Ballpark price guide. Focus Mk3 Brakes.

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
Noticed my handbrake has started sticking slightly, so dropped my car off for a brake check at a local fast fit, an hour later I get a phone call saying I need discs & pads all round, 4 new calipers (one on each axle seized ,they advise I replace them as as a pair) and 4 new tyres which is odd as I check them regularly and all are nowhere near the wear indicators and otherwise undamaged....

After rattling this off to me, and being quoted £1200 including 4 budget tyres, he immediately offers me a £200 discount (without me saying a word) and starts mentioning their pay over 6 month plan.

Now I'm not naming and shaming as I'm yet to get a second opinion but am dubious to say the least.

Just curious, if it does need discs, pads & calipers all round is this the sort of supply & fit price I can expect?

I very much doubt I'm going to get any of it done incidentally, was thinking of changing soon and this has just sped up that thought process....
 
I had a quick look on Euro Car Parts out of curiosity. Added this lot:

2x front brake discs
2x rear brake discs
Front pads
Rear pads
Handbrake shoes
4 new calipers

Then applied the current discount code. That lot came to £740 so with tyres (I assume budgets would be around £50 each so £200 or so?) then you're at £940 or so. I wonder how they'd be able to do all that with labour for £1000, which would also make me question exactly what they really would be doing.

Edit: Scratch that, forgot about the surcharges. Can knock £150 or so off of that price after sending the old calipers back in so to be fair, £1000 for all that lot doesn't sound too bad. If that's really what they'd be doing. Of course the chances are you don't need 4 new calipers or 4 new tyres anyway.
 
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Personally I always replace anything to do with brakes and suspension as a pair across the axle. It does seem like a lot of money and I wouldn't trust them at all. If you were someone who knew nothing about cars or a elderly person they would have probably told them to sort it which is what these parasites are hoping when they rattle off these huge bills. A quick look on eurocarparts came to similar prices as Phemo but I have always found them expensive anyway. It's £100 just for their stupid surcharges on all four calipers. I have always got my parts from Ebay and over the years have saved a small fortune compared to the likes of ECP. For example a pair of front calipers for your Focus is less than £100, similar for the rears, pair of front discs from £50, same for the rears, full set of front pads from £25, same again for the rears. That's already a massive saving if you even need all of these items fixing in the first place.
 
I can't see any point in automatically replacing callipers in pairs. It's easy enough to check that the pistons are moving freely and not leaking.

Disc, pads etc. is a different matter.

Not convinced that eBay is the best place for buying brake components. There's reportedly a lot of fake stuff out there.
 
seems strange to me ? pads and discs maybe but calipers? have they taken the brakes to pieces to check? would want a second opinion tbh. tyres you can check yourself but if needed fair enough sounds like they are saying calipers , just lumping them in with the discs hoping you accept it?

have in the last year done pads and discs and handbrake shoes on honda fr-v, discs and pads all round on zaphira and mondeo and even full set on focus 2004 diesel all part from ebay , most expensive were fr-v at around 120 pounds. look at the sellers and feedback you can soon spot the adds with bad feedbacks , most come from auto factors and never had a problem.
even the local ces parts were only a few pounds more so labour must be high or work slow ????
 
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ive never had discs,pads etc done at a garage (family does mine , but i buy the parts)

id check Eurocarparts for prices of them all, then add about £200 ? labour charge
see if its anywhere near that figure

but i think they are trying to get money out of you , i doubt you will need 4 calipers, 4 discs, 4 set of pads and 4 tyres all in one go

seems dodgy to me
 
Certainly sounds suspect that you need all that replacing in one go, unless you have seriously neglected the car for years (but even then i would imagine there would be some advisories on some MOT's re the brakes).

The 4 new calipers things is especially odd. Are all 4 broken :confused:?
 
I agree it sounds dodgy ime National Tyres try and bundle in extra work all the time. They're a tyre place, not a mechanic shop. If you decline and they insist the car is unsafe suggest your own mobile mechanic inspects the car.
 
