I had my car in for the 30k service today and they said I need new front brakes... They told me it would be $280. My jaw dropped... Hell my Lexus only cost me $210. Luckily I found a coupon that said they offered it at $99.95. He first said that it wasn't for the RX-8, I then asked him to show me where it said that it excluded the 8. He honored the coupon but turning the rotors was extra.. Yes to turn 2 rotors they charged $85. I did save a $100 dollars with the coupon but does anyone else think this is Highway robbery??

 

sock it to em with this...

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...6-04-1369b.pdf

 

It is highway robbery that the brakes only lasted 30K. Are you really hard on your brakes or was it all just natural wear and tear? I know they have Just Brakes in Houston. Just like any other auto service shop, they aren't always the most honest or the ultimate in brakes, but at least they offer a pro-rated 50K mile warranty on their brakes. Then for the dealer to tell you that a non-specific coupon didn't include the RX-8 is just shady. I know that when the time comes for me to have to actually replace my brake components, I am going to go with something aftermarket.

 

I don't believe I am hard on brakes. I had my lexus done around 48k. My 300ZX at 55k. I would avoid Just Brakes like the Plague.. I would do them myself but they said they do the brake job the same as they did my 300zx. They turned the rotors on the car.

 

I feel lucky when brakes last 10,000 miles...

Often, it can be cheaper to buy new rotors, than have old rotors turned...and it's not neccessary to turn rotors every time, either.

 

I printed all of the TSB's associated with my car by VIN, and took them into the dealer when I setup my appointment. They are taking care of everything that I had a TSB for and some things that I didnt. The were some interior problems, and the film on my headlights which they are fixing. They are slow, and rarely know what they are talking about, but they are doing it...might help to print them out.

Unfortunately, I dont know how much it will help after you have paid for pad replacement, questions might be if they included the new shim kit....labor could be billed to warranty, and parts as well. You might be able to get it back.

 

this is why I like my honda.. an entire brake job new rotors and pads, $37.

I'd have looked at the rotors myself 99% of the time you don't need to turn them if they aren't grooved severly. and FYI you can take the rotors yourself and get em turned at any other parts shop for less than $20.

 

Brake pads and rotors are easy to change yourself. When you track a car, pads, rotors and fluid are wear items, and you learn to change them yourself.

The first time is a pain, but I can swap tires and pads (before and after a track day) in an hour, now. It's worth the investment in time, to me, to save the money, and be able to do it at my leisure. Heck, it takes me less time to change pads myself than to drop off the car at the dealer.

And, I'll admit it, it's kind of fun, and gives me a good excuse to buy a tool now and then.

 

How much should pads and rotors cost on the 8? I would love to do this myself, but just afraid to. Anything that's related to safety, I get weary of doing by myself.

 

So you trust your life with someone you don't know?

 

Don't know; haven't had to do our RX-8 yet. Call up Mazda and ask how much for the part, or call Rosenthal. You shouldn't have to mess with rotors for a long time, unless you track your car (causes heat cracks) or unless you ran your pads too far.

 

I wonder if these are included in the "free maintenance" that I currently have due to the pre-order? I'm at 27K and still have life left.

 

You are getting ripped at $280 for only the front pads... You should be able to get them from the dealer for $90-120...

 

The pre-order free maintenance schedule still does not apply to wear items... but my dealer did give me new front pads for free... Yeah! for me... :o

 

Where did you go for this, I want to make sure that I stay away from there.

 

One of the on-site vendors charges $144 for a set of front pads. Assuming that this is a fair price, I would expect to pay about $200 to have the dealer change my front pads (parts, plus they'll hit you for an hour's labor, even though it's 15 minutes work with their equipment). That's about what the dealer was charging for pad replacement, plus $85 for turning the two rotors (don't know why that would be necessary at 30k miles). So, assuming the service had to be done, it doesn't look to me like their price is unreasonable.

 

http://www.adrenalineracing.com/cata...1f0e53b9b2b2c3

I used those pads on my Miata....Simply AMAZING pads for street/some track duty.



And cheap!

Dusty, however....

side note- The guy who owns that place is a good guy, too!

 

my sports car costs money to maintain.

A buddy of mine replaced his PCCB's for about 300 a corner not including labour at 8000 miles. He didn't bitch.

 

I looked at Trussville and they sell the fronts for $144.

I think $90 might be the dealer cost for the item, after a regular scheduled service my dealer had called me and stated they "went ahead" and changed out my pads and it would only cost me $90. I told them not bother and I'll take care of it. When I went to pick-up the car my advisor didn’t charge me and gave them to me for free!

Interestingly I just called a local dealer in SF and they said the fronts were $68.88!!!! I asked them 3 times to double check that price and that it was the front pads for the RX-8, and he said yes. He then said they were out of stock. (Regardless, I'm skeptical regarding that price, seems way too low for a Mazda OEM part.)

 

i'm having a hard time believing the rotors needed to be turned unless you were noticing a lot of pedal vibration... do it yourself next time

 

Rosenthal has the complete set of 4 factory pads for $113.58 + shipping. I ordered the Mazdaspeed pads and a bunch of other small odds and ends from them, and shipping was $15.57.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...kes_index.html

If you look at the procedure posted in the DIY section of this forum, they really shouldn't charge more than $30 labor. With a full shop (lift and an impact wrench to pull the lug nuts off) + the practice you get as a supposed Mazda Technician, you can obviously do a brake job on an 8 in a half hour. I can't imagine why they'd charge $85 to strap a couple of rotors into a machine one by one and stand there while the machine resurfaces each of them. Maybe theirs is gasoline powered, and it only gets 8 turns per gallon?

 

so it's powered by the Renisis?
bahahah, jokes.

 

I just did my front brakes at 16k. I got it all done for $150. It included turning the rotors, pads and the labor. If I didn't have a friend that work at the dealership's "Quick Lane" I would have paid around $250.

 

What would they charge the extra $100 for?

 

My bud got me the pads at "price" which is about $50 less than mark-up. And they also knocked off the rotor turning fee of $50.