Price for drum brake job?

mdoug445 · 10-05-2005, 05:17 PM

Well I have to get my rear brakes replaced on my cherokee. I redid the front brakes myself back in june and at the time decided to not do the rear brakes. well now they are squealing bad. and im going to tennessee tomorrow. so im getting the rear brakes replaced in the morning.

I do not want to let someone else do it, but have no choice. my dads going out of town and i have no idea how to do drum brakes. what should i watch out for when i take it in? they gonna try to tack on unecessary fees and charges? should i get the drums turned? what about wheel cylinders(?). i called Big O tires and they said 150 bucks with rotors turned (another reason i dont want to take it, it doesnt even have rotors, it has drums)

i think thats too much, but my mom just argues with me that i have to have it done and my dad just says i couldve done it for 50 myself in the summer. is this too much or about right or what?

**ScotZ** · 10-05-2005, 05:22 PM

Its your call. Brake Jobs are easy MOST of the time. If you can have them done for $150 in your time frame. I say go for it but you could do them yourself much cheaper if time was not a factor

.

Hope it all works out whatever you choose
Scot

mdoug445 · 10-05-2005, 05:30 PM

Believe me, i do not want to have someone else do them. I do not think it would be that hard, I know the front discs were done in 30 mins, and that was my first time doing brakes. I just am not sure about the drums so i think i am gonna have them done. but 150 bucks seems like a lot. i dunno, maybe im just mad cause im spending 100 bucks extra than what it wouldve cost me if i did it myself.

**ScotZ** · 10-05-2005, 06:34 PM

Sometimes you got to bite the bullet and endur the pain

**06slvrrubi** · 10-05-2005, 07:03 PM

I do a little bit of side work in my garage for extra $. I usually charge people $50 plus parts to do rear brakes, $30 plus parts for the front. Wheel cylinders don't need to be replaced if they're not leaking. I usually encourage people to get a new hardware kit (all the springs, clips etc.) whenever they pick up their shoes. It makes everything go a lot smoother and quicker because you don't have to worry about reusing all the old hardware. You can usually get a set of shoes for around $15-$20 and the hardware kits are usually around $12- $15. As for turning the drums, if they're glazed or have a big rust ridge around them, I turn them. I worked at a parts store for my cousin for almost three years and we had a rotor/drum lathe there. The store closed due to lack of business but he kept the lathe, so I just go over to his place and use the lathe, and don't usually charge people for doing that. I'll take the drums off, go over and set them up to cut, go back over home and replace the shoes and hardware, then go get the drums and slap em on. I'm usually done in an hour.

chaznad · 10-05-2005, 09:20 PM

i did mine and im a newbie ,, i made a mistake but learned the hard way, but now i know everything that needs to be known,,, it took me 6 hrs to replace front rotors, rear drums, shoes , wheel cylinder and hardware, thats not with brake tools,, which i recomend you use, i used thin nose pliers and a screwdiver

, wow was it hard getting those springs on/off,, but i used my digital camera as a refernce guide along with the other side,, no write up at all, and believe me im not mechanically inclined

the mistake i did was forget to bleed the brakes because of cylinder removal (not knowing ), so i was driveless for a day, but after i learned here what to do the bleed only took 30 min and now it stops perfect

shoes-13 bux
cylinders- 10 each
hardware- 6 for both sides
rotors- 20 each

mdoug445 · 10-05-2005, 09:29 PM

yea i guess im just gonna have to deal with it. next time im changing them myself though. i guess theres nothing i can do now. at least it should stop quietly tomorrow.

that should be nice.

chaznad · 10-05-2005, 09:43 PM

if you get them done at a shop , ask the mechanic if hell let you back there,, some are nice about it,, its all in how you askthis is exactly what u say

sir would it be a problem if i were to sit back there and watch you work on them, im really excited in learning new things about my jeep and theres no one better to learn from then a "pro" , ill keep quite and not ask any questions but if it bothers you though then its not necessary

how can he refuse

then watch n learn

**06slvrrubi** · 10-06-2005, 05:55 AM

Good idea!

mdoug445 · 10-06-2005, 04:01 PM

well i dropped it off before work to get the rear brakes done. i got a call about an hour later:
them:"what kind of problems are you having with the brakes"
me:"theyre making awful noises and its not stopping very well"
them:"the pads still have like half of their life left. they arent very thick to begin with. they should be good to go. they are WAY out of adjustment though and VERY dirt"
me:"ok well adjust and clean them"

so for 30 bucks it stops like new again. and its relatively quiet. all i needed was a cleaning and an adjustment.

LandRover · 10-06-2005, 04:24 PM

Score!

The first time I did drum brakes I took a poloroid (digital cameras didn't exist) of the mechanism before I started taking springs and stuff off...made it way easier to get it all back together. They're not that hard, just different from disks. the "adjusting" they did probably consisted of turning the star nut a little bit to push the shoes just a little closer to the drum. This can also be accomplished by driving in reverse and hammering the brakes with most drum set-ups.

At least now you have time to get in there and figure them out for yourself.

**ScotZ** · 10-06-2005, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdoug445

well i dropped it off before work to get the rear brakes done. i got a call about an hour later:
them:"what kind of problems are you having with the brakes"
me:"theyre making awful noises and its not stopping very well"
them:"the pads still have like half of their life left. they arent very thick to begin with. they should be good to go. they are WAY out of adjustment though and VERY dirt"
me:"ok well adjust and clean them"

so for 30 bucks it stops like new again. and its relatively quiet. all i needed was a cleaning and an adjustment.

You must be living right. If that had been me. That phone call would have been like this.

"Ummmmmmm Scot We have some bad news. You are going to need a part that is only made in Peru on the third day of the fourth month of leap year according to the Aztec calender. The good news is we were lucky enough to find the only one in the world. The bad news is they want $1,000,000,000,017.13 for it. Its your call Scot What do you want me to do"

Thats why I fix my own stuff