Save Money On Brakes

[SiM22]

Hi,

So I spent the last 3 months looking for brake replacement and also where to buy the parts from.

At first I queried at Lexus Croydon and was given the following prices:

Replace front discs and pads inc Labor - £961

Replace back discs and pads inc Labor - £798

Bringing this to a total of £1759

This is a barbaric amount where most of that price comes from labor.

Now to how i saved a lot of money. Firstly took a lot of time to find somewhere that sold the parts.

Front Discs

Front Discs I went OEM brembo. Bought them from Shipley Motor Factors (www.shipleymotorfactors.co.uk). They arrived within 5 days and had good customer service.

Price for 2 discs - £155.86 inc free delivery

Front Pads

Front pads are Hawk Ceramic Pads, i bought them off a seller on eBay and they arrived within 2 weeks from the USA - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hawk-Performance-Ceramic-Brake-Pads-IS-F-CLK55-AMG-CLK63-AMG-SLK55-AMG-/371249714168?

Price for 2 sets of pads - £176.72 inc Delivery

Rear Discs and Pads

I bought these from Kam Racing (www.kamracing.co.uk) and just told them the part numbers over the phone as not listed on their site due to not being a part they stock a lot of. They had to back order them to brembo Italy and they were shipped as soon as they hit UK waters. Customer service was good so was not worried about waiting.

Price in total for both rear discs and pads - £341.42

Fitting

Now fitting can be done at any respectable garage, there is no need to get this done at Lexus. I had mine replaced at a close friends garage and it was 2 hours work (£60 per hour), but knowing the place and having been there before I was only charged an hour. Bringing the total for changing all discs and pads to £60

Total Paid

Total to replace all discs and pads including labor - £734

I am disappointed Lexus overcharge so much and this makes them lose customers when basic parts need replacing, I am not too fussed doing all this leg work but others may not have the time and end up paying silly amounts of money for the same work. I thought I would put this post up so people can see that there is other places to buy parts and save £1000 if you dont go through the dealer.

Just to point out, all parts that are easily replaced and not major engine work I get done at my mates garage, everything that is engine or recall or even service gets done at the dealer.

[sofasurfer]

Thats a great help...will be using this in a couple of months time.

[giorgoXXI]

Agree doing brakes at the dealer is ridiculously expensive. However, most of the cost is not labour, the actual genuine parts from Lexus are very expensive. Just front pads alone are almost 350 excluding labour, discs I think more than that. It is then up to you to decide whether you want genuine parts or OEM equivalents. I also went for brembo OEM for discs but Pagid for pads.

[sofasurfer]

Quick question....are there any issues using Hawk pads on the front and different ones on the rear. Hawk don't make equivalent rear pads do they and I would want to put Porterfield pads on the back wheels.

[SiM22]

@sofasurfer. For me the hawks have the same stopping power as brembos but a lot less brake dust.

@giorgioXXI. The only part that is not OEM is the Hawk front pads. The rest is OEM brembo which is what comes with the IS-F. I forgot to take a picture when I changed everything. The pads that were on it had both the Toyota logo and brembo logo. So the parts I bought are an exact replacement for the car (except the hawk pads)

[sofasurfer]

Just want to double check that these rear pads are the correct ones before I order them

http://www.kamracing.co.uk/brembo-brake-pads-p83146.html

I have just bought the Hawk pads from eBay and so will start building up the items I need to change everything over.

[Dave McDave]

Good work Sim.

Mine will need doing this year and this has saved me a load of work and cash so thanks!

Gobsmacked how much lexus charge and think they can get away with for relatively simple parts

[Stuno1]

While Lexus do charge a lot this is a performance car and I inagine m3 and c63 parts are the same if not more. It is always down to owners to source like for like or alternative parts that are cheaper. It's part and parcel of owning a car like the f or any premium car for that matter.

Stu

[SiM22]

Stuno i agree it is a performance car but its not until you proper take a deep look at cost of parts vs cost of labor that you see the big difference. if it was only £200-£300 difference I would not really mind but the difference is massive and I dont see a justification for it.

I have attached an image of what the part numbers are for disc and pads from brembo. The bottom 2 rows are for the IS-F

@sofasurfer, yes they are.

[lotusdave]

might need some pads myself this year. Great work. Thanks.

[Stuno1]

There is no justification. Manufacturers like Lexus etc just expect people to part with the cash because they have bought a premium brand and a lot of people will.

Stu

[sofasurfer]

Thanks once again Simon...will be ordering my brakes and getting my friendly local mechanic to fit them.

[lotusdave]

nothing unusual in main dealers charging alot. Got to fund the show room somehow. If you paid sixty k for your F you'd probably just use the main dealer. Those of us who only paid twenty k are more inclined to be price aware as well as knowing it wont make a jot of difference on resale.

[SiM22]

I agree with what you say Stuart. Don't get me wrong, I still believe Toyota/Lexus and most Japanese/Asian manufacturers have the best reliability and customer service there is but in the times we live in £1000 is a major difference.

On the phone so can't see who posted about people who pay 60k for a car will go to the dealer and trust me I can assure you this is true. The previous owner of my F was a lady. The car came with every single receipt for work carried out on it. But it shows money doesn't make people clever. It makes them lazy and prone to mistakes. The services were always 2 months later than the previous one. They would change one tyre and one disc at a time. The work carried out made no sense.

I won't say no more about it because I don't want to go off topic but I hope you get what I'm saying. I think in the end I am just trying to help people save money and understand that there is another way.

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

[Dave McDave]

Bit of a thread revival (again) but thought I'd update the thread having just replaced the front pads & discs and rear pads.  Lexus originally quoted the £1294 and then £999 after discount.

Thought I could do better so bought the brembo front discs from here

http://www.bestpartstore.co.uk/1657687  - £156 inc shipping.  Took about a week to arrive from Germany.

Already have Hawk Ceramic Pads on the front, they stop better IMO & have lower dust compared to the OEM Brembo's, and now they do the same compound for the rears so ordered new fronts and rears from Cambridge Motorsport. - £321.69 inc delivery.

http://www.cambridgemotorsport.com/node/5928

The part no for the rears is  HB722Z.652 as it doesn't appear on their website but spoke to Jon at Cambridge Motorsport and he was very helpful in sourcing them!

Local garage have fitted for £100.

All in £577 saving £422 compared to the dealer. Nice!