I just learned to do brakes

Most passenger car mechanics make about 1/5 of the labor rate. Out of that they are required to pay tens of thousands just to be able to have the necessary equipment in order to perform their jobs.

So you are actually complaining about a hard working man that is lucky to net $30,000/yr after work related expenses. You're unironically complaining about a man making basically minimum wage and you're somehow getting fucked? Im so fucking glad I don't work on cars because I would murder so many customers.

Because most cars are hub over rotor for some retarded fucking reason. Enjoy dismantling your entire suspension to change a fucking brake disk.

How much should full new breaks cost? My car failed the MOT and it needs all new breaks

The problem isn't the mechanic, it's the system that forces them to jew the shit out of customers just to make minimum wage while some old motherfucker that's never turned a wrench in his life sits back in an air conditioned office and watches the money roll in.

An average tech will spend over 35k in tools in their career time. Im apprenticing at a shop right now for hourly pay and its fucking terrible. You get into a shop for flat rate and if youre a shitty tech then there goes most of your salary. We start out making not much more than a Private in the armed forces. You may see stats about how master techs make 80-100k+ a year but thats either bull shit, outdated, or theyre 30+ years in already. Plus you have to spend more money on tools yourself to do it, then you need all the torque specs, and then you need to make sure you bleed them etc etc.

It's called operating a goddammit business. Do you really think it costs a dr. $75,000 to remove a tumor? Like LOL all you need is a knife and a needle.

Why does it cost $150,000 to build a house when the materials only cost $50,000?

If you can't understand the basic concept of a business you should probably move to a communist shit hole like Canada or something. Maybe they have socialized car care.

do brakes?

it's called inefficiency throughout every layer of society

Maybe we should get the government involved to streamline the whole process!

So people must work for less money?

>I'm an incompetent retard, therefore, nobody should work on their cars

>Too much money is siphoned out of the system by people that don't add value to it
>Therefore, I must be arguing that people who add value should be paid less
Just wait until you've had a job for a few years, kid. You'll see what I'm taking about.

>it's actually comical how much money mechanics make.
Yet the mechanics cry all the time about paying to do repairs when it comes to warranty jobs. They are still making money but are "spoiled" at not making obscene money from non-warranty jobs. Down the street, the mechanic retired and he made $77K per year after taxes. He liked to kid with me about making more than I did despite my college education.

ROASTIE BTFO

Should have gave her space to back up

Because they can.

Apply this directly to the rotor for an extra quiet ride.

I don't know what your definition of robbery is, but paying a person who works for 10 hours only 2.3 of those hours fits squarely into mine.

ITT: people thinking the mechanics see any of your money.
That's not really how it works, as a flat rate tech you can expect to make 14-35 dollars an hour -full stop- but you get paid by labor hours.
As a wage-tech you get paid whether your working or sitting on your ass.

The labor rate collected by the shop is usually between 60(mom and pop) and 250 (stealership).

There's a standardization for labor hours across the whole fucking board. If Ima Rapeyourwallet Chevrolet wants $180 to put fresh plugs in your 08 3.4l Equinox and Forgot Datbolt's Tire Mansion wants $45, they're still using the same labor hours. The stealership's tech made $10 on the job, so did the mech at the tire shop who took twice as long as the tech. Neither saw even half of the gross, but the tire mech came close to seeing a quarter of the net profit.

>thinks mechanics make money
It's funny. The ending salary for a master tech and the starting salary for an automotive engineer are about the same.

What mechanics make is comical, but for the opposite reason than you think.

>tfw woman drivers

Dealerships aren't making that much money off brakes or tires.

>The ending salary for a master tech and the starting salary for an automotive engineer are about the same.
Maybe in the Midwest, New Mexico, etc. in super low cost areas that happen to have Toyota, Nissan, etc. factories, but like any skilled labor job the pay will vary a lot based on region while salaries for engineers and managing positions in an auto company are fairly uniform. There's plenty of techs making $90k-$100k, I highly doubt you are going to get a $90k salary straight out of school to design cupholders in Solidworks

Has your krsc arrived yet?

>This one mechanic made a decent wage so they're all obviously money grubbing whores

It's pretty uncommon for a mechanic to make that much, and that's not even a lot of money.

I just did brakes in my ram 3500. It was pretty annoying since the caliper bolts had stripped heads. It's also one of those vehicles where you have to disassemble the wheel bearing to get the rotor off. And the rotor is also the hub so they cost more

You're going to have to be more specifc.

The whole system, from pedal to each wheel would be thousands to replace at a shop, or a fuckton of time and ~$800 DIY.

