Front & Rear Discs & Pads on MX5. £95 fitted. Fair?

Ahleckz · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:26

I need new brakes on my 2003 1.8 MX-5 Sport. No idea if it's front, rear, pads, or discs so I thought I'd just replace the whole lot. Had the car a year, done around 10k miles and haven't replaced them yet so worth doing I think.

I've bought the parts (£143 - Just went with Pagid from Eurocarparts as they were in stock in my local branch and a bit cheaper than MX5 parts) and been quoted £95 to fit them. Is this a decent price?

teenwolf · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:28

yeh its not a bad price really.
garages have a similar labour cost.
wouldn't hurt to get a few quotes off other local garages.

my local would do it for around £75

rodenal · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:35

Sounds fine tbh, can't see anyone charging you all that much less

Howard · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:35

Seems expensive depending on the labour rate - it should take a half-decent mechanic less than an hour I'd have thought. If you have a decent selection of tools and aren't afraid to tackle the odd job, it's not a particularly difficult job to DIY.

Ahleckz · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:53

Howard said:
Seems expensive depending on the labour rate - it should take a half-decent mechanic less than an hour I'd have thought. If you have a decent selection of tools and aren't afraid to tackle the odd job, it's not a particularly difficult job to DIY.

That's based on two hours labour. I'd quite like to tackle it myself, but would rather have someone helping me and don't know anyone who could. Plus, I don't have the right tools so would need to buy axle stands, and a few other bits and pieces. In addition to that, I'd have to do it on a public road which I'm not too keen on.

Dangerous Dave · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:57

Howard said:
Seems expensive depending on the labour rate - it should take a half-decent mechanic less than an hour I'd have thought. If you have a decent selection of tools and aren't afraid to tackle the odd job, it's not a particularly difficult job to DIY.

Less than one hour to change front and rear disc & pads is a bit optimistic.

p1RATE · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:59

Howard said:
Seems expensive depending on the labour rate - it should take a half-decent mechanic less than an hour I'd have thought. If you have a decent selection of tools and aren't afraid to tackle the odd job, it's not a particularly difficult job to DIY.

^This. Its a reasonable quote but you could probably have it done a little cheaper if you looked.

It might be worth having the brake fluid changed at the same time if it hasn't been done in a while.

Haggisman · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:08

Howard said:
Seems expensive depending on the labour rate - it should take a half-decent mechanic less than an hour I'd have thought. If you have a decent selection of tools and aren't afraid to tackle the odd job, it's not a particularly difficult job to DIY.

Less than an hour assuming nothing goes wrong...

I replaced all 4 discs & pads on my similar age Mazda 6 recently, and it took a good 4-5 hours. Probably mostly because I'd never done it before, but also because the screws holding the discs to the hub were completely seized and had to be drilled out and the bolts holding the caliper bracket to the hub were completely seized and had to be alternately attacked with a freeze-unlock spray and blowtorch in order to move.

I reckon I could have done it in 2 otherwise.

rodenal · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:16

Most places should/ could do it in an hour but I can't see many charging that out tbh

They're dead simple to do yourself but it is better if someone with half a clue helps the first time I guess- you could end up spending a long time messing about with or worrying about something daft like a disc retaining screw that could be destroyed / removed pretty quickly if need be

Housey · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:19

Ahleckz said:
I need new brakes on my 2003 1.8 MX-5 Sport. No idea if it's front, rear, pads, or discs so I thought I'd just replace the whole lot. Had the car a year, done around 10k miles and haven't replaced them yet so worth doing I think.

I've bought the parts (£143 - Just went with Pagid from Eurocarparts as they were in stock in my local branch and a bit cheaper than MX5 parts) and been quoted £95 to fit them. Is this a decent price?

I paid £75 to my local garage for full discs and pads swap, parts supplied by me so seems about right. I was having other stuff done too, not just brakes.

Freakbro · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:46

*cough* I'm going to ask a real Noob question

I need to get all 4 discs and pads on my Mazda 6 replaced, so just looked on EuroCar Parts to check prices (so I don't get totally ripped by the Garage)

The Discs are priced individually, but the pads say *price per axle, so just buying 1 set has 4 pads?

