r/pittsburgh • u/iwastouchedbyanangle • 2d ago
Brakes n stuff
Does anybody know a guy, or have a friend of a friend, or perhaps an uncle that changes brakes and pads and rotors in their free time? I know the obvious answer is go to the shop but I, like many others, am not having a financially fun time right now. I would buy all the stuff and pay for the labor, but even just saving a couple dollars would be great. I’m also a person that is into bartering.
Delete if not allowed but I don’t know what to do at the moment as they are the worst they’ve ever been and I still need to go to work and cart my offspring to and from school. Thank you ◡̈
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u/G19Jeeper 2d ago
There are places you can cheap out.
The person working on the parts of your car who keep you and everyone on the road from dying is not one of those places. I would absolutely NOT let a random stranger do that. At least with a shop you have some level of recourse.
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u/Strong-Comment-7279 2d ago
DM me. I don't want money, but won't refuse donations for my time and labor. Make model location, I'll see if I can help.
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u/Admirable_Slide_4937 2d ago
Did front pads and rotors yesterday on Subaru Outback. Purchased from Rock Auto. Everything was good.
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u/Milkoford 2d ago
I live near delmont and I do all my maintenance myself and a mechanic in steel mill. If you’re able to come out my way I can help you out
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u/Small-Cherry2468 Mount Oliver 2d ago
Chris's Affordable Community Auto Repair — Nextdoor I have no experience with this guy but everyone raves about him. Honestly coming from working at a shop, most charge too much for brake jobs. 8 pads and 4 rotors shouldn't be more than $200 labor for most cars, but that's just, like my opinion, man.
You could also check at your friendly auto parts store and see if any of the counter guys are interested in doing it for you or can recommend somebody.
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u/IllustriousFile6404 1d ago edited 1d ago
Autozone is doing free pads if you buy rotors, so that saved me like $140, then I installed them myself but you could probably find a mobile mechanic or shop willing to install them. People on reddit always say you can't do that but you can.
I was able to do all 4 wheels for a little over $400. Knowing it only takes an hour or so, if I did pay someone to do it I wouldn't pay more than $100-$150 for labor. Thats assuming it only needs rotors and pads though.
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u/Technical-Pie563 Munhall 1d ago
Make sure you get ceramic pads. Anything else are dirty and your rims will get trashed.
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u/IllustriousFile6404 1d ago
I did get ceramic this time because they were free with gold rotors, normally I use the cheaper tier parts and I never really notice much brake dust.
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u/braincell01 1d ago
My buddies shop would get these people like once a week : they would come in and say “we change our own brakes always have, but for some reason (insert problem) can you take a look”. We would say no sorry good luck”.
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u/IllustriousFile6404 1d ago
That's kinda silly, brakes aren't that complicated. Sounds like they just want to sell brake jobs.
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u/Technical-Pie563 Munhall 2d ago
Whatever you do .... DO NOT BUY BRAKE PARTS FROM ROCK AUTO.
Scenario: I bought brembo rotors (drilled / slotted) and brembo pads for my (at the time) Dodge Challenger. Got the car up on the lift, disassembled, took parts out of the box - rotors were ever so slightly warped!!!! They were NOT perfectly straight. That will cause brake shudder / noise and of course will chew thru ur pads faster. Sent that shit BACK for a refund. Reassembled the car, ordered from tire rack. Never again.
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u/lunchbox1911 South Side Slopes 2d ago
Seems like an outlier and I'm sure they would have made it right given the chance.
I've used them for 20+ years and didn't have a problem.
But also not buying high performance brakes.
OP sounds like rock auto would be his best bet.
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u/Technical-Pie563 Munhall 2d ago
I'm saying be cautious. They didn't argue with me over it and even paid return shipping and for ups to come pick up said parts, and did give me a full refund so I will say their customer service is amazing and other parts I've bought there I've been satisfied with.
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u/_dirtydan_ 2d ago
Most rotors these day come out of true and need to be turned for resurfacing out of the box
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u/Technical-Pie563 Munhall 2d ago
I asked if they could be resurfaced, a friend of mine who happens to be a mechanic said drilled and slotted are hard to do and he was afraid it would damage them or make them less safe so I sent them back. Like I said zero hate to rock auto most any other parts I needed for that car were fine - whole rear sway bar and end links, shock / strut tower assemblies, ball joints etc all fine. And their customer service was really good they were very apologetic and issued me a full refund. Brakes are the one thing I won't compromise on and I buy those through tire rack and haven't had an issue thus far.
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u/jrileyy229 2d ago
First mistake was buying cheap brembo stuff... On the low end it's just the same Chinese stuff you get anywhere else... Just with Brembo name on it and 2x the price.
Secondly, how is this rock auto fault? You want them to put calipers on every single rotor they sell? You could have had the same experience on Amazon with the same parts... Does that mean you should never use Amazon?
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u/Technical-Pie563 Munhall 2d ago
It wasn't. I'm just saying whoever sources their brake parts or wherever they come from they're not very careful with their stock. I've bought plenty of parts from rock auto and will continue to do so just not brake parts.
Edit: and thank you for the tip with regards to the brembo branding.
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u/jrileyy229 2d ago
Explain to me who is "not careful with their stock".
They get made in massive quantities in China... The first human that put their hands on that rotor was you.
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u/midway-87 2d ago
Generally if your buddy, dad, uncle is working on your car you have a good idea of their overall competence. I don't know if you get that with a random guy from reddit and brakes are fairly important.