Brake and calliper help for a newbie in NW London

[mephistophelean]

Apologies if this has been posted before. I tried searching and failed which is probably to do with my search skills.

I just had my wife’s Lexus IS250 back from Lexus Twickenham after they fixed the recall issue for free.

They identified that:

- front brake discs need replacing (lipped). Cost: £225.93

- front brake pads need replacing. Cost: £213.90

- rear brake pads need replacing. Cost: £189.90

- both rear callipers have seized. Cost: £708.95

Total cost is just under £1340 which seems quite steep.

I went onto eurocarparts and to find replacement parts (brembo brake pads and discs and Pagid callipers) costs:

brembo Front pads £50.99. I assume I need 2?

 

brembo Rear pads £57.99. I assume I need 2?

 

brembo Front brakes (lipped) £56.99 (vented)

 

Rear callipers

 

Pagid, For solid brakes:

Rear left: £128.99

Rear right: 128.99

 

Pagid, For vented brakes:

RL: £264.99

RR: £264.99

My questions if someone can take the time to respond are:

1) If the rear callipers have seized wouldn’t I be able to tell when my wife or I drive the car? It doesn’t seem to brake any differently? 

2) how do I tell if my rear brakes are solid or vented (And apologies for this numpty question)? If it helps our Lexus is250 is a 2006 model

3) am I right in thinking the total cost from Lexus Twickenham seems quite steep? Would I be better off finding a “good” service garage near me to fit and order the parts of somewhere like Eurocarparts

4) Does anyone know of a “good” service garage in the Harrow, Pinner, Northwood, Watford area who could do the above work?

 

5) Are brembo and Pagid much of a muchness or is one better than the other?

Apologies for all the numpty questions. I have only realised by reading the forums now that we should have been greasing the rear callipers regularly. Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

 

 

[PCM]

Get a quote from Japex in Kings Langley.

They will do a good, honest job - cheaper and as good.

[Britprius]

The pads come as an axle set so you only need one set at £50-99 for the front and one set for the rear at £57-99. The discs usually come as a pair (2). A pair for the front, and a pair for the rear.

The seized calipers is common on the Toyota Lexus range of cars, and this is not the seizure of the caliper piston, but the caliper pins which can usually be freed, cleaned, and greased without replacement.

John  

[mephistophelean]

2 minutes ago, Britprius said:

The pads come as an axle set so you only need one set at £50-99 for the front and one set for the rear at £57-99. The discs usually come as a pair (2). A pair for the front, and a pair for the rear.

The seized calipers is common on the Toyota Lexus range of cars, and this is not the seizure of the caliper piston, but the caliper pins which can usually be freed, and cleaned without replacement.

John  

Thanks John

Who could I take the car to advise me on whether they could do this? I assume some kind of Toyota/Lexus specialist? 

 

[PCM]

5 minutes ago, Britprius said:

 

The seized calipers is common on the Toyota Lexus range of cars, and this is not the seizure of the caliper piston, but the caliper pins which can usually be freed, and cleaned without replacement.

John  

Japex ARE a specialist.

They re-greased my pins just last week.

I get them done every 12 months.

Some people only wait 6 months ...

 

[Britprius]

Just now, mephistophelean said:

Thanks John

Who could I take the car to advise me on whether they could do this? I assume some kind of Toyota/Lexus specialist? 

 

Any garage can do this. It does not have to be a Toyota/Lexus specialist. There is nothing out of the ordinary in the Lexus braking system, and it would be considered a simple DIY job by the home mechanic with basic tools.

John

[mephistophelean]

14 minutes ago, PCM said:

Get a quote from Japex in Kings Langley.

They will do a good, honest job - cheaper and as good.

Thanks PCM.  I just looked on their website and they appear to deal with the common calliper issues that John referred to above. I will call them on Monday to see if they can help.

[Britprius]

The front brake discs "the one's listed as in need of replacement" are usually vented. You can usually see this through the front wheels as a shiny disc with a rusty edge. If the edge has slotted holes in it then they are vented. The parts needed from your list would be circa £225 plus fitting, and I would expect to pay in the area I live about £100 at the most for fitting. This may be more in London.

John

[Linas.P]

I would get calipers rebuilt instead of buying "new" calipers, you see the problem is that most of the calipers which states they they are "new" actually means they are "re-manufactured", so what is the point to get re-manufactured calipers if you can get it done yourself for less and probably to better quality.

As for brake pads - you only need one set for front and for rear as mentioned, Brembos are softer pads and much dustier, Pagid I guess more similar to Lexus OE pads. Very important make sure you keep anti-squeal shims (or get set of new), because otherwise they will squeal.

The way to tell between vented and non-vented - look to the brake disk, if it has gap betwen side with vents it is vented, if it is single plate then solid. on IS250 the switch happened somewhere around 10/2006, but that doesn't help much because some cars were pre-registered, some were registered later. Thought that only applies to rear disks - front ones are always vented.

When they say your disks are "lipped" what you need to check if they are below or above minimum thickness - lip mean nothing, you can technically have lip after only 1000miles on new disks - so what, do you need to replace them? The only time you actually need to change disks are when they go below minimum thickness.

See here (my calipers re-manufactured) - I have chosen premium paint hence it was bit pricey, but it can be done much cheaper ~ £90 per caliper:

 

[Britprius]

I cannot really advise on weather it is safe for your wife to continue to drive the car as I have not seen the condition of the brakes for myself. However I would say that if the brakes were in a dangerous condition Lexus would have failed in there duty by releasing the car for use as such.

Ware of the discs is normal as with the pads. The seizure of the rear caliper slide pins generally produces uneven ware on the rear brake pads.

John.

[Linas.P]

+ @Britprius - hard to tell if it is safe or not. The only people who can tell you are the ones in MOT centre after doing brake test i.e. brake force distribution and power. Generally, when calipers starts sticking your car still brakes, but not as good, because only one pad is braking and obviously you get unequal wear. What is worse is when caliper stuck closed and your pad is touching whilst driving - you could get car on fire! Anyway, I would not play with brakes and would get them fixed as soon as reasonably possible.

[Texas]

Like I have mentioned in the past Lexus will reccomend replacing any siezed caliper (£££'s) and not a strip down and clean/lube and rebuild. 

Paul m.

[Linas.P]

18 minutes ago, Texas said:

Like I have mentioned in the past Lexus will reccomend replacing any siezed caliper (£££'s) and not a strip down and clean/lube and rebuild. 

Paul m.

Clearly that is because the former make more sense for them financially, so that they can charge extra and then rebuilt your very own calipers and sell them to other customer...

[leelacey17]

Had one of my calipers completely seized and couldn't budge it so had to get another off eBay and it cost me £120 I believe. If it hadn't got so bad I could have just fixed the seized pin as described above.

Order the parts off eurocarparts and a garage will for them for you if you can't do them yourself. Personally I prefer to do stuff like this myself as it saves a fortune as those numbers quoted make your eyes water

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Linas.P]

Any decent calipers place would replace pins, rubbers, bolts etc. even decent rebuilt kits have all those parts - the only part which stays is the caliper body, sometimes cylinders as well.

[J Henderson]

Those ECP prices can be halved when you use the SALE50 promo code, which makes the Lexus prices look even more ridiculous.

[mephistophelean]

Just to say thank you to everyone on this.

I phoned Japex to book the callipers sorted and changed all the brakes and brake off at a local garage taking advantage of the ECP prices.