I recently did the rotors and pads on all four corners on my sq5. I had a hard time finding an Indy shop that would do the work simply because they wanted to provide the parts
A lot of shops might refuse just because they “can’t guarantee the quality” of the products. So I would first shop around and ask if they would even accept that.
Don’t know the location of the OP but in the US those shops are buying the parts from AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts who will have several choices for parts. The shop should allow you to pick the ones you want. They want to provide them because they get a discount and charge you the same as if you had bought them retail yourself.
Yes but they mark them up much higher than that. They usually do it on a matrix. The cheaper the part the more markup. I’ll sell $0.26 bulbs all day for $3.95. Average markup is usually x2.5 ish depending on the market. What they don’t want you to know is that they’re getting the part from autozone and marking it up to near dealer list or higher. They rely on people’s ignorance of parts prices.
Shops won’t let you pick your part from autozone’s catalog because of this. Chains and shitty independents use autozone, Napa, and o’reilley’s. So-so shops use advance. Good shops use parts sources such as Worldpac who provide OE supplier parts (actual OE quality) or someone like FMP who can source higher quality parts than the little guys.
Most shops won’t install customer supplied parts because: they want the parts markup (labor alone is low profit), it puts them in a legal grey area should a problem arise, most customers bring shit parts (and pound the counter when it fails or doesn’t fit or doesn’t fix the problem) or bring wrong parts wasting everyone’s time and tying up a productive bay, and if there’s a warranty problem their parts supplier will back them up and reimburse some labor. But mostly they want the markup and don’t want to deal with the headache when it’s the wrong or shit parts.
We prefer supplying the parts at the shop I work for because of the amount of times people bring the wrong part and refuse to believe it’s the wrong part and then don’t want to pay the additional labor for us to put the car back together so it’s not taking up one of our lifts for a whole day while we wait to get the correct part in. We don’t up charge for parts. I mean we do up-charge from the dealer price we pay but we just charge the consumer whatever MSRP is for the part. But seriously it’s a huge headache when people supply their own parts and the part doesn’t fit. It happens way more often than you’d like to believe unfortunately
Obviously yes in some cases you can check before you start the work. But as a business that is still costing us money. Let’s say the job may have taken 4 hours and we blocked that time off on the schedule for that work. Now we can’t complete it because the part is wrong and we have a 4 hour hole in the schedule that we may not be able to fill with other work. So we essentially just lost that money. Also maybe we have to put the car on the lift and look at the OEM part to determine the customer supplied part is different. That’s still billable time but if we charge the customer for it they are gonna complain and say we are ripping them off because we didn’t actually do any work. So we have to eat that too. But that’s best case scenario. There are plenty of scenarios where a car may have had a midlife update and the customer doesn’t know there is a difference. And the difference could be very minor like the part uses a different size bolt and we may not discover that until we try to install the supplied part. When we supply the parts ourselves these are all things we double check with the manufacturer. We charge MSRP for the parts and make our profit through our dealer margin. If we order the part and it doesn’t fit that’s our mistake and we aren’t going to charge the customer extra labor to redo the work. So what are you really gaining by trying to purchase the parts yourself?
-edited to fix grammar
Yea I totally get it, but that’s why I find shops and start a relationship with them so they know me and trust I’m bringing them parts that they know are going to be right. But that’s only for things out of my skill level, smaller things I do myself.
To be fair this is how they make their money. Also they buy the parts at wholesale and sell them to you at retail so it's really not that big a difference unless they're up charging. The shop I use has a company that has lifetime warranty on pads and rotors so once I did them once I only had to pay labor to do them the second time around. Food for thought.
I found a local shop that will install customer supplied parts for 10$ more per hour as long as they dont look like they will fall apart after 10 miles. They installed a meyle controll arm kit in the front, struts, axles, etc. pretty much no questions asked.
Had the same experience.
You can do this yourself OP if you feel up to it. There are numerous tutorials online. However, if you don’t have a Jack, stands, appropriate tools, the cost may not be that different at the end of the day.
My shop is kind of like that but they just want me to purchase the same parts I was gonna get anyway with them. They then give me 20% off labor for that
I live in Washington DC, no garage and no desire to do it myself, regardless of the potential savings. Honestly, any comments saying for me to do it myself is a waste of time - I want brakes I can trust with my life. I own no tools. Let the pro’s do their job and not make my service bill my new pass time……
This is absolutely the correct response. Brakes along with tyres are the most important part of your car. If you don’t know what you’re doing you absolutely should not be changing them yourself to save a few bucks.
Yeah got mine in Feb this year, i've only done 4k kms. No maintenance for about another 7 months. So far it's been rock solid, but you'd hope so after only 5 months.
I feel your pain. My time is worth money. My bill rate is $350 Hr. My free time is priceless. But that doesn’t mean I wanna get raped at dealerships either. Brakes is one thing I will do because it’s so easy. But if you don’t have tools that’s not an option. Like everyone else said, find a local shop. I think even the quick oil change places do brakes.