New pads is like 1.5 hours and $80

Yeah haven't taken a picture of it, I like it, the only downside is all the wasted space on the sides, it would be great if you had to have 10 3 foot pry bars but other than that it's just a lot of empty space, not the end of the world everything else is perfect for me just have that one gripe

>There's plenty of techs making $90k-$100k, I highly doubt you are going to get a $90k salary straight out of school to design cupholders in Solidworks
With a bachelors in Electrical Engineering, and a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering you're gonna start off at around 80k. Add a masters in one field, or the other, or both and that number climbs to about 90-100k. Get a doctorate, learn French, German, or Japanese and 100k is the minimum starting salary.
I did the research before I decided I was too old, and had to take care of the family now, to go back to school. Got my ASE certs and I'm happy enough with that.

> it's actually comical how much money mechanics make
It's comical how little they make for the work that they do.
The average mechanic makes something like $36k a year, and they bust ass. Shit like tool costs, utilities, rent for garage, etc. all really eat into that column marked "labor".

Not to mention that after 25 years, you're going to have failing joints and a half-functioning back. I've seen it firsthand. My uncle is an escalator mechanic, and the past 30 years of bending, kneeling, straining, contorting, etc have really taken a toll on his body and joints.

I use long pry bars pretty often so I can't complain. I dropped something in one of the holes the other day and assumed I could remove the bottom drawer to access it but nope. I had to fish it out with a magnet. I really wish some of the holes werent quite as wide though. There's maybe room for like 6 screwdrivers in all and like 10 slots for pry bars which is weird af. I think some guys put their ratchets in there which I really just don't care for.

>imblyng

That's all if you get a job. I can't speak for every car company since I only have experience with one on the manufacturing side but to even get a $28/hr internship you need a masters, and there's no guarantee you get hired after working a year or whatever they do. You're also extremely limited with where you can work geographically especially in the US.

Yep the hole setup doesn't really make any sense, I might drill out some more holes, so I can fit 10+ screwdrivers in a small area towards the front of the box on each side, we'll see, not quite ready to start modifying it, have to see what I really need out of the space first

Fucking shop said they were giving me a deal for new calipers/rotors for $1000. I laughed, said I'll figure it out.
Bought the tools
Jack
Jackstands,
New pads and rotors

Total came out to like $650, took a few hours. Couldn't get the front rotors off though, theyre held on by the caliper bracket and the bolts holding those on are so tight I couldn't get them off. No room to get my breaker bar in there either.
2005 F150 RWD

Because sometimes everything is seized and you find shit like this

As long as those bolts came off, not that bad. The nice thing about 4wd, sealed hubs that don't include the rotor.

>30k NET a year
>minimum wage
Son...

Net is after taxes, not just expenses. And most people don't have substantial work-related expenses unless you count student loan payments.

Not that user but I'm new to Veeky Forums and shit like this makes me nervous. Like, eventually I'm going to read something here and not realize that it's a joke

>25% tax

Or don't buy cheap shit pads that don't have the rubber damper on the back.

Welcome to Norway - do you want an extra slice of tax together with the obligatory housing for 4 000 refugees?

no, the government and bureaucracy is obviously a huge part of the problem

i'm just stating an unavoidable fact

>tfw RX7 brakes were even easier than my 2002 Corolla

...

>mechanics
>making comical amounts of money
Holy fuck I hope you're joking

t. poorfag tech

>have a job that pays jack shit
>have to buy your own expensive tools
why

>Be me, try and change my own damn brakes without any power tools because I'm a broke fuck.
>Get the first bracket bolt off with some force, end up rounding the second one.
>try the other side, couldn't even get anything to budge over there
>manage to get off the second rounded bolt, get a new one and put on that brake.
>bring the second brake in to a shop to get fixed, they discover that I managed to break some suspension part while struggling with the other brake
>400$

Fuck sakes, what power wrench is the best?

it's a joke, remember common sense. It's like spraying paint over your rotors.

do you just use the old pad and a pair of channel locks and clamp down with the outside of the caliper?

Every single 4 pot piston caliper I've ever touched was painted so it was always a pain in the ass trying to get the pistons to go back together while using the pad as a lever. I really should get a proper retractor tool for fixed calipers, but now I'm a weekend warrior so who cares.

This may shock you, but expensive cars usually carry expensive parts.
It costs me just under $1k in parts for one of my cars.

For my 2002 Corolla, I used C clamps to push it back in, with the FC calipers, I used a flat head wrapped in a towel so to not damage the edges.

An impact wrench won't fix your shitty sockets.

labor and time. also machining.

