100 series full brake job, did I get hosed?

[Avalon786]

I had the brakes done at a highly rated Japanese auto independent shop. I supplied the front & rear toyota pads and front rotors, they supplied some Meyle rear premium rotors. I had them repack the bearings, replace one set of the seals (for bearings) and adjust the rear parking brake, do a brake fluid flush and an oil change.
They charged about $440 in parts and $950 in labor.

Labor breakdown was:

-front replace rotors/pads + repack bearings was over 5 hours
-rear replace rotors/pad + parking brake adjustment was 2.5 hours
-brake fluid flush was an 1 hour
-oil change .5 hours

Does this sound about right?

The Toyota dealer wanted $483 in labor for the front brakes and $345 for the rear. So I figured I saved some money going to the independent shop.

I know I could have done it myself and saved money, but I have many excuses for why I don't have the time right now . I am just trying to see if I should use the shop again in the future or if they really hosed me and I should look elsewhere.

 

[nitteo]

did you shop around? called different mechs?

 

[Avalon786]

I did try to get some different quotes, 1 independent brake shop never got back to me, another I spoke with had no clue about the bearings and the rotor assembly.

 

[AK Wes]

That price doesn't seem completely unreasonable and I'm guessing those numbers are the book times for doing a full brake job on a Land Cruiser. I can tell you that doing all of these items myself definitely didn't take me 9 hours..... Maybe 4-5 hours. Auto repair shops love doing brake jobs, because they are pretty damn easy and a good money maker for them. They can charge the full book time, even though it probably only takes them a few hours. Then they can move on to the next job and bill out 18 hours of shop time, even though they only spent 8 hours doing work.

There are definitely some jobs that take more time than the service book suggests, but brake jobs aren't typically one of those items.

 

[Avalon786]

That makes sense. I guess nowadays, near the city, it's near impossible to find a shop that won't charge book times...

 

[creakycruiser]

I've seen it go for more. I've also seen it go for less (uh, lots less, when you do it yourself). You didn't get hosed, but you could always do better. I'd stop stressing about it buddy.

Repacking bearings take time. That job is wonderful because it's low skill and high duration. You're keeping the lights on at that brake shop haha!

 

[hoser]

IIRC, those labor hours are in line with what I’ve seen in the labor guides. The LC brake jobs are more involved than most other vehicles.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

I just did the exact same job in 4 hours flat - well didn't do the brake flush and oil change.

 

[Avalon786]

Awesome sounds good, thanks all!

 

[nissanh]

I have done all in my cruiser: Rear takes less than 1 hour once wheels are off. Front takes longer so, 4 hours seems to be more than enough.

 

[Hugh Calgary]

I took my front rotors off last night to repack the bearings. Took me about 5 hours to get the rotors off and cleaned up. I bet I spent 2 hours to get the cone washers to come loose on the passenger side. Started using a normal size hammer and worked up to the 3 pound hammer (BFH). Drivers side was about 1 hour since I skipped the regular hammer and started off with the BFH. My technique was also refined. Sore shoulder today after beating the crap out of my brass punch. I almost gave up after beating the passenger side for almost 2 hours and gave it one last big, angry, pissed off swing. That final swing did the job and cones started popping loose. Plan to have the beings packed and everything bolted together tonight. I will probably be 8 to 10 hours to repack bearings and install new brake pads. This is the first time doing this on my LC. Big learning curve, I expect the time could be cut to 4 or 5 hours total next time.

 

[Ambledog]

I think you are fine. Unless you already have experience, there is going to be a learning curve. I recently did the rear brakes only, replaced pads, rotors, all hardware, adjusted, cleaned up the parking braked components, flush and bleed fluid, and put back together. It took a lot longer since I ran into a couple of problems. Like, not being able to get the rotor off for at least an hour (hung up on the parking brake shoes and some corrosion between Axel and rotor). Like accidentally pressing on the brakes and popping out the piston from the caliper and then messing it up and doing a couple times until I got it in correctly. But now I could do it in a couple hours easily. You can save a lot of money doing it yourself, but you can save a lot of headaches and time letting someone else do it, as long as you trust them to do a good job.