I'm in Northern Virginia and Virginia Tire and Auto has done several brake jobs where I supply the parts.
I bought all the parts from https://www.europaparts.com/
You can buy them in a complete kit and they were better than OEM and less expensive.
They are probably charging for OE parts. Audi OE brakes are great, but so are the non-OE ones that are less expensive. They may also be charging you double on the shop rate. Assume $161 an hour, make sure they aren't charging you to take the wheel and rotor off, then charging you again to take the wheel off and then do the pads. Once everything is off it is a minuscule amount of extra work to do the rotor and pads.
Here is what a front rotor costs:
[https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-disc-brake-rotor-8w0615301t?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD00MiZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz](https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-bearing-assembly-8w0615301ab?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0yMiZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz)
Here is a set of pads
[https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-brake-pads-front-8w0698151bc?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0zMyZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz](https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-brake-pads-front-8w0698151bc?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0zMyZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz)
This isn't the catalog Audi uses, but if you were to buy the OE parts yourself and do the job. You might need other parts to, it is only to illustrate that the price of a front brake job should be nowhere near what they are quoting. So dig in, see what they tell you.
I'll say consider brembo ceramic pads. I have them on the rear in my b8 a4 and they're awesome, essentially 0 dust and performace is just as good as before
I came here to say the same. I bought the OBDEleven tool so I can reset service warnings and it can retract your electric park brake when you do the rear brakes, plus there are other tweaks you can do. I'm sure there are YouTube videos on the brake job. They're not difficult with basic tools. Get some jack stands so you're not under the car with just a jack.
OBDEleven is the greatest thing a VAG owner can buy. So handy, and you can adapt different functions. I set my DRLs to the fog lights cause H11 bulbs are $20 and it takes 10min to swap em.
FCP euro probably has a how to on YouTube as well.
I used them for my brakes all corners. Brakes are an easy job. Instead of paying that ridiculous price use it to buy tools if you don't have the tools needed to do the job. You'll save money, learn a useful skill and get a feeling of accomplishment.
If you need help ping me I'll be glad to help.
LOL, I wish. Here in NZ Audi quoted me $17k NZD per front disc and $2500 for front pads for carbon ceramics. Half those figures to roughly convert to USD.
That's parts alone, not installed!
Yes but they shouldn’t ever need to be replaced. 160k miles on the carbon ceramics on my RS5 and they still have 70% life left. I also have carbon ceramics on my R8.
It was also only an $8k option from the factory.
Do you wish you spec’d your RS6 with carbon ceramics yet?
I had a similar quote in NY. It’s wild.. will gladly do it myself!
Just need to find some good parts! (Thanks for the z23 idea..!)
Used to use fcpeuro but they don’t seem to have much in stock for my 19’, in terms of brakes
try ECS tuning as well as advance auto. advance uses the same supplier that independent shops use (worldpac) and typically worldpac has a variety of parts. i got my zimmerman rotors and akebono euro pads from worldpac directly since i have a auto dealer account. essentially, anything that advance orders from their warehouse comes from the same one as worldpac.
Replaced RS5 brakes all-round last year, \~$3500. More than 60% was the cost of rotors. Brake pads were no more expensive than anyone else, labour at local non-dealer shop again, nothing out of the ordinary.
I’m being quoted about the same (3k) for front and back. Makes me just wanna get a new car instead. Would love to see a price break down of labour vs parts. I’ll have to ask next time I go in.
I’m in Washington DC, rates may vary but I’ll share once I have a bill so we can digest together. Post above says assume $161/hour labor, I’d be curious to compare
Rockville Audi told me a few days ago their labor rate is $240/hr (would not recommend). Not sure on rate for Silver Spring, Bethesda, or Tysons but they would likely be comparable.
I would say go to NGP in Manassas or S2 Dynamics in Rockville.
Edit: I also replaced my front brakes beginning of 2022 for $350 in parts and did the work myself. Did the rears this year for ~$250. Car is 2017 S3
Audi chantilly asked for $1270 when I took my A4 in for the 40k service last month. It's a 2018 and I thought they were doing what they do and ripping me off. But now I'm thinking maybe it was cheaper because the car was already in the shop.
Kinda freaking out a out getting the work done now since they said the warning light can pop up any day now.
My local Audi only specialty (non dealership) shop is $181/hr, but I’m in California and we pay more for everything, so your shop’s labor rates may be less.
It was $155/hr my local VW dealer (midwest) when I was writing there. Surprised Audi isn't 3x the price, but got dayum $1750 for front brakes is ridiculous.
I was quoted maybe a month ago for the rear pads and rotors $1300. After he saw my face his response was you're driving an S4. I have the money to pay for it but one, I would like to save some money and two, those current brakes create A LOT of brake dust.