I've owned the car roughly 2 years, in that time its done roughly 12k and on its previous MOT it had no advisories, its a 61 plate with Full Ford history and 124K on the clock, in my ownership its had a clutch & flywheel and has been serviced on time.

If I put all the parts into ECP, less the tyres and the not needed calipers of which the O/S/F and N/S/R are the sticking ones apparently, then the price less the surcharge and the obligatory discount code is down to £350 plus fitting which seems much more like it.

Having now picked the car back up, it turns out the £1k all in is basically discs & pads all round, 4 budget tyres (which having checked mine again I'd say worse case it needs one!) O/S/F and N/S/R calipers, not all four but they advise I replace them all...

Its booked into ATS for a second opinion check, it'll be interesting to see what they say by comparison...

Thanks for the replies guys. :)
 
If they say you need 4 new tyres and they aren't actually worn or damaged, I would be sending a complaint to their head office.

You can obviously pick up if you are being scammed but many other more vunerable people can't and will be ripped off.
 
bremen1874 said:
I can't see any point in automatically replacing callipers in pairs. It's easy enough to check that the pistons are moving freely and not leaking.

Disc, pads etc. is a different matter.

Not convinced that eBay is the best place for buying brake components. There's reportedly a lot of fake stuff out there.
Click to expand...

There are proper car parts sellers on there that sell genuine products and in all the years I have been maintaining my own vehicles I have never had any problems with parts bought on Ebay.
 
pastymuncher said:
There are proper car parts sellers on there that sell genuine products and in all the years I have been maintaining my own vehicles I have never had any problems with parts bought on Ebay.
Click to expand...
@pastymuncher would you be good enough to share a few links? - I've thought of having a look on the bay but been put off by not knowing really where to look and where to avoid as such. :)
 
Dazzy said:
If they say you need 4 new tyres and they aren't actually worn or damaged, I would be sending a complaint to their head office.

You can obviously pick up if you are being scammed but many other more vunerable people can't and will be ripped off.
Click to expand...
My N/S/F in fairness has worn on the inside edge quite badly but other than that they are all a good couple of MM above the wear markers, yes they are worn but not in need of immediate replacement, I'd happily use them for another few thousand miles....

He didn't push it, maybe when I queried the tyres saying I check them at the very least every other day (force of habit, I have to check my trucks tyres by law and the habit has rubbed off on my cars) he realized I wasn't going to be fobbed off, but in fairness, they gave me the keys back and didn't try the "hard sell" whatsoever....

I am annoyed by the calipers though, advising me to change in pairs, brake pads, shocks, discs, springs, yes I would but a caliper either works or it doesn't, if the other two are fine why replace?
 
@Scania not a problem but it will have to be this afternoon as we are just off into town. What year is your car please? Just so I can make sure I am linking the correct parts.
 
The calipers on our Suzuki swift are starting to seize a bit at 8 years old so i wouldn't be massively surprised.

I had to change the rear near side on last year as it was seized solid at 70k miles and i did change both rears but only as they originally sent me the wrong side so i just kept it and changed it anyway, the fronts are still moving but aren't as free as i think they should be so i'll have to change them within the next year i think.
 
@Scania Here you go:-

Front MTEC discs and pads for £93.
Pair of front discs, pair of rear discs and front and rear sets of pads for only £125, £169.
Pair of front calipers £99, £84, £96.
Pair of rear calipers £80, £73, £76.21, £76.
Pair of rear discs £55, £61, £50, £45.
Pair of rear discs and pads £80, £57.

Just take these as examples of prices as I don't know your part numbers or anything. It shows that significant savings can be had over the likes of ECP and CarParts4Less plus they still come with warranties. I have used most of the sellers I have listed and have even made a couple of warranty claims with some of them which were painless and resolved quickly at no expense or hassle to me. One was for a front exhaust section that had a 2 year warranty and the flexi pipe section started leaking after 16 months. Another was for a wiper motor that failed a week short of it's two year warranty running out and another for a sticking brake caliper which again was almost at the end of it's warranty period. All were replaced without me needing to jump through hoops unlike the one time I had to make a claim against ECP.
 
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