New brakes??????

[CNYTDi]

Car is at dealer having oil and trans service done and "cashing" in my VW card from last fall. They called me to say that the rear pads are down to 1mm and fronts 2mm-3mm, plus loose sway bar bushings. Quoted me north of 350 for rear pad job and highly recommend that I do it (safety concern they say). Fronts and sway bushings can go for awhile more. We all know that doing the brakes yourself is much cheaper, but my question is, should I spend the few hundred bucks for new pads/rotors just to get rid of car in a couple of months? Not sure if it will pass inspection or not (due next month) and here in NY, brakes are part of it. OR ask/seek a garage that will "pass" the car knowing the pads are shot knowing I'm getting rid of it?

Also, is VW offering any kind of ext warranty for engine/emissions/drivetrain on the diesels if one chooses to keep the car?

 

[atc98002]

1 MM is way too little pad remaining for safety. Unless you're parking it until buyback I would at least do the rears.

I've read that part of the settlement is to warrant the entire emissions system to 120k miles. If the car is already past that, there was a specific amount of miles to cover, but I can't remember what it was.

 

[WolfPack]

Go out and look at your pads. I had the dealership say the same thing and after being quoted 560$ I went to id parts and did the job myself. Once I took the wheel off I realized they had exaggerated the wear. If the pads truly are worn out its a simple and cheap job.

 

[Mark SF]

Centric rear brake pads for your car are $15. No need to replace the discs unless they are worn beyond the limit or warped.

 

[jrm]

Centric rear brake pads for your car are $15. No need to replace the discs unless they are worn beyond the limit or warped.

+1 on this. My female coworkers Acura MDX needed rear pads, they quoted her some awful amount. Grabbed new pads for under $20 and had her do the job- on her Acura you just remove one caliper bolt, rotate it up and slide the new pads in as the P brake is a separate drum. Needless to say she was amazed at how easy the job was (5 minutes) for saving $500 plus bucks

 

[jrm]

Outrageous prices at dealers just angers me to the bone, I wish we could just factory order our cars direct from the manufacture and skip these middle men altogether

 

[laminated]

First get ceramic pads,, Akebono ceramics are about $80 rotors are 80 ea for good ones.

 

[r11]

Rear pads replacement will require a $25 tool to push/rotate the brake pistons back into calipers. And possibly VW-specific S-torx (triple-square), another $35 on Amazon. Fronts dont need these.

Other than that, very ez job indeed. Typically, rears will last 2x the lifetime of front pads.

 

[Spike_africa]

You can use needle nose pliers to push and turn the rear calipers back in. Not hard. Also autoparts stores rent that tool too.

 

[tc1uscg]

Outrageous prices at dealers just angers me to the bone, I wish we could just factory order our cars direct from the manufacture and skip these middle men altogether

Not all dealers are out to rip you off. Our Passat is around 50k and took it in for an oil change. Figured would get the breaks looked at/replaced w/ the 1k of good will cash. Dealer said we had 70% on rear and 50 on front. No need to waist the money. I've had good dealings without our dealer vyletel vw. Even the body shop has been great when I've taking the car in for my two run ins with a snow bank and a palate of bricks. They even did a good will fix for the freezing door handle (I'm sure my complaint with the NHTSA had nothing to do with it but hey.. )

 

[CNYTDi]

Well I replaced the pads this past w/e. 90 bucks at Auto Zone and another 40 at Harbor Freight for the disk brake/caliper set. Upon removing orig pads the fronts still had about 3mm and rears 2-3mm. Did I really need to change them afterall----probly not. But now I don't have to worry about them. Was quite surprised as to how easy it was to do (rears bit more of a pain but still easy).