They charge a lot because brake jobs are how they make most of their money. As more people switch to electric cars you'll see mechanics charging more for other maintenance to make up for their losses on brakes. You should learn how to mount and balance your tires too.

greencarreports.com/news/1078383_mechanics-worry-electric-car-brakes-will-ruin-my-business

>machining

maybe if you buy cheap shit pads

>buy cheap shit pads
>keep little snappy sheet metal things from the last set because the new ones don't fit
>pads stick a little, it's okay, just add grease
>actually pads stick a lot
>fuck fuck
>go back and file the tabs on the pads down

you pay for experience
>do brakes in shop
>you can pretend those guys are reliable and you won't die
>do brakes yourself
>live your life in constant fear of sudden high-speed emergency braking using some tree or other car when your amateur brake job finally shows its true colors

i'm not saying it's wrong to do brakes on your own, but that's the reason why shops charge a lot: their experience reduces chances of failure

>he doesn't just jam a screwdriver in between the pad and the disk and use it as a lever to push the pistons back

I bet you don't get your disks machined, either.

>maybe if you buy cheap shit pads

>he wants to put brand new good quality pads on disks that have been glazed, are covered in hot spots, and have an uneven surface

Putting good pads on old disks is actually okay, since new disks can have a coating that fouls good pads, and vice versa

Just turn them (unlikely to be necessary) or sand them a bit (always fine), then go bed that shit in

>since new disks can have a coating that fouls good pads
Yeah, oil. It stops them rusting while they're in storage. You're meant to use some brake cleaner or whatever solvent you have handy to clean it off.

You had a fucked caliper, the same thing would have happened to a shop mechanic and they would have charged you even more for a new caliper + labor.

also liability if the failure is due to their error

Just did some late night brake pad changing in the rear myself.

>forgot to pick up the cube socket thingy to twist the piston back in
>use pliers to twist them
>hurts like hell because the driver side gives a lot of resistance
>remove rotor and reattach caliper to trailing arm so it stays put and lets me put torque on it
>passenger side twists in much easier

Test drive was gud. I need to get that socket next time around and stop making shit hard on myself.

>he doesn't have rear drums
Pleb

I'll stick with discs m8. My Civic came with drums from the factory but a previous owner did me the favor of putting in Integra brakes all around.

My 94 Corolla has drums though. I'll have to learn how to do them at some point. I did watch the huge ChrisFix video on them at least.

Best thing to do with drum brakes is to leave one side alone while you do the other side, that way you can use the untouched one as a reference.

>The average mechanic makes something like $36k a year,
I made that at a muffler shop in a shit hole town. Nobody that is a mechanic makes less, there goes your average. There does seem to be a barrier at around 36k'ish.the next step is somewhat large.

I've had my new drums sitting in my basement for months desu. Can't be assed to figure them out haha

Yeah when/if I end up doing it, I'll be doing that plus taking a lot of pictures. They seem to last much longer than discs though so who knows when that will happen.

My co-worker told me last night that he needs to do his drums in his junk Chevy Malibu. I wished him the best of luck.

A good thing you can do for them without actually replacing them is to just pull the drum off and spray shit down with brake cleaner. Helps a lot

My friend installs clutches all day at around £200 per clutch, they supply the parts how is that a bad wage? He can generally do one in around 2 hours, so that's $125 per hour, cash.

Brake cleaner does wonders. I need to attack my dirty engine bay with it sometime.

Watching a Chrisfix video doesn't count as learning user

>Having a social safety net with open borders
Why are western societies so fucking dumb?

>You should learn how to mount and balance your tires too.

>bought winter tires, performance low profile
>Tried to install on rims myself, couldn't do it
>paid auto shop to do it
>took 4 guys 3.5 hours to do all 4 tires with a machine
>paid $10 a tire.

Low profiles are a bitch to do, just pay someone with a machine to do it.

It actually does though

>Corolla has drums though. I'll have to learn how to do them
Get your hammer ready. Especially if the drum is worn the fuck out.

First thing these yuros blame now are the refugees, last time it was the EU and their regulations.

God damn maybe you should blame the import and engine capacity tax your dumbass country built itself around, not saying museslims aren't bad but they have nothing to do on the price of brake shoes and pads over there kek

lmao I tried taking the drum off a week ago and it was coming off in chunks. I think it was "worn out" years ago

>judaism

Fucking. UNDERATED!

Top Kek

...

Of course they do, you fucking cuck faggot.

Kill yourself.

86 breh

captive rotors are worse than hitler senpai

what rotors are they?
i've recently obtained some fc calipers and adapters, but no rotors

On your own, lad.

he's right tho.
taxes in yurep have been rape long before the refugee thing started

fun

You are a retard. I've done all 4 corners on a cayenne, pads and rotors, including labour, OEM spec parts, in rip off central Australia, for $1400. Roughly the same on a a special edition jag with brembos all round. I doubt your rapemobile is anything particularly expensive.

Well, it's his.

>some teenager on Veeky Forums opened up hid 2016 brand new car his dad bought him
>MECHANICS ARE SCUMS

Yeah go ahead. We like to see someone like you fuck up really good then cry into the shop

Mechanic detected

>replacing the brake disc involves removing the entire knuckle
almost bought a car with this shit, ended up getting a good ol corolla

Slow day in the shop, huh?

Absolute shit. Why do they do this to us?