As you can probably tell, I won't be replacing them myself

Is it best to get the parts myself or just get the garage to do it all, I'm guessing Pagid is ok, I don't want cheap and nasty parts on there.

bledd · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:54

Get all 4 done and a fluid flush.

12 year old car, you'll know that it's got decent brakes all round and won't need touching again for ages.

---

Freakbro, yes, per axel means if you buy 1 set of front pads, it will have pads for both sides. They should always be replaced at the same time, so this is normal.

No idea why discs aren't sold the same way!

check..
http://brakesint.co.uk/ too, may be better priced than ECP.

Freakbro · 12 Oct 2015 at 13:16

Thanks Bledd

Howard · 12 Oct 2015 at 13:46

Dangerous Dave said:
Less than one hour to change front and rear disc & pads is a bit optimistic.

Haggisman said:
Less than an hour assuming nothing goes wrong...

I replaced all 4 discs & pads on my similar age Mazda 6 recently, and it took a good 4-5 hours. Probably mostly because I'd never done it before, but also because the screws holding the discs to the hub were completely seized and had to be drilled out and the bolts holding the caliper bracket to the hub were completely seized and had to be alternately attacked with a freeze-unlock spray and blowtorch in order to move.

I reckon I could have done it in 2 otherwise.

What I mean is for someone who does it day in-day out, getting the car up on the lift, get the wheels off, and starting to dismantle brake components will take a matter of minutes where a casual amateur might spend half an hour getting the car up on axle stands or whatever. If said experienced mechanic encounters problems such as stuck retaining screws he's going to have those sorted in a matter of minutes too.

I simply can't see how it can take *that* long but I suppose they're factoring in a bit more time in case they have to deal with stuck calipers and whatnot too, which is fair enough.

helpimcrap · 12 Oct 2015 at 14:44

They have to base it on book time so it's out of their hands as such because it's been worked out by someone else or the mfr so I'd imagine it'd be a fair price.

agnes · 12 Oct 2015 at 14:53

Agree on the fluid flush. A must if getting all 4 corners done in one go.

adam cool dude · 12 Oct 2015 at 18:56

Dangerous Dave said:
Less than one hour to change front and rear disc & pads is a bit optimistic.

On a ramp with power tools easy. I changed discs and pads on a track day and did it in 40 minutes on gravel.

Dangerous Dave · 12 Oct 2015 at 19:31

adam cool dude said:
On a ramp with power tools easy. I changed discs and pads on a track day and did it in 40 minutes on gravel.

Impressive to change disc and pads all round in 40 minutes, 10 minutes a corner including getting the car jacked up, wheel on/off is good going.

I have access to a ramp and power tools and it took me about 90mins to change discs and pads all round they had been on the car for several years, like I assume the OPs, they needed the retainer screws drilled out and the carriers cleaned up/slider pins cleaned etc

If I was to change them the next day I could easily get it under 1 hour but I still say to do a proper job it is going to take more than an hour to do the brakes all round on a car that hasn't had them touched for some time.

Clarkey · 12 Oct 2015 at 19:39

Autodata says 2.90 hours total for front and rear discs and pads. Seems a hugely inflated time to me, half that would easily cover it.

adam cool dude · 12 Oct 2015 at 23:23

Dangerous Dave said:
Impressive to change disc and pads all round in 40 minutes, 10 minutes a corner including getting the car jacked up, wheel on/off is good going.

I have access to a ramp and power tools and it took me about 90mins to change discs and pads all round they had been on the car for several years, like I assume the OPs, they needed the retainer screws drilled out and the carriers cleaned up/slider pins cleaned etc

If I was to change them the next day I could easily get it under 1 hour but I still say to do a proper job it is going to take more than an hour to do the brakes all round on a car that hasn't had them touched for some time.

I guess it all depends on the car. Mine has 4 piston front and twin piston rears so the pads are held in by 2 pins for each caliper so swapping out pads is a doddle, calipers two bolts each and a m8 bolt to pop off the disc.

Normal single piston calipers are a lot more fiddly!