Are Brake Jobs a Scam?

a lot of crooks out there.

Hi...I had a similar experience some years ago when I got some new tyres put on my car. I was told that the rear brake pads were worn out and needed to be replaced. I asked the mechanic if he was sure, and he said that he was. I replied that it seemed strange.....because I had only just fitted new rear brake pads myself about a week prior. If he had even looked, .... he would have seen that they were new.

I agree :)

That NAPA price is probably the list price, the shop is probably paying half that.

Glad you saved yourself that extra money. But your old pads and rotor looked absolutely fine in the video. No gouges on the old rotor and your pads had plenty of beef still on them. That little cut in your pads determines how much you have left. Not only that,there is a little metal tab on one side of the pads that let's you know when they need changing. You'll hear a little squeaking noise when you're driving.

The labor rate is very low on that brake job. I think it's one hour of labor. the mechanic is really getting screwed over there or they are hourly and not flat rate. At my dealership it's 2 hours of labor(178x2) and it also applies to every other dealership, unless it is a very high end brake job. Our brake jobs come out to more than a grand per axle. I'm very grateful that people love their German cars. While everything you said is true in the video, you also need to consider that you are paying for a professional service, job warranty and convenience. The way I do brake jobs is almost surgical attention to detail. Never had a comeback on brakes, never a complaint in my career. That of course does not mean every other mechanic works the same way but their honesty on how they perform the work goes up as you pay more. Also cutting the rotors is almost useless nowadays because the labor time equals the price of new rotors. If you cut the rotors, you increase the risk of them warping as they get thinner. BTW there is a special caliper gauge to measure rotor thickness. the way you measured them is just wrong because you're only measuring the lip.

Based on look of your rotors they were still perfectly fine (unless you measured and confirmed them to be out of specs)... And yea, total ripoff. Why they do that ? Because why not, some people will pay. I had similar experience with Ford dealership, where I got list of services I don't need and double to quadruple prices on everything. Like pouring injector cleaner to tank - 56 bucks... Or tire sealer replacement - 74$. I went out of service, entered their own part store in 30 feet and bought same sealer for 35$. And if they double because of warranty - I would avoid them as much as possible as if you double price for that means they assume failure rate to be 50% ? Insane...

I've been working on cars since I was 14. Yes, brake jobs are a scam. So are oil changes. You can easily see this for yourself if you watch what goes on at the oil change place. What comes out of a car when you drain the oil pan? Oil! Same oil as was put in the car. Oh, COVID vaccines are a scam too. So are vaccines for polio. Never get vaccines. If you start pissing blood a 'doctor' may tell you have prostrate 'cancer'. No. All you need is some horse de-wormer and you're golden. Also, voting is a scam. After all, we all know who the real president is. Case closed.

Best way to determine pad thickness is to use colored brake pad gauges. Green will be good yellow is midway and red us replace. It keeps the guessing out of the equation.

I've always felt like brake jobs fell into the perfect sweet spot for most shops: it's several steps up in complexity/tools from an oil change and it's something that every car will absolutely need throughout its life. That jump up from an oil change is a leap that most garden variety car owners aren't willing to make. Unlike some "failure" such as a head gasket, CV axle, you name it, ALL cars will need brakes and you have a captive audience in that regard. So I'm venturing that shops are trying to make the most money possible on this guaranteed work.

Cool channel concept

jack stand goes on the lip of thick metal that runs with your car. called the pinch weld. That jack stand wouldn't have helped much.

Only replace your brakes if it makes noise or if they giving you problems. Don’t just replace them because the mechanic said so.

I do my own oil change - I don't understand what's so difficult about it.
People now have their cars towed to the shop for a flat tire.
I just don't get it.
Brakes always intimidated me - new adventure.

Years ago I took my Cadillac to the dealership to get an oil change. The service advisor called me and said my brakes needed replacing. I told him your dealership just replaced the brakes 2 weeks ago. I then told him that if your brakes wear out after only 2 weeks I don’t want them.