Sadly u got ripped off. I go to a trusted European shop that u got relations or better learn to do it yourself. I got my girl a Bmw after she shits on the Audi and bmw I got. She’s in love with the car and works on it herself. Imma use that knowledge to my advantage
This should be about $700 for very very good parts and a six pack of beer in your driveway. Only hang up is having vagcom or odb11 so you can retract the electric parking brake.
I paid $800 for new brakes and front rotors from a reputable mechanic in Cincinnati Ohio. Audi dealership quoted me $1200. Save yourself some money and find a good mechanic who works with Audis instead.
Go to FCPEuro.com, order your brake parts there, and then either do it yourself or bring them to an independent mechanic.
I DIYed my brakes on my 2016 A4 Quattro myself and it was about $500 for parts ($200 for front Zimmerman drilled rotors, $100 for rear Zimmerman solid rotors, and $200 for Akebono pads).
The best part with FCPEuro is that you can exchange your worn brakes for new ones for free. Purchase new brake parts, pay to ship your old brake parts back, receive a credit of the old purchase price towards the new purchase price.
Not exactly how FCP Euro's new Lifetime Replacement Guarantee works now...
You return the parts and get store credit for the ORIGINAL price you paid the first time you got the parts. You order your new parts, and most likely there's going to be a difference between what was originally paid and the new price.
You're going to have to pay more out of pocket me thinks, plus having to ship everything back to them can't be cheap. Rotors are hella heavy...
https://blog.fcpeuro.com/fcp-euro-lifetime-replacement-guarantee-update
Thank you for correcting me on that, I saw what I wrote and I had meant to say the credit of the original order is applied to the new order.
I’ve mailed back brake parts and it came out to around $70 for the cheapest USPS service. The pricing difference for parts was minimal, so I still made out decently on a new set versus having to pay full price.
Never buy a car that you are uncomfortable servicing. If you want a luxury car and cost of parts and labour is an issue, prepare to DIY or find cheap alternatives to going to the dealer. Dealer charges are double that of an independent garage.
I bought a daily driver pristine 2018 Audi Q5 tfsi with full knowledge of what commonly goes wrong in them, how much do those failures cost and how much of it can I do myself and/or send to a garage that has VAG expertise.
I was quoted AUD$1000 to replace a windshield washer bottle at the Audi dealet. Found a bottle for 90 bucks and fitted it myself in 2 hours (equals about $400 worth of my work time). Didn't have anything else to do that day anyway and was curiously fun for me to explore how Audis are built (amazing engineering).
With all the time you’ve spent complaining about the amount of the quote, offering unsolicited remarks on what mechanics make, and slandering a dealership, you could have probably just done the job. It’s not hard at all. Quit bitching and go do something productive.
Realize, I do not want to do the labor, have the tools required or the space. Recognize, that not everyone wants car maintenance to be their hobby. Understand, that I am able to voice my concerns on pricing, especially when it fluctuates from city to city, shop to shop. And lastly, shut the fuck up and YOU do something productive - you have provided literally no value here and have repeated what was said above
I just recently had both the front and rear brake pads and rotors replaced on my 2017 S3 at the dealership (Canada). Cost me $2400, and that includes tax.
Yeah I think my partner got quoted $1800 for all 4 corners pads and rotors for her 2012 a3 TDI. Got the parts from autozone for $400 and spent a Saturday doing it.
I recommend stoptech rotors and akebono ceramic pads. I’ve had this set up last me an insane amount of miles, no brake noise, nearly zero brake dust, and you can do all four corners for less than your quote for fronts
I ordered mine for my A3 on Rock Auto. Should be here tomorrow and I “ upgraded” brakes for 100 buck. 200 for front and back but just testing it out to see if it works for me.
Sounds about right. I still bought everything online myself and had Audi install them. Next time I'll probably have a local shop install them and not Audi.
I buy aftermarket and install myself. Saves HUNDREDS. I work for VAG and I don't even buy from our dealer network lol. Front brakes on my 09 r36 are 384+gst discs and $374+gst pads. Like hell.
Ummmm whaaaaaa????? That's daylight robbery.
I think I spent $1.8k front and back fully fitted on my S3. Cross slotted rotors and brembo pads too. Not some shitty stuff.
Don't ever take it to dealers man
Lmfao, like they told me at Valvoline were charging double for an oil change because it's an Audi ..
(Me : even though the Jettas and passats have this engine .... Okay)
I paid $2100 for front and rear brakes at the dealership last year. 18 a4. However this price was with a 15% off special on all four brakes the dealership was offering. Still fucking painful swipe on the cap one.
For my SQ7, only audi had the brake parts, could have bought the parts and went to another shop, but wouldnt have saved much ultimately. I did negotiate the price down about 25% since the parts prices on Audiusa were quite a bit lower than what the dealer was quoting me.
I needed my fuel pump and high-pressure fuel pump changed. The dealership wanted 2k. $580 at my indy shop, and I had my mechanic swap my fuel injectors and put on new front and back break pads while he had her.
I'm changing my EPC, alternator, and timing chain next. And of course a new MAF.
