Brakes!

[Endless Summer]

Just been quoted ~£800 for the following:

4 x new discs, pads.

2 x rear brake lines and flushing.

2 x new rear calipers (Existing ones have seized.)

Does this sound like a reasonable price?

[jeebowhite]

is that all inclusive of labour?

I would say its a bit high, but thats because you could pick up a set of disks and pads for around £100.00, replacing brake lines would be an arsey job, and the calipers, you could perhaps replace yourself, again, around the £100.00 mark?

[stef123]

I would estimate including labour...

£100 front discs n pads

£100 rear discs n pads

£200 rear calipers

£120 rear brake pipes

So a total of £520, but i would allow upto £600 depending ob labpur rate. your price is definitely a bit steap!

[Endless Summer]

It is including labour yeah.

[jeebowhite]

if thats a dealer then its probably average, but if you dont mind getting your hands dirty, you could save yourself a quarter of that cost by replacing some parts yourself, and leaving what you arent confident on to the pro's

[Endless Summer]

OK. I got confused with the quote. It is £600ish for parts and labour for the above.

I like to think I am quite handy with most work, but I like to leave brakes to professionals. It's probably the only thing I wont do, that and I don't have the correct tools over here.

[stef123]

OK. I got confused with the quote. It is £600ish for parts and labour for the above.

I like to think I am quite handy with most work, but I like to leave brakes to professionals. It's probably the only thing I wont do, that and I don't have the correct tools over here.

£600 is more like it

replacing the brake pipes on the mondeo is no fun anyway, as the old ones go over the fuel tank and the new ones will need to go around the subframe

[jeebowhite]

in that case just pay out and have it done :)

[BigD]

Are you replacing the whole brake pipe, or just the rear flexi hoses?

Anyway, I recently overhauled the rear brakes on my Mk3, including discs and pads both sides, o/s caliper and guide pins, and both rear flexies. Provided you take your time and do your homework beforehand, you can do just as good a job as the so-called professionals - probably even better as you won't be complacent in your own ability.

[bladeage]

Rear brake lines £15 do it yourself, just take em off and take to car spares and pick new ones up 2 hours later.

Discs and pads £70 (good ones!) do it yourself

Rear calipers £100 a pair do it yourself

A weekends work on the drive will save you £620 ish, the hardest bit about the job is the rear brake pipes as they are routed under the tank so if anything just get those done at the garage and do the rest yourself if you are not that confident.

[Endless Summer]

Cheers for the tips gents!

Not much chance of me being able to do these on the street in North London. I was more after a decent ballpark figure to see if I was being taken for a ride.

[bladeage]

sounds a bit steep to me, the basic material costs are as I stated for the layman to buy from the car spares so you would be paying upwards of £600 labor for what essentially is an afternoons, maybe pushing it a days work. Ring around the back streets, I am sure you will get a cheaper quote!

[BOF]

Just been quoted ~£800 for the following:

4 x new discs, pads.

2 x rear brake lines and flushing.

2 x new rear calipers (Existing ones have seized.)

Does this sound like a reasonable price?

Yes and no. It depends what you are getting for the money. If you are getting all genuine new Ford parts, possibly (but you probably aren't). If you are getting uprated performance parts, yes again (but again, you probably aren't).

Most garages will probably make up their own brake pipes to fit, rather get in the pre-formed Ford parts, and the pre-formed ones will cost extra (but you'll save a little on labour). Current Mondeos have plastic-coated pipes and they probably are worth the extra, in that they are more resistant to corrosion, but I'm not sure about yours.

I'm not much of a fan of Ford disks as they aren't as resistant to corrosion as some aftermarket items. But, irrespective, you can get aftermarket ones quite reasonably, and then you have the choice of spending extra on cross-drilling and grooves, if that floats your boat.

As far as callipers are concerned, I'd guess that the price of Ford ones is a bit exorbitant and you can probably save a worthwhile chunk of money by getting recond/re-manufactured items from a motor factor. And anyway, you can often fix stuck items with a hammer.... (Actually, you don't hit them with a metal hammer, you hit them via a chunk of wood and only hit the chunk of wood with a hammer, or use a rubber mallet. The objective being to get the two halves to move relative to one another. You then brush the dust away and repeat, and you then use the handbrake to bring the speed down from, say, sixty to twenty to give them a good thermal shock, and see if they work then. If not, more hammering and brushing is called for. I can see if you have just, eg, failed the MoT, this might not be an ideal approach and some nice clean looking remanuf items might be much more attractive.)

Pads: I've just bought some rears for under £40 (EBC Greenstuff pads, which ought to be 'better' than standard...EBC also have some standard-ish pads about half that price) and front pads are about twice the price of rears. It is about an hour of (garage) labour to change the pads, whatever that costs where you are.