah, replacing rotors and pads together is a very convenient and elegant option, but also a preeeetty expensive proposition that can very well be unnecessary, so IMO it's a bit flippant as a general suggestion.

My throw away thickness was met when I replaced my brakes. Only the fronts though. The back were ok. But I wouldn't call it uncommon. I guess it boils down to your car, your money, do as you wish.

[ctrlz]

The "warpage" idea is really disc thickness variation, and that basically starts by having a rotor that isn't seated perfectly flat on the hub. Parts of the rotor then contact the pads even when the brakes are not applied. The parts of the rotor that are repeatedly rubbed acquire different friction properties as more pad material gets deposited there. Vicious circle begins and the pedal pulsation just gets worse over time.

Rotors that have a lot of miles are likely to have rust in the central area, and leave crap deposited on the hub when you pull them. I don't trust any shop to do a proper job of cleaning up the hub before installing new rotors.

If you can get away with using old rotors and your pedal is not pulsating, I would leave them. You can extend the life of these rotors by using ceramic pads instead of semi-metallic, which are stock.

[Rogueleader_92]

Chains/dealers are always about how to wring every last cent out of a customer, they don't care about customer retention as if you had a better place to take the car you'd have gone there and 99% of people don't know the difference between the cabin air filter and the oil filter anymore leaving them ripe for scamming.

Find a good reputable local owned mechanic in your area, if you don't have one ask around a family member/friend/coworker will know one. Mine backs up all his work, if a repair doesn't work I either only pay for parts replaced or nothing for the actual repair, if the part/repair fails 6 months later I pay nothing for it to be fixed again.

They don't do transmissions so they recommended a shop for my wife's car when it died, when we got it back it had a bunch of codes for abs/stablitrack popping up, the transmission shop said were there to begin with, took it back to my mechanic, 1 tire sensor was unplugged near the transmission that could have easily been done during the repair, no charge for the "fix" and he called the transmission shop to let them know they messed up.