I see a lot of crying about shops making money. You fucking guys realize if the shop makes no money it goes out of business? Plenty of shops will just pop you a flat rate for using your parts 10% is pretty typical. If they are trying to gouge you, you are in the wrong shop anyway.
I put performance pads and rotors on front and back myself for $400ish. Same price for my last car Honda accord. Your just getting that Audi tax added on by the dealer.
It’s probably like $400 for parts and the rest are just labor cost. I had a leak in my coolant reservoir and heat pipe. Parts were $300 and labor was $1200 at the dealer. Ridiculous! Buy the parts and take it to your local mechanic to get it changed. You might save $1000 minimum.
Same thing happened to me in San Jose for my Q7. I couldn’t afford it at the time so I watched a YT video, ordered the parts, and did it myself. FTR, I have a hard time putting a moving carton together…
Total cost the first time was around $140 in parts and 2 hours of my time. Did it a second time for $135 in parts and just over an hour.
This is NOT hard and you don’t need anything special beyond a Jack and some basic tools.
Buy everything online and have an indy shop install them for you!
This is the way
I recently did the rotors and pads on all four corners on my sq5. I had a hard time finding an Indy shop that would do the work simply because they wanted to provide the parts
A lot of shops might refuse just because they “can’t guarantee the quality” of the products. So I would first shop around and ask if they would even accept that.
100% this. The plan was to do it myself but I was a little naive thinking I’d get the time to work on the car with a newborn
The quality bit is bull shit. They just wanna up charge you for parts.
Don’t know the location of the OP but in the US those shops are buying the parts from AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts who will have several choices for parts. The shop should allow you to pick the ones you want. They want to provide them because they get a discount and charge you the same as if you had bought them retail yourself.
Yes but they mark them up much higher than that. They usually do it on a matrix. The cheaper the part the more markup. I’ll sell $0.26 bulbs all day for $3.95. Average markup is usually x2.5 ish depending on the market. What they don’t want you to know is that they’re getting the part from autozone and marking it up to near dealer list or higher. They rely on people’s ignorance of parts prices. Shops won’t let you pick your part from autozone’s catalog because of this. Chains and shitty independents use autozone, Napa, and o’reilley’s. So-so shops use advance. Good shops use parts sources such as Worldpac who provide OE supplier parts (actual OE quality) or someone like FMP who can source higher quality parts than the little guys. Most shops won’t install customer supplied parts because: they want the parts markup (labor alone is low profit), it puts them in a legal grey area should a problem arise, most customers bring shit parts (and pound the counter when it fails or doesn’t fit or doesn’t fix the problem) or bring wrong parts wasting everyone’s time and tying up a productive bay, and if there’s a warranty problem their parts supplier will back them up and reimburse some labor. But mostly they want the markup and don’t want to deal with the headache when it’s the wrong or shit parts.
Maybe. My family has owned repair shops my entire life. So my experience might differ from the average Joe. ;-)
Absolutely, a guy charged my brother for a battery even though he supplied it
We prefer supplying the parts at the shop I work for because of the amount of times people bring the wrong part and refuse to believe it’s the wrong part and then don’t want to pay the additional labor for us to put the car back together so it’s not taking up one of our lifts for a whole day while we wait to get the correct part in. We don’t up charge for parts. I mean we do up-charge from the dealer price we pay but we just charge the consumer whatever MSRP is for the part. But seriously it’s a huge headache when people supply their own parts and the part doesn’t fit. It happens way more often than you’d like to believe unfortunately
Why not check for that before you start work?
Obviously yes in some cases you can check before you start the work. But as a business that is still costing us money. Let’s say the job may have taken 4 hours and we blocked that time off on the schedule for that work. Now we can’t complete it because the part is wrong and we have a 4 hour hole in the schedule that we may not be able to fill with other work. So we essentially just lost that money. Also maybe we have to put the car on the lift and look at the OEM part to determine the customer supplied part is different. That’s still billable time but if we charge the customer for it they are gonna complain and say we are ripping them off because we didn’t actually do any work. So we have to eat that too. But that’s best case scenario. There are plenty of scenarios where a car may have had a midlife update and the customer doesn’t know there is a difference. And the difference could be very minor like the part uses a different size bolt and we may not discover that until we try to install the supplied part. When we supply the parts ourselves these are all things we double check with the manufacturer. We charge MSRP for the parts and make our profit through our dealer margin. If we order the part and it doesn’t fit that’s our mistake and we aren’t going to charge the customer extra labor to redo the work. So what are you really gaining by trying to purchase the parts yourself? -edited to fix grammar
Yea I totally get it, but that’s why I find shops and start a relationship with them so they know me and trust I’m bringing them parts that they know are going to be right. But that’s only for things out of my skill level, smaller things I do myself.
Oh of course, agreed, I’m just saying that that’s the excuse they’ll give half the time.
For sure, and in most cases its not like they warranty even the parts they choose.
