how much extra should I add to the total?

[chiver78]

I'm about to be the recipient for a huge favor - a mechanic friend is coming by my place on his way home to swap my car for his. tomorrow, he will be replacing my rotors, and we will swap vehicles again tomorrow night. my dealership had quoted me almost $1100 to do this work a couple months back when I went in for a milestone service. my friend told me he can pick up parts for $110 but didn't give me a labor price.

I'm giving him a check tonight, do you guys think an extra $100 is OK? he said something about it maybe taking an hour to do, up on the lift at the shop. I haven't had a car long enough in the past to need new rotors, so I have no other service of this kind to compare.....but $110 is a lot less than what the dealership had quoted me. I just want to say thanks.

[phil5185]

Are you getting new brake pads and new rotors? All 4 wheels? (I guess that must be the case, otherwise it couldn't be $1100). What kind of car?

[Cookies Galore]

My best friend is my mechanic and he does all my work. He just charges me for parts and I'll usually throw in some extra, more depending on how big a job it is. Brake pads and rotors aren't too labor intensive, so I think $100 is perfectly fine. We use a "beerarchy";oil changes are a six-pack, annual inspection is a case (if no work is needed). This year I needed a couple of things done, so he got a case of beer and $180 (plus the money for parts, obviously). I'm normally in the shop when he works on my car, so we usually shoot the shit and then go out for dinner when everything is done. He's saved me and BF a ton of money over the years and we really appreciate everything.

[chiver78]

all 4 wheels, rotors only. I'd done the pads myself before the milestone service (front - 1/11, rear - sometime last fall). the dealership told me that they wouldn't do the rotors w/o doing the pads again too, because they were worn. I told them to stop blowing smoke up my ass because I'd done the front ones about 3 weeks prior. I have an Acura, so I'm sure there's some markup for it being a "luxury Honda"

as far as regular service, I do my own pads when they need it. I just don't have the tools to do rotors. like I said, I've never had a car long enough before to need 'em changed - this one's at 120k miles (all mine) now. I go to the dealership for milestones, and Valvoline for oil changes. this car hasn't needed anything else but tires.

thanks. I'll add another $100. I just wasn't sure if it was enough, or whatever. he's saving me a ton of cash, and I don't even have to leave my house to drop the car off!

[tskeeter]

chiver, if you can replace brake pads, I think you are skilled enough to replace worn rotors. I did a quick inter-net check to see if Acura rotors are more difficult to change than others. It doesn't look like they are. Basically, you unbolt the brake caliper and hang it out of the way (don't hang calipers from the brake hose line). If you have a CL, the caliper should just slide off the wheel studs. If you have an Integra, there is a screw that holds the rotor to the wheel hub. Take out the screw and slide the rotor off the wheels studs. Clean the braking surfaces of the new rotor with a rag and brake cleaner, to remove the corrosion inhibitor that the manufacturer put on the rotor (the corrosion inhibitor will get on brake pads and can permanently reduce braking effectiveness of that set of pads). Make sure you keep the rotors free of grease or other contaminants when you install them to avoid getting grease, etc. on the pads and spoiling them. Replace rotors, any mounting screws, calipers and wheel. One web site said this would take a DIYer a half hour.. I'd figure that at half an hour a wheel since this sounds like your first try at it. (With highly qualified supervision and an impact wrench, my wife replaced the front brake pads and rotors on her Dodge minivan in about 45 minutes.)

A tip. I have had rotors that are hard to get off the hub when cold. My practice is to warm the rotor a bit by driving to the end of the block and back, braking a couple of times, before I start the brake work. Then I wear leather gloves when I pull off the rotor, just in case the rotor is warmer than expected (any method of protecting your hands from heat should do). Never had difficulty removing a warm rotor from the wheel hub as the hole in the center of a warm rotor is bigger than the hole in the center of a cold rotor.

Check out some web sites for detailed step by step instructions. With some luck, you may find a step by step video or pictures.

[chiver78]

thanks....it's just not something I have the time to deal with figuring out this week/weekend, and they are pretty much chirping unless I ride the brakes. not good.

I've actually got an RSX, and the pads are ridiculously easy to change. the biggest PITA was the first time I did the back ones (after having changed the front) and taking 45 minutes to figure out that the pistons on the back are screw-in. the front is compressible with a C-clamp. you'd think the slight scoring on top of it would have clued me in....

with luck, I won't need to figure out the rotors on this car. the originals made it 120k miles, and the RSX has been discontinued. I do intend to keep this car until it won't go anymore, so I might have to change 'em out one more time.