How much does a front brake system cost for a 2004 Toyota Corolla?

Question

The dealer told me 200 w/out roters and 400 with?
Am I getting ripped off?

Answer 1

Unfortunately it seems to me that a good many shops seem to take advantage of people, particularly women, on brake repairs, selling them new pads, rotors and calipers very frequently when they are not necessary and heaping on excessive hours for labor on the repairs, which for the most part are quite easy to do.

I've changed more than a few sets of brakes in my life, and have changed the brakes on a Corolla or two. I think you might expect to pay about $35 for a set of pads in a shop, as they necessarily double what they pay to get a reasonable profit margin. Call the job an hour's labor and you are up to about $115-120. If the rotors need to be resurfaced (turned on a metal lathe) to bring them smooth again, add perhaps another $20 a wheel. Add to that shop costs (rags, grease, supplies, tax etc.) and $200 does not sound ridiculously high--though you could do the job yourself for less than half that even if you took the rotors off and took them to a machine shop to be turned.

I would find it quite unusual if your rotors are so badly grooved on so new a car that they had to be replaced. Even if they do, I should think the cost for the job should be no higher than $300 as there is less labor involved in installing new rotors than in removing, turning, and reinstalling the old ones, so the only difference there is the price of the part less the cost of turning--as the new ones will not have to be turned.

The fact is, on most of the Toyotas I have worked on, there is rarely a need to turn the rotors at all in the first 60,000 miles or so, and usually one can get by simply replacing the pads. If they say the rotors need replacing ask them to show you. They need not be absolutely smooth as glass to perform properly, just not deeply gouged or scortched.

Additionally,.just to show them you know a little about cars, tell them that when they are putting it back together you want the wheel lugs hand-tightened--no air wrenches. A common trick that shops do is to tighten the wheel lugs with an air wrench that exerts too much side force unevenly distributed from lug to lug on the rotor. As a consequence, the rotor warps in fairly short order and you get a pulsating feeling in the brakes, particularly when braking from high speeds. Then you are back in the shop getting the rotors returned or replaced.

Answer 2

Where are you located?

Do you really need a whole new brake system? Always get a second estimate.

Answer 3

just the pads about 14 bucks