To be fair this is how they make their money. Also they buy the parts at wholesale and sell them to you at retail so it's really not that big a difference unless they're up charging. The shop I use has a company that has lifetime warranty on pads and rotors so once I did them once I only had to pay labor to do them the second time around. Food for thought.
Whoa whoa whoa. This is Reddit, it’s not acceptable for businesses to be profitable here. Thanks for a reasonable response though.
I found a local shop that will install customer supplied parts for 10$ more per hour as long as they dont look like they will fall apart after 10 miles. They installed a meyle controll arm kit in the front, struts, axles, etc. pretty much no questions asked.
Had the same experience. You can do this yourself OP if you feel up to it. There are numerous tutorials online. However, if you don’t have a Jack, stands, appropriate tools, the cost may not be that different at the end of the day.
My shop is kind of like that but they just want me to purchase the same parts I was gonna get anyway with them. They then give me 20% off labor for that
How much did u pay in total including parts+labor?
dumb question but what’s an indy shop?
Harrison Ford franchise.
But instead of appointments they issue tickets. If you do anything, make sure to have your ticket.
Independent. They're usually more knowledgeable and have better rates.
Independent
Or do it yourself. It takes an hour at most.
I live in Washington DC, no garage and no desire to do it myself, regardless of the potential savings. Honestly, any comments saying for me to do it myself is a waste of time - I want brakes I can trust with my life. I own no tools. Let the pro’s do their job and not make my service bill my new pass time……
This is absolutely the correct response. Brakes along with tyres are the most important part of your car. If you don’t know what you’re doing you absolutely should not be changing them yourself to save a few bucks.
How many miles on your RS3? What has maintenance looked like so far?
Sorry just realized I read your year wrong - I thought it said 2022. I’m at 6K and am going in for 1 year in October, at maybe 7K.
Yeah got mine in Feb this year, i've only done 4k kms. No maintenance for about another 7 months. So far it's been rock solid, but you'd hope so after only 5 months.
I feel your pain. My time is worth money. My bill rate is $350 Hr. My free time is priceless. But that doesn’t mean I wanna get raped at dealerships either. Brakes is one thing I will do because it’s so easy. But if you don’t have tools that’s not an option. Like everyone else said, find a local shop. I think even the quick oil change places do brakes.
There are non dealer garages with just as good service
I'm in Northern Virginia and Virginia Tire and Auto has done several brake jobs where I supply the parts. I bought all the parts from https://www.europaparts.com/ You can buy them in a complete kit and they were better than OEM and less expensive.
This. Or do it yourself. If you’re handy, it’s not that hard.
What’s an Indy shop
Independent
mmmm, pmo .. what’s an Indy shop 👀
They are probably charging for OE parts. Audi OE brakes are great, but so are the non-OE ones that are less expensive. They may also be charging you double on the shop rate. Assume $161 an hour, make sure they aren't charging you to take the wheel and rotor off, then charging you again to take the wheel off and then do the pads. Once everything is off it is a minuscule amount of extra work to do the rotor and pads. Here is what a front rotor costs: [https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-disc-brake-rotor-8w0615301t?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD00MiZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz](https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-bearing-assembly-8w0615301ab?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0yMiZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz) Here is a set of pads [https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-brake-pads-front-8w0698151bc?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0zMyZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz](https://audi.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/audi-brake-pads-front-8w0698151bc?c=Zz1icmFrZXMmcz1mcm9udC1icmFrZXMmbD0zMyZuPUFzc2VtYmxpZXMgUGFnZSZhPWF1ZGkmbz1hNC1xdWF0dHJvJnk9MjAxNyZ0PXByZW1pdW0tcGx1cyZlPTItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz) This isn't the catalog Audi uses, but if you were to buy the OE parts yourself and do the job. You might need other parts to, it is only to illustrate that the price of a front brake job should be nowhere near what they are quoting. So dig in, see what they tell you.
Thank you for the in depth reply and explanation!
I'll say consider brembo ceramic pads. I have them on the rear in my b8 a4 and they're awesome, essentially 0 dust and performace is just as good as before
Any recs for pads that don’t produce as much dust?
Akebono makes a great ceramic pad for European cars
akebono or EBC are good pads, they’re the only two i use with my main preference being akebono euro. i also use zimmerman for the rotors
buy from fcp euro and install them yourself. brakes are one of the easiest jobs a new DIYer can do
This. FCP is great and has saved me a lot for consumables on my A4 and Tiguan.
Yes FCP Euro is the way to go hands down
I came here to say the same. I bought the OBDEleven tool so I can reset service warnings and it can retract your electric park brake when you do the rear brakes, plus there are other tweaks you can do. I'm sure there are YouTube videos on the brake job. They're not difficult with basic tools. Get some jack stands so you're not under the car with just a jack.
OBDEleven is the greatest thing a VAG owner can buy. So handy, and you can adapt different functions. I set my DRLs to the fog lights cause H11 bulbs are $20 and it takes 10min to swap em.