Lol. Dude you are a rock auto customer, this says it all.

As someone who currently works the industry its certainly never a job I'd pay for myself, but then I'm capable of working on my own car. The main factors in the cost of brake jobs for us is plain and simple the warranty. Every major repair shop has to be able to warranty the repair. Which means that even though you rotors probably could have been turned, on cars made in the last 20 years they tend to come out thin enough that you're back to us complaining about noise or pulsating within 3-5 months. Ergo new rotors, and because we are likely to have to replace these parts under warranty without us being able to get any sort of money back on parts, because brakes are wear items. Most major places charge you around 1.5-2x markup on parts. The shop you're talking too is hiking those parts up almost 4x from their cost. Most brake jobs in the industry today run about 450 per axle

As others have said, I don't think those brakes didn't need to be replaced, although I guess it made for a good video (thank you). I service my brakes regularly to ensure nothing gets seized, as that'll prematurely wear out parts.

Another great video!
My Murano is coming up on her time for brakes...I used to be able to slap new pads on my 280Z in 15 mins a side....well it's been a few decades...we will see.
Thank you again!
P

Tire shop quoted me $ 600 to replace brake pads. Got pads from Napa for $100, and an hour and a half of my time, done.

Absolutely stupid easy job to do. Best of all $500 stays in your pocket.

The mark up on parts you can buy yourself, plus made up fees is how they get you, plus tax of course and that always cheap labor rate.


Cheers.

It is not a scam. Let me tell you why
1. The shop has to pay for insurance, rent, labour and equipment. If you want to DIY to save money, that's fair, but your cost is no where near their cost.
2. The price they get from the wholesale is different from when you get from retail. Retail will sometimes offer better discount. For wholesale, they don't have much choice, they get slight discount on bulk buy, but not always they can get retail discount because the manufacturer wants to get rid of their stuff.
3. Warranty: They have to warrant their workmanship. If someone diy and forget to put in a nut, causing the brake to loose, the result will be catastrophy.
4. They are operating as business. A business is meant to make money. If they don't make money, they can't survive. It's not up to you to tell them making money is a scam. Scam is when they take the money but didn't deliver a service.
i'm not on the dealer's side. I do my own maintenance because I know what i'm doing. But I'm telling you the other side of the story so you can understand better and avoiding any defamation may go against you.

Cheers

Well see that's not really fair though because you need to compare it to places like autozone o'reilly's not rock auto and you gotta understand there's a markup price they are a business they aren't going to trade dollars with you so the money for the parts it's not a scam. I will say they charge you pretty damn steep for the rear brakes but they can service those rotors they're just a pain in the ass on the rear rotors because they take more time to cut than front rotors but that is not a excuse to sell new rotors. Them saying they cant resurface your rotors was the scam.

Well lets see... Building Rent, gas, electric bill, insurance, staff, maintenance of equipment, tool men (plural) tax bill(s). Add THAT all up genius and that is why a brake job is so expensive. Do you do your own dentistry? How about your own construction? Take a class in business arts and LEARN SOMETHING about how a business operates.

lol you can do all 4 brakes and rotors in your driveway with a socket set for 200$ and 2 hrs

While I do all my own brake jobs because it relatively easy, the doubling of the cost of the parts is standard. One hour of labor for two weeks is more than fair. But typically in NY I would pay about $400 to get the rear brakes done. So I think that $700+ is priced

COMPLETELY agree! Had a girlfriend who last month spent $1300 on front and rear brakes for a Camry...and that was the cheaper price than a tire store quoted, because they didn't replace the rotors, just surfaced them!!! I looked into it and it was the same sort of simple repair as you saw on your own vehicle.
But let me tell you about a VERY SIMILAR scam: Replacing TPMS sensors! I had one fail; all of the places I called wanted almost $600 to replace all 4. I noticed an ad at a Costco tire center, and had them all replaced for $250.

Ive never understood making money on parts.... i always felt that was such a huge scam.... you charge labor... thats how you make your money... but to charge 2x or even 3x for parts to me seems totally unfair. and idgaf what they have to say or what excuses they make to justify this....

