We bought a '06 X3 3.0i in August: CPO with 50,000 miles, It rolled over 60,000 this week and the brake pads light came on this morning on my way home.... Dealer wants 650 for fronts without rotors and 950 with rotors, the backs are 550 without, 750 with..... Ballpark guess of course. I'm a pretty competent mechanic-I do most of the maintenance and repairs on my vehicles. Should I do them myself or pay the dealer? Is there something special in the sensors, etc. that the dealer has to reset? Thanks!
DIY! If your sensor light was on, then you need to replace the sensor because it's usually destroyed when triggered. If you can't tell which one was triggered, replace both. They're cheap. So are pads & rotors if you look to the aftermarket, although these numbers don't look too far out of line for the rotors. Ask how much pads cost if you buy them with your 'CCA discount. RealOEM.com shows Jurids at $160 front and $107 rear. Better yet is if you know how to measure your rotor thickness and discover you don't need them right now. However, if you wait for a light to come on, then you need to have the rotors be no more than 50% down from their original thickness to their minimum spec because no light will tell you when your rotor is too thin. I rarely worry about rotors because I have my wheels off so often and I look at the brakes every time. IMHO, the labor charge is totally out of line. I am stunned that a job as simple as this one is so commonly viewed as a 'rape the customer' opportunity by dealerships. And they wonder why people call them "stealers" ...
brakes are pretty easy, I'm not sure if the pistons can be compressed with a c-clamp or if they have to be turned in, if they have to be turned you can probably take it to a regular shop to have it done
Doesn't the CPO warranty cover brakes. ??? If not, the dealer CPO'd the vehicle and the brakes should have had more than 10,000 miles left on the pads when they did the vehicle CPO inspection and put their certification on the car..They should have discovered that the brake pads were at their limits or close to limits at that time. Bring the vehicle back to the dealer and speak to the service mgr. Please let us know how you made out. Remember that one of the reasons people buy CPO'd vehicles from BMW dealers is to avoid these nightmares, remember CPO's are suposed to deliver peace of mind., express that to your service manager and demand they stand behind their product and deliver what they represented and promissed and that you don't want to be penalized for their oversight Remember, speak nice and walk in with a smile and tell them Norm sent you. Good luck, Norm...
100% dead on. When I bought my CPO 330Ci the dealer had just put on new brakes even though the car had less than 28K miles. When I inspected the brakes to make sure they weren't lying, the pads were at full thickness. Definitely go back to the dealer and demand that they replace the brakes under the CPO warranty.
Buying a CPO at 50k, the warrantee goes to 100k doesn't it?? Otherwise, DIY or bend over...whichever you prefer I think you could do all 4 wheels with pads, rotors and sensors for $600 yourself? All 4 at the dealer is about $1,200, I thought. I can't beleive they said $1,700. Were they smirking at the time? If you have to buy a few tools and a bentley manual the first time, it's still a great investment. So, maybe you are out $700 or $725 but now you've got everything you need to do it yourself in the future and saved yourself a grand. You might even be able to find someone in your BMWCCA local chapter to look over your shoulder the first time for a couple of post brake job beers. If you just have to do the fronts right now, you save half of the price listed above. Good Luck, Tim
I wound up doing the fronts myself. The rotors were within spec, so I only had to the front pads and sensor. I didn't get the CPO advice unitl I had done them already...doing the math, they probably had about 10,000 left on them when we bought it. We had put about 11,000 miles on it when the light came on. 1250 miles before its due for inspection. Looks like I'm gonna DIY that too!
