£900 to fix a stuck brake caliper - can you beat that?

[alastairw]

Yesterday I took my MR2 to National Tyres Newton-le-Willows with a stuck-on rear brake caliper.

Their estimate to fix? £900, as apparently it needed a caliper, disc, and a complete set of pads on all four wheels.

I searched ebay - set of 4 Mk3 discs and pads, £87.50. Two new rear calipers - £150.

 m http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-MR2-1- ... 43OLa66EfQ m

Going somewhere else on Monday, hopefully for a better repair quote. Can't believe NT tried it on to this level, can anyone beat that estimate in terms of cheeky rip-off prices??

Full story on my blog below.

 m http://bit.ly/1UGKpye m

[Ardent]

 s:scared: :scared: s:scared:    s:crazyeyes: :crazyeyes: s:crazyeyes:    s:flame: :flame: s:flame:

[enzoforever]

Wow, thought Kwik fit were bad, National Tyres have a slighty better reputation I believe. That's a joke.  My garage told me they thought the caliper was stuck, indeed the rear inside pad was down to metal although the outside one was fine, I replaced pads n discs and cleaned up the sliders and put ceratec grease on and viola, fine. Total cost about hundred quid and a few swear words, good luck with a better quote.

[Carolyn]

Places like Kwikfit and National Tyre are not mechanics shops.  They thrive on tyres and exhausts.  For anything more complex best to find a local small family run garage with a good local reputation.
Until it's been unbolted, they cannot possibly know if a new caliper is needed.  Nine times out of ten a basic dis-assembly of slider from caliper body and a clean and lube of the sliders is all that's required.
If you really can't tackle this job yourself, it will pay to do a bit of local research and find a reliable honest mechanic.  They are out there.

[1979scotte]

Never go to kwik fit et al.
Never go to main dealers.
Great knowledge base here to show you how to diy.
Or ask for reccomendations for a mechanic you can trust.

[cabbydave]

I bet they quoted Toyota genuine parts for the fix.  I know where I work won't fit none gem brakes or suspension parts for safety reasons.

[exiles]

Took my old Escort to National Tyres for an oil change a few years back. Very kindly they did a free brake check and said I needed new rear drums and shoes and it would only cost £400, I said too much, they dropped to £300. Paid for the oil change and left.
Strangely it got through two MOTs without even an advisory for brakes, make of that what you will.
Never been back to a NT site , for anything.

[Markb]

I bet they quoted Toyota genuine parts for the fix.  I know where I work won't fit none gem brakes or suspension parts for safety reasons.

Must be the only place in the country lol....... even main dealers would use motor factors parts if they were out of stock or needed something urgent,I always see main dealer mechanics in our local motor factors getting parts.

[Eastsoutheast]

My mums husband had his own garage but they didnt do MOT's. Mum took car with new discs and pads for MOT (national), "you need ew discs and pads, can do all for £575 and re MOT". Step dad fuming, went to garage, massive apology and new MOT FOC.

£900!!! to**ers

[alastairw]

Cheers all - I eventually had to splash out on two new front discs plus pads, and a rear caliper plus pads, as the braking was getting a bit marginal after nearly 80K miles. Total bill was just under £500 for everything at RMC Newton le Willows, who are recommended - decent job all round.

[JoeCool]

I took my impreza WRX Prodrive to National once, because I needed 4 new tyres fitted (they were in the boot). The 20 year old lad looked at the car and said I'd have to leave it with them for 2 hours as they were 'busy'. I looked at the 3 empty ramps and told him 'if you think you're getting a joyride out of my car, I'm going elsewhere'.

Never been back. The glint in his eye told me exactly what he was after.

[Newbie57]

College at work has an S2000. They had some engine work done at a local cal specialist. The garage was very keen to buy it off them and made an offer prior to doing the work. Seems they were into drifting. Offer refused. The work was carried out. Car was infor a week or so. Come the time to collect garage phones with an improved offer to buy. Owner had also been told of some idiot drifting a yellow s2000 on the local roads that looked just like their one. Anyway second offer refused. At which point the garage owned up to having smashed a rear quarter whilst on a "  test drive"

[grog]

it seems the "free brake test" is almost always a scheming way to scare the unwary into spending money on unneeded work.
i expect a lot of 'non car people' would agree to work when told brakes are dangerous and need to spend 500 quit to sort it.

[grog]

i've always done all my own motorbike maintenance as i couldn't find a trustworthy mechanic,
took my Z200 for an MOT a few years ago at the nearby 'big' bike dealership,
first they tried to tell me it it failed for having remote ignition instead of a key? but couldn't show me in the MOT manual why this was a failure?
then it had failed because the front caliper had been changed from a cable actuated (terrible) to a modern hydraulic system. which tested at 4x the minimum pass threshold!
then it failed because the rear tyre was 3.5mm wider than OE spec, which was incidentally a imperial size no longer available...
just goes to show how incompetent/arrogant a large proportion of the industry are!

[brettfield999]

I went to the Powerflow Exhaust specialist in Bromley, they quoted circa £1600 for a backbox and decat pipe (no manifold). You thought a full PPE was expensive...

[Essex2Visuvesi]

How about 3,600 euros to replace a 20cent part

But then we did have to do this:-