Did the rotar need replacing because it was rusted? Do they rust more in the Northern states?

Their prices on parts and labor are way too high. One thing though, the brake fluid flush is often overlooked but probably not a bad deal at $99. You can and should do it yourself for the cost of the brake fluid and an additional 30 minutes of your time. Changing the brake fluid every 50K to 60K will extend the life of all of the hydraulic components.

Rock Auto DOES sell the closeout parts.... IN ADDITION to all the other levels of parts, ranging from economy to severe duty. They even email me when they have some closeout parts for sale at a discount price, which I have taken advantage of on a few occasions. So that argument is misleading at best and basically a falsehood to try to get you to buy their overpriced stuff.
With some exceptions, like NAPA, you can get the exact same parts at Rockauto as they are selling you. In fact, you can usually get BETTER quality parts from Rockauto for less than the shop is charging for the low quality parts.
Sorry, not trying to advertise for them. Just been a satisfied customer for a long time and wanted to comment on the lies from the shop.

A good shop will go the extra mile to clean things up and lubriate everything nicely and even apply corrosion inhibitors. Cheap shops will just slap things on without care, like this guy no offense. If you live in the rustbelt, i dont think its a scam to have a shop do a good job and save you the headaches of seized and corroded brake parts. Been through it myself. I dont mind paying a little extra now.

Is it a scam? Well brake jobs do exist so in that regards they are not a scam. If someone charged you to replace blinker fluid then that would be a scam. After you removed your old parts it was obvious from the video that those parts were not worn out and did not need to be replaced, so that part is definitely a scam. In most vehicles today, front brakes do most of the work and wear out long before rear brakes do so that should throw up a red flag. My father owned a garage for over 60 years and his advice would be to go to a tire store to buy tires, go to a garage to fix your brakes. Don't go to a tire store to fix your brakes. I don't recall that his prices were too high, or too low, but we never tried to sell someone something they didn't need.


The parts prices you were quoted were very high. If you check auto parts stores you can find a variety of products and prices so it is not uncommon to find the "best" quality parts for twice the price of the lowest prices. The prices you were quoted might be more in line with what the Toyota dealer would charge you for new Toyota parts. The labor charge actually seems low. Consider that the shop has to pay the employee for his time, the shop has to pay rent and utilities, insurance which is probably pretty high to cover the building, cover the tools and parts, cover the employees, cover the customers. They have to buy tools and maintain them. There are an unbelievable amount of fees that they have to pay the government. They have to order the parts from somewhere and wait for them to arrive which takes time, or they have to go get them. If it is a shop that keeps parts in inventory then they have to pay for that too- more space to pay rent on, they have to cover the cost of some parts that might not be used as frequently as others. The person running the shop has to schedule the jobs, write up the estimates, write up the bills, talk to the customers, collect the payment. All of that takes time. Consider the total time it took you to do the work on this video- you had to order parts online, that took time. You had to open the box, get the tools out, jack up the car and do the work, throw away the old boxes and parts. That takes time. You have to clean up the parts on the car before you reassemble it, then clean up and put away your tools. From the time you put the jack under there until the time the tire is back on the ground is a short period of time but there is a lot more time involved than that. If you had to take an afternoon off of your day job to do this then you would be losing 4 hours of salary.


You didn't do that brake flush yourself and that probably wouldn't be needed for most normal vehicles. In my experience very few cars get their fluid replaced over the life of the car.


You're in the DIY business, and I'm in the DIY business too, so we can do the work ourselves and save the money. People who can't or won't do the work themselves have to pay to have it done and there is markup and profit involved. It is not different from the painter that charged me $2000 to put on $200 worth of paint, or the plumber, or any number of other people I have paid to have work done because I couldn't do it. I would expect $300-400 to have pads and rotors replaced on 2 wheels, maybe I'm out of touch. In my case there are a lot of projects I can do in 4 hours and save myself a lot more money than 4 hours of my salary so I do them. I think the key is that some business sectors can charge more money due to supply and demand, and consumers don't shop around as much. Supply and demand is why I get paid a lot less than some other types of business.

