I have a 2005 Infiniti G35 Coupe with 43,000 or so miles on it and the braking
has faded noticeably.

I'd like to say though.. I drive pretty fast all the time... average 80 - 90 on the highway and I've done alot of hard braking. I'm very much impressed with the lifespan of the OEM Pads and the negligible amount of dust it produces.
It's performance has been spot on too. I don't really track my car anymore because I"m too busy with med-school stuff, working and other things.

So I think the OEM pads are pretty much perfect. Especially to last 43,000 miles with my kind of driving.. I killed my 02 Accord V6 Coupe's pads in 20,000 miles back in my younger days.

On to the topic.

so, naturally I decided to get estimates on brake jobs and get them done

I'd like to give people an example of what they can expect and what they should look for in terms of labor and parts.

I would also say.. buy the pads separately..Costs of brake service (all four wheels) for a 2005 G35 Coupe.


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Location: Grubbs/Sewell/Crest Infiniti
Parts: (From their website store, 132, Bull**** made up from Service rep, 180)
Labor: $440 - $600 (including machining rotors)
Total Cost: $632

Location: Midas
Parts: 132 from Infiniti parts store.
Labor: $220 (including machining rotors)
Total Cost: $352

Location: Small Texaco Gas Station Garage
Parts: 132 from Infiniti Parts
Labor: $180
Total Cost: $312

**WINNER**

Location: Local Speedshop that I've had install mods before.
Parts: 132 from Infiniti parts store.
Labor: $60 (including machining rotors)
Total Cost: $192


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Moral of the story?

NEVER go to a Infiniti dealer for basic service if you can help it.

The only legitimate reasons I could see for going to a dealer(unless putting money into the toilet and flushing it is your hobby.)

is if you need

a) a loaner car.
b) Warranty Service
c) to feel what its like to pay to "bend over"


Find a good small mechanic shop or speed shop/performance shop near you with a good reputation. Not only are they cheaper, they finish it alot faster.


As for worrying about people "joyriding" with your car. These people own a performance shop. In most cases I know, They more than likely have multiple cars. one being a show car, one being a drag car with a under 11 or 10 second slip, and a daily driver. They ain't gonna waste their time with your car. Besides, What about a infiniti dealer gives you the peace of mind that they don't screw with your car? I think i remember seeing on FA a thread where some service people at dealer talked about how they took out customers cars to "lunch" to test drive for "issues" and how he left a sick burnout in a taco bell parking lot or something.

Infiniti is no worse than taking it to a indie mechanic. but at least at the smaller shops you won't be paying to take it up where the sun don't shine.

as for this particular shop, I had them do my headers back when i had a av6 coupe.
Every place was quoting me 300 or 400 or 600

They quoted me like 100 or 120 or something and finished it in a hour.

no issues with the headers until honda accidently "blew" my accord's motor because of something they didnt install properly when they replaced my transmission. Then the dealer when they went to reinstall the headers left two of the header nuts off and it ended up leaking exhaust everywhere into the engine bay. so back to the dealer it went.

So yeah. Support your local speedshop =)

 

Oh yeah. if you did go to a infinti dealer and get ripped off.

I hope you abused the hell out of the loaner.
cuz you can assume they are doing the same to your car.

 

Make sure who ever you use has an on the car brake lathe to true rotors, also make sure the as mounted front rotors ARE MEASURED to meet runout specs after the trueing............these are the things necessary for a world class brake job not just a pad slap.

95% of all shops skip the little precise time consumming things necessary as do dealers.

A precision brake job with cleaning and measurements, rotor trueing etc. takes an hour per wheel.....use a stop watch and observe..........a pad slap takes an hour for all 4 wheels

 

That's interesting considering the infiniti dealer quoted me 2 hours for all wheels because there was a "wait" or else I'd get it faster.

going by what you said, I guess you can't trust the dealers to do a good job either. I would expect them to do all those little things you quoted for the ridiculous price they were charging me.

so I suppose the best thing is to do it yourself then as I don't know of any shop that has a "on the car" brake lathe. How does trueing it on the car differ from taking it out and doing it out of the car? what does having it on the car have anything to do with turning it?


I asked the shop where I got my breaks done if my rotors needed to be replaced or turned and they measured it with some tool and told me they were just fine. They said if i wanted to waste time/money they had no problem with it though. It ended up being 45 dollars instead of the 60 i thought for the labor.

It's funny how you'd never get that sort of honesty from a dealer.

 

Be prepaired to buy rotors also. Most rotors on cars today are way too thin and rarly have enough to machine. If they are ok to machine, make sure they have a machine that does a "non-directional" cut. Not just a circular cut around the disc. The problem I have found down south here is that NOBODY (even the major chains) carry ANY parts for an 05' sedan. "We can order them"

 

The on-car brake lathe will cut the rotors while on the car. The advantage of doing it this way is that you account for any runout between the rotor to hub mating surfaces. Most bench brake lathes do not put a non-directional finish, but most good techs usually use a die grinder or mini sander afterwards to do so.

 

I would love to find someone with one of these down here.

 

Just ask if they have a "pro-cut" lathe.