My father has his 1996 C280 in at a Merc Specialist and has been told that he needs to overhaul the rear brakes eg Rear Discs , rear pads , rear brake shoes and caliper overhaul kit. Has been quoted $1400 + gst which I thought was excessive but wanted a second opinion. Was thinking of just sending it over to Just Brakes in Mt Smart.
thejazzpianoma,
May 25, 9:20pm
Give startech a call http://www.4mercs.com/ They have genuine parts for really good prices and know what they are talking about. Then you can confirm the prices of the parts with them.
I would be a little reluctant to send it to somewhere that just does brakes, although they may be O.K depending on where they source parts.
Anyhow, start with startech and go from there, they could likely recommend a garage to fit their parts as well.
Yes Startech are good firm to start with, I use them for parts for my Merc, honest bunch of guys to deal with.
siobhan41,
May 25, 9:38pm
Thanks so much for the help will call them now. My father is elderly and it worries me that some places take advanatge of this. Not saying this place is but I need to check for my piece of mind. Problem I'm having is they aren't being very up front at present with what the model number of the car is and size of rotors etc.
thejazzpianoma,
May 25, 9:40pm
Do you have the registration plate for the car! If so you can look up whats needed at the likes of carjam.co.nz.
thejazzpianoma,
May 25, 9:41pm
BTW, Generally Mercdes are actually pretty good price wise for parts and in general not a bad proposition for an elderly owner. Just a matter of getting sorted with a Garage you can trust. It would be interesting to hear what Startech have to say about it.
siobhan41,
May 25, 9:53pm
I rang Startech and they seem great. Total incl GST $600 so as long as I can find someone to install for less the 1k he is better off.
elect70,
May 25, 9:57pm
Try that for rolls Royce . Mate bought 75 back from UK & was quoted $2500just for parts . He worked for Cat agent & Ferrodo agent was there 1 day so mate asked him about relines& they remade all his pads for $300 .
thejazzpianoma,
May 25, 10:01pm
Unless there is something particually nasty about that model I wouldn't think that would be difficult. Even if it took them a whole afternoon to fit them youshould be much better off.
Did startech give you a rough idea how long the job may take!
tmenz,
May 25, 10:03pm
I had excellent service from Just Brakes - certainly worth asking them.
siobhan41,
May 25, 10:10pm
Good point i didn't actually ask which is a little blond. They gave me a phone number for another shop in Panmure called Motorservice Forge Lane Panmure and they are calling me with a estimate.
. Did startech give you a rough idea how long the job may take![/quote]
thejazzpianoma,
May 25, 10:22pm
I don't know them from a bar of soap so that sounds promising. What was on my mind was that places like that often don't use genuine parts. This is not necessarily an issue with a Toyota but non-genuine Mercedes parts are often more expensive than the real thing. Plus with the Mercedes pads etc you know they are made of good quality compound. Plenty of after-market parts that use inferior brake compounds to keep the price low.
If they are happy to do it labour only with the original poster supplying the parts it may be fine.
dbolton,
May 25, 11:13pm
Almost any independent garage would do a brake job . Mercs main dealer charges are generally much higher than an independent. Speaking from experience as I have a previous year Merc of the same model
siobhan41,
Jun 13, 11:10pm
Small update that the car has now been sitting for coming on 3 weeks with excuse after excuse for the delays. Took 2 weeks for the caliper seals to arrive and once they had completed the overhaul of the rear brakes they call to say that the master cyl caused the original fault and will be another week.
thejazzpianoma,
Jun 14, 12:02am
Where did you take it in the end and were the parts sourced from Startech!
siobhan41,
Jun 14, 12:19am
Ended up leaving it at the Merc specialist! in Mt Eden and left them to arrange the parts. My father decided it would be less stress on him just to leave it with them but after 3 weeks without his car I think he wishes he hadn't.
Guess the bonus is that he has booked in to test drive a 2008 VW Polo GTI hoping for some reliability.
sr2,
Jun 14, 1:03am
This is a classic (and sadly theses days often typical) example of a mechanic using the customers chq book to diagnose a problem. Misdiagnosing a faulty master cylinder is just plain incompetent!
siobhan41,
Jun 11, 9:43am
The thing that annoys me most is the fact we have to call them every second day for an update. Everyday since last Wednesday we have been told it will be ready the following day only to be told today that they have staff on sick leave and it might be done Tuesday/Wednesday.
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