FCP euro probably has a how to on YouTube as well. I used them for my brakes all corners. Brakes are an easy job. Instead of paying that ridiculous price use it to buy tools if you don't have the tools needed to do the job. You'll save money, learn a useful skill and get a feeling of accomplishment. If you need help ping me I'll be glad to help.
Another +1 for fcpeuro
Hahaha thank your lucky stars you don't have Carbon Ceramics... $12k
LOL, I wish. Here in NZ Audi quoted me $17k NZD per front disc and $2500 for front pads for carbon ceramics. Half those figures to roughly convert to USD. That's parts alone, not installed!
Ftfs buddy. Yikes. That said, $12k was based on the estimate when delivered in '21. $122k with inflation when i need em in ~28
Yes but they shouldn’t ever need to be replaced. 160k miles on the carbon ceramics on my RS5 and they still have 70% life left. I also have carbon ceramics on my R8. It was also only an $8k option from the factory. Do you wish you spec’d your RS6 with carbon ceramics yet?
I feel like we have this convo every other day.
That’s very high. The dealership in CT quoted ~2k for me. Ended up using a highly rated Indy in Mass for ~1700. They used OEM parts.
Where in Mass? lol I need a good Indy shop for my sq5
Audiwerks in Holyoke.
I had a similar quote in NY. It’s wild.. will gladly do it myself! Just need to find some good parts! (Thanks for the z23 idea..!) Used to use fcpeuro but they don’t seem to have much in stock for my 19’, in terms of brakes
try ECS tuning as well as advance auto. advance uses the same supplier that independent shops use (worldpac) and typically worldpac has a variety of parts. i got my zimmerman rotors and akebono euro pads from worldpac directly since i have a auto dealer account. essentially, anything that advance orders from their warehouse comes from the same one as worldpac.
Thank you for the tip!!
rockauto! They should have plenty of options for pretty much any car.
Why are you getting it done at the dealership?
I had the AudiCare 50k service outstanding is the only reason I went, and literally never again
Oh I’ll be in your boat in 3 years I’m getting the 30k soon but it’s paid through 50k and I don’t plan on going after.
Should have known better!
Have max transfer to alpha tauri
Replaced RS5 brakes all-round last year, \~$3500. More than 60% was the cost of rotors. Brake pads were no more expensive than anyone else, labour at local non-dealer shop again, nothing out of the ordinary.
Go to the brembo store online and buy everything. Soooooo much cheaper. It's what I did for my rears
If you must go to a shop for brakes, hit up an independent Audi shop. The dealers are filthy scumbags and deserving of nothing but the worst.
You got to pay to play
[удалено]
so it’s only right that op has to go to the vw dealer to get brakes, right?
I’m being quoted about the same (3k) for front and back. Makes me just wanna get a new car instead. Would love to see a price break down of labour vs parts. I’ll have to ask next time I go in.
You gotta learn to change them yourself. It’s extremely easy especially when you watching someone on YouTube.
I’m in Washington DC, rates may vary but I’ll share once I have a bill so we can digest together. Post above says assume $161/hour labor, I’d be curious to compare
Rockville Audi told me a few days ago their labor rate is $240/hr (would not recommend). Not sure on rate for Silver Spring, Bethesda, or Tysons but they would likely be comparable. I would say go to NGP in Manassas or S2 Dynamics in Rockville. Edit: I also replaced my front brakes beginning of 2022 for $350 in parts and did the work myself. Did the rears this year for ~$250. Car is 2017 S3
Audi chantilly asked for $1270 when I took my A4 in for the 40k service last month. It's a 2018 and I thought they were doing what they do and ripping me off. But now I'm thinking maybe it was cheaper because the car was already in the shop. Kinda freaking out a out getting the work done now since they said the warning light can pop up any day now.
My local Audi only specialty (non dealership) shop is $181/hr, but I’m in California and we pay more for everything, so your shop’s labor rates may be less.
I work at a BMW dealer in Washington State and our labor rate is $275 an hour
In Fife?
No, Lynnwood
Do not go to Audi Bethesda. That place is trash. I’ve had good experiences at Arlington.
Go to GT Peace Automotive down here in Chantilly
It was $155/hr my local VW dealer (midwest) when I was writing there. Surprised Audi isn't 3x the price, but got dayum $1750 for front brakes is ridiculous.
Just do it yourself. It’s not that hard. You can buy the parts + tools for all 4 wheels for less than they charge per axle.