My friend how much do grocery stores pay for a dozen eggs and how much do they sell them to customers? can you look that up for me?

Should check the caliper bracket pins, clean and regrease, aometimes they get stuck and seaze.

Yeah, your quote was WAY to high at the tire shop. $400-450 for rotors/pads per axle is reasonable from a shop for a standard car. Plus those pads didn't even need to be replaced.

I would have suggested higher quality brake parts though. I use coated rotors since I am in the rust belt and I dont want the rotor hats looking rusty in a week. Pads, Akebono, or some other high quality pads. Still under $150 from Rock auto for the upgraded parts shipped. Also with Rockauto, see if you can find a 5% discount code from somewhere. That usually covers most of my shipping cost.

Honestly garages scam us on every jobs, especially on brake jobs. But yours are incomplete, I worked in a garage, I'm a mechanic, you have to clean-up everything on replacement, (brush/clean caliper bracket, sliders, inspect rubber seals, inspect caliper, clean-up hub and put spray anti-seize on hub, ceramic silicone grease on sliders after complete cleanup, silicone grease on caliper bracket and on the backing of the pads) It's not as long as it seem, I understand you are not a mechanic but this is how it's done properly. When you have rotary brushes and the tools, it takes about 1 hour to clean install on 4 corners.

It’s a ripoff indeed

Future tip you should pinch the brakeline crack the bleeder screw and let all that old brake fluid out inside of forcing it back through

what did that ratchet ever do to you man. use a breaker bar please

if you get oem parts for that toyota it will last longer , buy your own parts and have your mechanic that u trust do the service if u have no time doing it urself ull save plenty i bought my own brake pads and rotors for all front and back axles and it was $358 for parts $390 for labor its all oem and in total was $748 for all 4 wheels

I took the Mazda to Pep Boys to have some work done on it. And then they said that my brake rotors were cracked, and it was very dangerous and needed to be replaced. I decided to do it myself, but as I am checking them out I don't see any cracks! , I’m I only checked one wheel so far, but it looks great and the brake pad still have about 3/8 of inches of lining. I feel like I am being scammed. Also, I don’t race it 😅

If I had all the equipment to perform my own Toyota Camry maintenance I sure as Heck would!!! I've only found ONE Honest car mechanic man who worked at Advanced Auto but I HAVE BEEN SCAMMED EVERY TIME I'VE DEALT WITH ANY AND ALL VEHICLE RELATED SERVICES!!! This continued abuse has to be stopped by us adding a post vehicle service inspection seeing that our safety and any repairs are done accordingly to customers request. I've learned that an estimate be written Up and give prior to services and request the parts removed or repaired be given to customers !! I've requested photos be taken for all parts removed BUT WHAT A JOKE AFTER LOOKING AT PHOTOS THAT WERE ALTERED AND CHARGED BIG BUCKS FOR REPLACED VEHICLE PARTS THAT WEREN'T EVEN REPLACED...... If your a women and complain about the shoddy scams they always come up with a LIE with blaming the damages on customer or will give you a cock and bull agreement that they will charge additional to your Auto Insurance claim. I could write and refer to Steven Kings Novels that would make the Horror dealing with Vehicle Mechanics Scams a Nightmare Thriller.

I'll give you a brakes game horror story! For the past 3 years I went to the Ford dealership and for the past 3 years my break pads only lasted me 10 months! Now that's a major scam and lawsuit!

They want to do a full warranty repair. It's good work if you can get it for shops.

Shops have generally a 100% markup on parts. I work at a GM dealership and brakes are usually around $700 either front or rear. Some are less, some are more.

I buy my own parts from Rock Auto as it’s so much cheaper than anywhere in town. Thing to remember is Rock Auto sells a lot of white box junk. Stay away from the economy section

I need to start doing my own brake jobs. I just got ripped off hard and I’m mad about it.

Totally agree definitely a scam