£500 per hour to change brake pads

[cFirth]

Thanks Guys.

This forum has saved me £280.

Last week during a service an OPC quoted me over £340 to replace my front brake pads. Just the pads, the disks were ok. I assume at the time the road wheels were already off and they are the only things that need tools. So the job was already half done.

Using the information and pictures posted on here I obtained new pads for £62 (EBC Red Stuff) and fitted them in less than one hour.

Looking at my service history 14K miles ago the same OPC said that I had only 4k miles left on the front pads. On that basis I would have been replacing pads that were not much more than half worn.
Assuming the OPC have all the right tools and know what they are doing, I estimate that they could have changed the pads in less than half an hour. That works out at about £500 per hour.

 

[jimso]

ORIGINAL: cFirth

Looking at my service history 14K miles ago the same OPC said that I had only 4k miles left on the front pads.

Ha! They will do that... every time! In December 2006, whilst at Tonbridge OPC for a service, they told me I needed everything changing. I declined. Two weeks later, my car sailed through an MoT in 'superb order'.

Last December, I took it to East London OPC for a service. I told them that they need not trouble to tell me about the state of the brakes as I know all about them!

They did of course phone half way through the service to advise that everything needed replacing and would I like them to do it? 'No thanks... not today'.

Two weeks later, sailed through the MoT again in 'tip top order!'

They do make me smile...

 

[jcorallo]

Do you still get a stamp in the service history book if you decline work recommended during a service?

Jules

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: jcorallo

Do you still get a stamp in the service history book if you decline work recommended during a service?

Jules

If an OPC services your car then you get the stamp. At the end of the day thats probably the most technically challenging job followed by the car wash [][]

 

[Rodney Naghar]

I had a car inspected recently that an OPC had seen just 1,500 miles before for a service. They informed the owner that the pads needed replacing, even though they now have around 8mm left in them (from around 10.5mm new) and they also charged him for 17 litres of oil at the last service when only 9litres were required.

You've got to love them. I'm never going back to an OPC unless I have to.

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: Rodney Naghar

I had a car inspected recently that an OPC had seen just 1,500 miles before for a service. They informed the owner that the pads needed replacing, even though they now have around 8mm left in them (from around 10.5mm new) and they also charged him for 17 litres of oil at the last service when only 9litres were required.

You've got to love them. I'm never going back to an OPC unless I have to.

Yeh they really have very low standards when push comes to shove. They once managed to overfill yes overfill my 911 by 3 litres!! Did service manager apologise after accusing me of being wrong about the overfill situ ... The mechanic was almost in tears with the cock up that he had made on my car ... Other time another OPC managed to give me 4 different tyre pressures and not one of them to factory recommended [][][]

I would imagine on anything more complex they would be lethal if current standards are anything to go by.

 

[channella]

Only use an independent now; GT One. We are on first name terms, and they talk to me about my car. So much more involving.

I'd suggest the problem with some OPC is that some that work there forget they need to work as hard as the rest of us to afford one. Having one to drive is not the same as being able to buy and run one...

 

[sbloxxy]

To be fair, this attitude is not unique to OPCs: I used to work at a Vauxhall dealer where it was unwritten policy that every car in for service had its wiper blades changed, whether it needed them or not. And every time my Jaguar X-Type went to the local Jaguar dealer for service, they managed to invent something that needed doing - even tried to charge me for filling a washer bottle that I had checked and filled a couple of hours earlier.
Unfortunately, car drivers are seen as easy targets and 9 times out of 10, the garages will get away with it.

 

[Black80XSA]

ORIGINAL: phillipps44

Nissan as well! My X-trail apparently needed new discs and pads all round. They weren't far wrong with the pads to be honest but the guy was very put out when I said I would do it myself.[][][]
I feel sorry for those who don't know any different.

Yes, unfortunately a lot of people either don;t know better, have someone else paying the service bills, or just don't mind being ripped off.

In defence of the garages though, with longer service intervals nowadays they work on what will not make it to the next service, which might be 20k miles away, and they don;t know the treatment the car gets from the current driver. They err on tnhe side of caution, which of course means more revenue to them - robbing bar*****ds

 

[cFirth]

ORIGINAL: jcorallo

Do you still get a stamp in the service history book if you decline work recommended during a service?

Jules

There would be trouble if they didn't stamp the book for the service.

Some of the spurious stuff that has been recommended to me during a service boarders on having a laugh.

Porsche approve a long list of engine oils, but choose to recommend Mobil 1. The OPC then "recommend" that Mobil 1 also needs an additive costing about another £50. Unlike the brake pads this "recommendation" is not documented on the service report. I wonder why.