Spikedlee

iTrader: (6)

Hey all, tell me what you think of this...

Recently my brakes have been squeaking more than normal. It's usually more when I lightly press on the brakes but it has just been occuring way more it seems. Maybe about the past 2 months...I work out by Libertyville so I went ahead and made an appointment today to have them check everything out and see what is going on. The service manager comes out after about 25 minutes and says I need new brake pads and rotors. He then stated the "rotors were getting thin" What?! I have just reached 21K miles on the car which I purchased with almost 10K. I don't use the brakes hard at all as the main use of them is during my stop and go commute to work in the morning. I kept quiet, declined the work, and just wanted to get the hell out of there. Here is what the report stated that I got from Mitsu:

"Tech found front and rear brake pads to be at 2.5 mm, front and rear rotors too thin resurface d, recommended to replance front and rear brake pads, accessories and rotors. $1025 front $975 for rear, offer customer 1 day of free rental if brakes were purchased, customer declined service at this time"

First of all, as soon as he told me it was going to cost about 2 G's I wanted to tell him to get bent. To top it all off, they charged me $25 just to check the brakes out! I figured it woulda been free (correct me if I am wrong) as I still have a lot of miles left on my warranty. And WOW 1 day free car rental thats great when I had my old Acura and they would let me pick the damn fully loaded rental I wanted to use until they fixed whatever problem I had!

Later on while I was at work I gave Revvin9K's work (Firestone) a call just to get an estimate. I got quoted around $300 to replace all 4 pads with labor included, and around $500 to replace the rear rotors and all 4 pads. I guess I am not allowed to bring in my own pads to have them install for liability issues. BTW Bill the guy (Mike I think) told me about your car, sorry bro. I hope everything gets fixed alright. Anyways, the guy laughed at the quote Mitsu gave me, and even I have common sense to never let a dealer handle any work for my car unless it is covered by warranty. I am thinking about bringin it in to Firestone to have them get a second look as I just don't trust the shady *** Libertyville Mitsu dealership. Just a few questions for you locals around here:

1. Where have you gone to get pads replaced? Or did you do it yourself?
2. If so, how much did you end up paying total?
3. Did it make sense for Mitsu to charge for the brake inspection?
4. Can you recommend any decent brake pads? (already looked into Hawk pads)

If you have any other suggestions in regards to your own brake issues or what you think I should do, please feel free to chime in. Thanks all. I appreciate it.

emagdnim8

iTrader: (9)

I replaced my pads at about 20k miles, and my rotors have a nice sized lip on them too.

Check your brake fluid level. If its low, then replace the pads. This is pretty easy. There's a diy posted up here somewhere with pics. It doesn't take long at all.

Your rotors are probably fine. I do a lot of high speed braking, and mine still good.

If your pads still have enough meat on em, you should re-bed your pads to get rid of that squeaking. This helped with mine. The brakes still get loud when they heat up though..

Pads are a few hundred bucks at AMS. They have Hawk and Performance Friction. I got the Performance friction for the front, and Hawks for the rear. No complaints about em.

Spikedlee

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the good feedback!

revvin9k

iTrader: (23)

Hey Spiked, yeah my car has been giving me some damn issues. She will be taken care of on Monday with some other goodies as well.

When I needed my pads changed I went ahead and changed the rotors, pads, lines, and fluid. So instead of dealing with it I had AMS do it. Our STOCK rotors and pads are not cheap either. I went with Racing brake rotors F+R, and Ferodo pads in F and Hawk pads in the R. I love it.

evolution666

iTrader: (14)

You got to expect that from the dealer, they are out to F#$%K you, you know that.

Nad1370

iTrader: (1)

I doubt you need rotors at 21K and no grinding present.
They(dealer) probably just don't like cutting them. ( too much work )

I had to cut my front's 3X, my rears just once, .002" everytime to get rid the warp issue I had.
This was at 26K. I since replaced them with Hawk hps' and haven't had an issue yet at 50K. Still have enough pad life for another 20K. Rotors still look great A little noisy at times but tolerable for me.

Spikedlee

iTrader: (6)

I have read some feedback stating that Hawks cause some issues and end up squeaking like crazy. You guys that have it with no issues must be the lucky ones. I noticed that not everyone is using hawks for all 4 pads but just like 2 for the rear. I'm not too sure if Bill's work quoted me for stock pads or what but I'll find out when I get in there. I agree with you on the rotors. That dealership is a POS.

rodeo0808

iTrader: (1)

im running hawk street pads all the way around. did it myself (very easy, just use the diy on here). rotors do not need to be replaced that soon if all you are doing is stop and go. i do get some squeaking out of the hawks, what ever they are performance oriented break pads. they did the job this morning though when i spent out on the way to work due to schaumburg not cleaning and salting the f**king streets.