Ford E 450 Sunseeker - Brakes

[Grape]

Just having my brakes done - back needs complete overhaul (seized).

Labour is $2275 for back end - Parts extra.

Front was front was $450 for pad replacement only.

I know they are duallies but labour seems very high!

Anybody had experience with this?

Trying to get service was a major issue - nobody would take a Motorhome in - finally got it into a Truck Service Center.

I'm in Canada.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Grape

Just having my brakes done - back needs complete overhaul (seized).

Labour is $2275 for back end - Parts extra.

Front was front was $450 for pad replacement only.

I know they are duallies but labour seems very high!

Anybody had experience with this?

Trying to get service was a major issue - nobody would take a Motorhome in - finally got it into a Truck Service Center.

I'm in Canada.

Not knowing the extent of damage caused by the seized rear brakes it's hard to judge. That said, $2275 for labor only on rear end seems extreme. Even if shop labor rate is $200/hr (not unusual in a Truck Shop) that means eleven hours of work for a job that shouldn't take more than 4-6 hours max.

Again, perhaps the rear brakes involved far more work than usual which is hard to diagnose in an online post.

[JohnandSandiOnTheRoad]

Originally Posted by Grape

Just having my brakes done - back needs complete overhaul (seized).

Labour is $2275 for back end - Parts extra.

Front was front was $450 for pad replacement only.

I know they are duallies but labour seems very high!

Anybody had experience with this?

Trying to get service was a major issue - nobody would take a Motorhome in - finally got it into a Truck Service Center.

I'm in Canada.

Why don’t you ask for a parts & labor estimate. That will help you understand the full extent of the needed repairs. It is perfectly reasonable to request an estimate’break-down’ before you authorize work to be done, even if it is in the shop and disassembled.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by JohnandSandiOnTheRoad

Why don’t you ask for a parts & labor estimate. That will help you understand the full extent of the needed repairs. It is perfectly reasonable to request an estimate’break-down’ before you authorize work to be done, even if it is in the shop and disassembled.

Especially a breakdown of the labor operations. Hard to get for travel trailer but for a MH which is on an automotive chassis, estimating programs have a complete breakdown of all labor operations that went into the estimate.

As for parts? What's needed is pretty much the same from shop to shop and costs are determined by how much markup the shop adds. When it comes to brakes, I've always found that OE product performs best and longer.

[ChrisParise]

Agree with getting an itemized estimate.

Had my front brakes done in March.

New rotors, pads, caliper kit, (all Ford OEM parts) brake fluid - $1,450 includes labor. Parts not cheap, OEM and NAPA were about same so I stuck with Ford.

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[MR.M]

That seems excessive pads and rotors for front and rear s/b about $500 then labor on top of that . since I'm a do it yourself person and disc brakes are easy to replace i would estimate 4 hrs max .

[Sunseeker16]

Seems awful steep. Especially for the rear. Are the rears disc or drum brakes?

[No-Fish]

the brakes on the rear , it takes about 5 hrs a side..if you replace the dics. You have to pull the rear hubs off..to do that you need to pull the alxes out. New seals on axles and hubs..reservice the diff., The front just replaceing the pads about an hour a side. About 2 hours if you do rotor also. I do most of my maint. The e450 is setup like my f350..

[Sunseeker16]

Originally Posted by No-Fish

the brakes on the rear , it takes about 5 hrs a side..if you replace the dics. You have to pull the rear hubs off..to do that you need to pull the alxes out. New seals on axles and hubs..reservice the diff., The front just replaceing the pads about an hour a side. About 2 hours if you do rotor also. I do most of my maint. The e450 is setup like my f350..

Wow, 5 hours a side! I would have never imagined. Doesn't look that difficult to me. My problem is getting it off the ground. After that I'm golden.

[No-Fish]

Its a job.. look it up on you tube ( replaceing the dics )

[TitanMike]

IF the rotors aren't too worn or damaged it's possible for them to be turned on the vehicle if the shop has the right equipment. The equipment is expensive however so shops may be few and far between. Entry level machines have entry level prices ~$10,000 and up.

[doc73]

Do they even turn rotors anymore? I know they used to be more popular but now it seems they just replace.

[cariboo camper]

Originally Posted by doc73

Do they even turn rotors anymore? I know they used to be more popular but now it seems they just replace.

Labor and equipment to turn rotors cost more than replacement.

[cariboo camper]

Just a heads up for folks. Keep an eye on your brake pads, you should be able to get a few pad changes before having to do the rotors.

Once you done to metal on your brake pads your rotors are pretty much done. Never let them go beyond the wear bar. I change mine out at about 60%.

[John Maryland]

$2300 is terribly high unless. I worked in the shop of a utility with hundreds of F series super duty trucks. Fords steel wheels are notorious for rusting to the hub in off road or trucks that operate for extended salt conditions. we had to heat more than one with the torch around the hub and beat against the tire with a sledge hammer to get them broke loose. I see the poster was from Canada the home of salted roadways from November to March. I became common practice to run a doe grinder around then wheel pilot and a sander around the hub. We used never-seeze every tire change on the hub. I would guess the shop has run into that problem and CYA on the estimate. A truck shop with the tools that rear job with out a wheel freeze is 5 hours,. New seals, rotor and loaded calibers make it go fast. Never reuse ford calibers that have age on them you are asking for problems.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by doc73

Do they even turn rotors anymore? I know they used to be more popular but now it seems they just replace.

Depends on the rotor. Some are close to "Discard/Minimum thickness when new and never have enough 'meat" left for turning. Some, usually heavy-duty, have more left so the surface can be smoothed before adding new pads.

About 25 years ago some really good "on the car" disc brake lathes started showing up on the market because of issues with replaceable rotors and hub mis-match issues. Turned on the vehicle always yields a true rotor and turning on an off vehicle lathe only does so by chance. This applies to replaceable rotors as Unicast rotors with hub cast into it can be turned on a lather rather successfully if lathe is maintained properly and operator knows what they're doing.

MOST car dealerships today and many large tire shops that do brake work now have an on the vehicle brake lathe. The best ones are made either by Pro-Cut or Hunter Engineering.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the disc brake pads and replace when the thinnest portion of the friction material is no thinner than the thickness of the steel backing plate on the pad. Do this and one can often get more than one brake job out of the same rotor (unless the rotor is really a throw away).

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by cariboo camper

Labor and equipment to turn rotors cost more than replacement.

Labor is almost zilch as first of all the rotors don't need to be removed. Second, the equipment can do thousands of brake jobs and the cost is amortized over all the jobs.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by John Maryland

$2300 is terribly high unless. I worked in the shop of a utility with hundreds of F series super duty trucks. Fords steel wheels are notorious for rusting to the hub in off road or trucks that operate for extended salt conditions. we had to heat more than one with the torch around the hub and beat against the tire with a sledge hammer to get them broke loose. I see the poster was from Canada the home of salted roadways from November to March. I became common practice to run a doe grinder around then wheel pilot and a sander around the hub. We used never-seeze every tire change on the hub. I would guess the shop has run into that problem and CYA on the estimate. A truck shop with the tools that rear job with out a wheel freeze is 5 hours,. New seals, rotor and loaded calibers make it go fast. Never reuse ford calibers that have age on them you are asking for problems.

Here in the Pacific NW shops that service trucks go through "Nev-R Seize" by the quart bottle, often one or two a month.

[doc73]

Originally Posted by cariboo camper

Labor and equipment to turn rotors cost more than replacement.

That was my thoughts