mdk77

I will need new brakes soon on my Lexus and called both Arlington Lexus of Palatine and Bredemann Lexus of Glenview to get cost estimates.

Arlington quoted me 225 per axle which includes brake pads and rotor resurfacing.

Bredemann quoted me 440 per axle which includes brakes pads and rotor resurfacing.

I am absolutely shocked at this difference and cannot understand why the delta is so large here.

daily400

holy **** thats F***ing nuts.. i cant believe the price difference..

how come you didnt call mcgrath... LMFAO

mdk77

McGrath isn't near me. Isn't McGrath Lexus in the city?

2GSKaizen

iTrader: (1)

Yeah that's a little suspect. That $440 per axle should be close to the price per axle.........if you were getting new rotors instead of resurfacing. I think the $225 is what I would expect to pay. I've heard of some dealerships doing this just to see if anybody will bite on the higher price without doing any price shopping dealer to dealer.

daily400

should b the other way around 225 is a little cheap to b honest 440 is in the ball park for new rotors. lexus dealers hate useing after market i know first hand i work for one. they always have issues unless u buy high quality.

and yes they have one in the city and one in westmont..

mdk77

I asked the person at Bredemann if the 440 was for cut rotors or new and she said cut. So it looks like Arlington gets my business.

I an ironic twist , Arlington tried to rip me off on an extended warranty and Bredemann actually quoted me lower so they got my business then.

daily400

funny how dealerships work..

mdk77

Ok here's an update for anyone interested:

I took my car to Arlington today. I explained to the service manager what was happening and they took it back to look at the brakes. Note: I have a slight squeal coming from the front left side.

An hour later the SM tells me that I should upgrade the front brakes with a new "brake kit". This brake kit would run me about 500 bucks just for the front axle (remember when they quoted me 225 per axle above?).

I asked why so much, etc. He said in order to get rid of the squeal I should update to a higher quality brake kit. I asked if my current brakes had any padding left and he said - they were at 6MM. Plenty.

I asked about the rotors. Fine he said - plenty of "lip" (whatever the hell that means).

So I asked again, why would I need this brake kit? Again he tells me to fix the squeal.

So I sat there and thought to myself for a few seconds and then stated the following:

So you're telling me that my brakes are fine. My rotors are fine. And that what is being proposed is I upgrade to a new brake kit to fix a squeal that starting just 8 days ago. I asked if I had all of this correctly stated and he said yes. Finally he realized I was not able to find sense in his logic of me upgrading to a new brake kit.

I then asked - what if I installed just the stock OEM pads? How much would that cost? He told me 225 per axle. So I asked, ok so when my brakes are ready for replacement (6MM should give me a few months) then I can come in and get OEM's? Yep he said. But he continues to say that the OEMs could give me the same squeak I have now although they would be new brake pads.

So in summary, the dealership tried to upsell me on a brake kit that I really didn't need - using the excuse of my squeaking brakes when in actuality my brakes and rotors were fine. Also, they told me that new OEM brakes pads will likely cause my brakes to squeak again even though they are new - which doesn't make sense because my current brakes are the originals with 28K miles and have never squeaked until now.

Folks help me understand this. I am not a car guy but seriously....

daily400

what kind of car do you have. the IS has soft factory rotors and go threw brakes fast and what he means by lip is that the brake pad wears on the inside and out side of it there will b a lip that does form from where the brake pad does NOT meat the rotor its very normal and most cars do this if not all.. and i work for lexus and i have never heard of a brake kit upgrade unless you are going after market. on the other note. you have to take into consideration lexus vehicles like to squeek due to many issues ur pad is warn not low but warn. your slides can prob use a good cleaning and greasing and also clean up the pads. also a safe bet to help that noise go away is to round out the pad. around the edges take sand paper or a file whatever you have and take round out the edges all around just a little bit. one last thing make sure to clean up and grease where the pads acually sit in the bracket..

like i said depending on what car you have u may not b able to grease the slides or where the pads sit.

mdk77

Thanks for the info. I will probably just live with the squeak for now until I get new brakes in the summer. I wouldn't trust myself with a file anywhere near my car - haha.

mdk77

Also since you work for Lexus, here is the brake kit upgrade part number they gave me.

Part: 04007-35153

daily400

oo ok we dont offer the old parts we automaticly fut the new ones on thats y i never seen it.. makes sense now..

99GSThree

iTrader: (4)

6MM will get you more than a few months. You should consider replacement when the pad is at approx. 2MM. The squeek could be from anything. Cold/damp weather, brake dust, or like Daily said, "service" the brakes. Take pads off, clean and lube caliper slides, get rid of excess dust, clean pad bracket metal tabs, lightly sand pad, and apply pad stop squeek etc........the rotors may even be "glazed" or hot-spotted causing some squeek.

good luck!

MnM24

Try and contact Woodfield Lexus, ASK FOR ED VALE and say that you're a Club Lexus member, you'll get a discount.

timtim14

It will definitely be worth your while to learn to do a brake job on your own. As stated above there are some precautions to help eliminate the squeel. But make sure if you grease the back of the pads that your using a copper grease you can pick this up pretty much anywhere.And honestly i go to autozone for all my brakes. they have a lifetime warranty on pads and i believe its a 2 year warranty on rotors. keep your car long enough and your brake jobs become close to free.