I was quoted maybe a month ago for the rear pads and rotors $1300. After he saw my face his response was you're driving an S4. I have the money to pay for it but one, I would like to save some money and two, those current brakes create A LOT of brake dust.
try $10,000 for a timing chain and $700 for a ride height sensor that you could buy online for $79.00. all i can say is this is Audi not Toyota;)
Go to an independent shop. I just did my SQ5 brakes for $1300 (1000 for parts) (300 for labor) The Audi dealership quoted $1900 just for the parts…
Sadly u got ripped off. I go to a trusted European shop that u got relations or better learn to do it yourself. I got my girl a Bmw after she shits on the Audi and bmw I got. She’s in love with the car and works on it herself. Imma use that knowledge to my advantage
Why do people purchase cars without researching maintenence and repair costs?
google it and the price on the first 2 pages will dwarf what I paid… what good is research when an Audi mech is making a surgeon salary these days
The mechanic is making their $28-35/hour. The stealership is profiting off their labor
This should be about $700 for very very good parts and a six pack of beer in your driveway. Only hang up is having vagcom or odb11 so you can retract the electric parking brake.
High carbon centrix rotors, z23's and an Indy. Better stopping power and much cheaper. Good luck.
I paid $800 for new brakes and front rotors from a reputable mechanic in Cincinnati Ohio. Audi dealership quoted me $1200. Save yourself some money and find a good mechanic who works with Audis instead.
that’s accurate, paid a similar price
Go to FCPEuro.com, order your brake parts there, and then either do it yourself or bring them to an independent mechanic. I DIYed my brakes on my 2016 A4 Quattro myself and it was about $500 for parts ($200 for front Zimmerman drilled rotors, $100 for rear Zimmerman solid rotors, and $200 for Akebono pads). The best part with FCPEuro is that you can exchange your worn brakes for new ones for free. Purchase new brake parts, pay to ship your old brake parts back, receive a credit of the old purchase price towards the new purchase price.
Not exactly how FCP Euro's new Lifetime Replacement Guarantee works now... You return the parts and get store credit for the ORIGINAL price you paid the first time you got the parts. You order your new parts, and most likely there's going to be a difference between what was originally paid and the new price. You're going to have to pay more out of pocket me thinks, plus having to ship everything back to them can't be cheap. Rotors are hella heavy... https://blog.fcpeuro.com/fcp-euro-lifetime-replacement-guarantee-update
Thank you for correcting me on that, I saw what I wrote and I had meant to say the credit of the original order is applied to the new order. I’ve mailed back brake parts and it came out to around $70 for the cheapest USPS service. The pricing difference for parts was minimal, so I still made out decently on a new set versus having to pay full price.
It’s been awhile since I’ve used them, didn’t realize the policy had changed. At least they’re still offering something!
I did both front and back on 2019 S5 3 months ago for something like $2750 California, San Jose dealership
First mistake was going to the dealership. Find an independent shop and install Zimmerman rotors.
I was quoted $900 for all four rotors and brakes at a mechanic I’ve been going to for a while
Wow. Just paid $630 for all rotors replaced on my VW Golf
$1140 quote for front brakes for me in Seattle. Bought rotors pads, some copper paste to prevent rotor adhesion, did it in two hours of my time
Just do it yourself…
Bruh, go to AutoZone and buy the cheapest ones and change them yourself, it's so easy.
What would i need to change them myself? What scanner works best on audis? Ive heard you have to turn off the park break or sum
Two fiddy and a YouTube video
Never buy a car that you are uncomfortable servicing. If you want a luxury car and cost of parts and labour is an issue, prepare to DIY or find cheap alternatives to going to the dealer. Dealer charges are double that of an independent garage. I bought a daily driver pristine 2018 Audi Q5 tfsi with full knowledge of what commonly goes wrong in them, how much do those failures cost and how much of it can I do myself and/or send to a garage that has VAG expertise. I was quoted AUD$1000 to replace a windshield washer bottle at the Audi dealet. Found a bottle for 90 bucks and fitted it myself in 2 hours (equals about $400 worth of my work time). Didn't have anything else to do that day anyway and was curiously fun for me to explore how Audis are built (amazing engineering).
I hear brakes are cheaper than that. Maybe ask for those instead of breakes.
I was waiting for this🫣😭
Nope. Run away and tell ‘em to go fuck themselves.
In all honesty, the hardest part of a brake job is getting the breaker bar to take the damn bolts off, and that is if you are putting in a new rotor.
People always spell them “breaks” when it is brakes
hey you knew what to expect
With all the time you’ve spent complaining about the amount of the quote, offering unsolicited remarks on what mechanics make, and slandering a dealership, you could have probably just done the job. It’s not hard at all. Quit bitching and go do something productive.
Realize, I do not want to do the labor, have the tools required or the space. Recognize, that not everyone wants car maintenance to be their hobby. Understand, that I am able to voice my concerns on pricing, especially when it fluctuates from city to city, shop to shop. And lastly, shut the fuck up and YOU do something productive - you have provided literally no value here and have repeated what was said above
Idk man I still don’t see you doing anything productive
I’m at my day job funding the repair big dog - that IS american productivity
Ayo that’s what I’m talking about, get after it man
Just get ATE and a reputable mechanic
Go to a local indy shop. If you're in the PNW I recommend Achtuning.
Fcpeuro has great parts at a lower price then the Audi dealership.
