Does your brother include free oil in that change too?
Since out of warranty, I take my Mercedes to Pep Boys if my friend cant help. An oil change cost $103 for six quarts of synthetic oil, filter and dumping plus I get points for future purchases. The oil alone is about $10 per quart. Manny, Moe and Jack do my brakes too.

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DISH is how we do it.

I'll do it for $37.50!

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Damn it! I can't match that.

Brakes - arguably the most important safety system on a car, and you guys are looking for the lowest bidder.

I love the Lavender Room :)

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Lots of good advice here.

This is going to be kind of a personal issue because folks are going to come into the issue with different priorities. There is no right answer.

I race cars so I change brake pads all the time, but I can also be pretty darn lazy. So if I had to choose between me changing the pads on the daily driver, and paying an oil change/muffler/tire shop $50 to do it, I'd prob pay the $50. But more than that, and I'd do it myself. I'm lazy, but I'm also cheap.

The dealer. Some folks are tightly wedded to getting their maint done at the dealer. Certainly if the car is under warranty, then getting the work done at a dealer deserves a 2nd look. But swapping brake pads is a pretty no-account job so if there's any work that fits poorly the "take it to dealer and suck up the additional cost", it's replacing brake pads.

The local trusted shop. It's always a good thing to find a local independent shop that knows your type of car and you grow to trust. In my experience a good independent shop has better mechanics then the dealer. Certainly better then the JV team that I always seem to get at the dealer. So maybe the brake pad swap could be the start of the relationship between you and a local shop.

Buying new brake pads. People get over-excited about brake pads because enthusiasts are always looking for ways to waste money. Go to Rock Auto, look up your car, and pick some cheap brake pads that are listed as OEM equivalent. Until the day comes that you put your car on a race track, those will be fine.

If you have a teenage son, do the work together. Fine dad-kid bonding activity.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Brother is a mechanic so being excessively lazy I drop off car to him a lot of times. When I was younger I'd work on my car. But today's car I don't really want to mess with. I'll do small jobs but generally anything under the hood goes to him or mechanic. It's just a matter of how it gets there. I mess with it = toe truck or I don't mess with it and drive it over.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Because brakes are wonderfully easy.

I would agree with American branded cars. Find a good local shop to do all the work outside of warranty. But with German branded (he's got an Audi) I would go to the dealership. My wife has a BMW and the dealer service is spectacular. Not to mention the loner car (if necessary) and the exterior washed and interior cleaned when you pick it up. Oh and the BMW waiting room has delish espresso and sugar cookies.

I would argue that point, and I'm a Mechanical Engineer that started out as a grease monkey. I also grew up on a farm where we fixed everything ourselves, so I have a little bit of knowledge and hands on experience. I stopped doing my own brakes (and oil and tune-ups) sometime in the late 90's.

However, my real point is that shade tree mechanics can be wonderfully stupid (to use your adjective). Especially with todays ABS/Traction Control systems and specially designed rotors.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

If you take it to a dealership or a non-reputable mechanic yes. If you don't no. The reality is a person should know if it is that bad. Otherwise it is just another scam, a way to charge more money for what is a minor repair.

If only they would write down the things you need to do differently and put it in some sort of book form you could buy.

Although if you ever have a '99 Land Cruiser (they changed it after one year) take it to the shop if you need to change the master cylinder. That thing is nigh on impossible to bleed.

Brakes are by far the easiest complicated thing to do on a car. And since people say it is the most important safety feature on a car the shops charge accordingly. The only thing worse is having the oil change guys change your air filter and windshield wipers.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I have always done my own car maintenance.

It helps that I have a Snap On lift in my garage. Brakes are a great entry into DIY stuff on a car. It is usually very cheap to do yourself and satisfying.

One gotcha is that some cars require special tools. An example is that an old VW I had needed a tool to turn the piston as it was pressed back into the caliper. Not sure about an Audi..... BMW is great to work on brakes. Easy and fast to swap pads and rotors if needed.

I get all my information from Click and Clack:
http://www.cartalk.com/content/today-when-replace-brake-rotors


TOM: So these days, 99 cars out of a hundred need to have their rotors replaced when the pads are swapped out.

RAY: We almost always replace the rotors now rather than machine (resurface) them. When you machine a rotor, whether it's on or off the car, you have to do at least two passes to do it right, and that takes a good half-hour of labor. You add the cost of using the machine, and you have to charge 60 bucks a rotor. And you can BUY some brand-new rotors now for 30 bucks! So machining them rarely makes sense

Yes, he includes oil in the price.

Synthetic is extra.

The lowest man on the totem pole usually gets all the brake jobs at a dealership, or any other shop. It's usually an apprentice. You are not given a discount for this decrease in expertise.