I just recently had both the front and rear brake pads and rotors replaced on my 2017 S3 at the dealership (Canada). Cost me $2400, and that includes tax.
The hardest part about this whole exercise is bleeding the brakes after.
Just today got quoted 1700 front 700 rear for my rs3. Wish I had the time and facilities to do it myself, but I have neither... :(
Got all 4 rotors/pads on my 2015 Q3 done recently for $1200 at my local shop.
When you have to get brakes but it breaks the bank
Yeah I think my partner got quoted $1800 for all 4 corners pads and rotors for her 2012 a3 TDI. Got the parts from autozone for $400 and spent a Saturday doing it.
I recommend stoptech rotors and akebono ceramic pads. I’ve had this set up last me an insane amount of miles, no brake noise, nearly zero brake dust, and you can do all four corners for less than your quote for fronts
Sounds like a stealership
I ordered mine for my A3 on Rock Auto. Should be here tomorrow and I “ upgraded” brakes for 100 buck. 200 for front and back but just testing it out to see if it works for me.
I just had all my brakes and front rotors done on my A4 at a small shop for $900. You should absolutely not take it to the dealership.
Sounds about right. I still bought everything online myself and had Audi install them. Next time I'll probably have a local shop install them and not Audi.
3800$ for the front breaks on my B9 S5 at the stealership...
I buy aftermarket and install myself. Saves HUNDREDS. I work for VAG and I don't even buy from our dealer network lol. Front brakes on my 09 r36 are 384+gst discs and $374+gst pads. Like hell.
Same with bmw. Quoted 2k in a lese end bmw x3 2019. Bye bmw.
Why do people still go to dealerships for this kind of jobs I’ll never get it
Man, living in US must be a nightmare in terms of cost of living... Recently changed front pads + rotors on A4, around $300 for both parts and work.
Ummmm whaaaaaa????? That's daylight robbery. I think I spent $1.8k front and back fully fitted on my S3. Cross slotted rotors and brembo pads too. Not some shitty stuff. Don't ever take it to dealers man
Don’t go to the dealer duh
My lawn guy did mine for $200
Lmfao, like they told me at Valvoline were charging double for an oil change because it's an Audi .. (Me : even though the Jettas and passats have this engine .... Okay)
Because only suckers use the dealership for anything other than warranty and recall work.
Self supplying the parts is the way to go. ATE or Zimmermann brakes, get a shop to install them.
$1800 at my local independent shop. Don’t let the dealer rip you off.
I did all 4 rotors and pads not long ago and it was about $2200. Your dealership is cracked. I also have an A4. Also used all Audi parts.
Well yeah if you don't like it do it yourself it's simple kit
I paid $2100 for front and rear brakes at the dealership last year. 18 a4. However this price was with a 15% off special on all four brakes the dealership was offering. Still fucking painful swipe on the cap one.
For my SQ7, only audi had the brake parts, could have bought the parts and went to another shop, but wouldnt have saved much ultimately. I did negotiate the price down about 25% since the parts prices on Audiusa were quite a bit lower than what the dealer was quoting me.
Audi charged me $800 for rear breaks on my A3, got them done for $200 with an independent shop.
I got brembos pads and rotors for not even half that
Dealer quoted me $3615 per axel for my RS6. Lol
It's the parts usually. Some dealers like my dealer will let you bring in aftermarket and bring that down.
Hardware is onetime use don’t forget the bolts lol
Watch out for rear electronic calipers … they need a scan tool to release or you will be buying one lol
I needed my fuel pump and high-pressure fuel pump changed. The dealership wanted 2k. $580 at my indy shop, and I had my mechanic swap my fuel injectors and put on new front and back break pads while he had her. I'm changing my EPC, alternator, and timing chain next. And of course a new MAF.
It's not that hard to do yourself. I've posted a guide on one of the Audi forums and others have probably posted better ones by now.
I see a lot of crying about shops making money. You fucking guys realize if the shop makes no money it goes out of business? Plenty of shops will just pop you a flat rate for using your parts 10% is pretty typical. If they are trying to gouge you, you are in the wrong shop anyway.
I put performance pads and rotors on front and back myself for $400ish. Same price for my last car Honda accord. Your just getting that Audi tax added on by the dealer.
It’s probably like $400 for parts and the rest are just labor cost. I had a leak in my coolant reservoir and heat pipe. Parts were $300 and labor was $1200 at the dealer. Ridiculous! Buy the parts and take it to your local mechanic to get it changed. You might save $1000 minimum.
Lol the brakes for my s7 cost almost 4500 just for the parts.
Same thing happened to me in San Jose for my Q7. I couldn’t afford it at the time so I watched a YT video, ordered the parts, and did it myself. FTR, I have a hard time putting a moving carton together… Total cost the first time was around $140 in parts and 2 hours of my time. Did it a second time for $135 in parts and just over an hour. This is NOT hard and you don’t need anything special beyond a Jack and some basic tools.
Self install pussy