I Had To Change My Brakes And Rotors Today

[Pesh78]

Today, I went to Lexus Dealer in Chattanooga, and ask them I believe I need new brakes and they just went in reserved and said yes your brakes are gone. Then they called me today and said the rotors are minimun spec and needs to be change. Their explanation was I drove on my rotors and they cannot be turn. I paid 520 with new brakes and rotors oil change and tire rotation. I had about 52k on my 2008 Gs350. Anybody have any comments. Did I over pay?

[1990LS400]

I assume that you are talking about only the front brakes since there is no way you could get a four wheel brake job with rotors for close to $520. I am not familiar with rotor life on a 2008 GS350 but the front rotors on my 2000 LS400 show are still at the original thickness (no wear at all) at 136,000 miles. I checked the rotor thickness a few days ago.

If your brakes were "gone" you should have gotten a warning message in your instrument cluster. It's hard to say if you got a good deal since we don't know how much work was done or if the rotors or pads were really worn out. On most older Lexus cars, front rotors last well over 200,000 miles but that may not be the case on your car. It is rare for rear rotors to ever need replacing due to wear.

I was told at 73,000 miles that I needed rear brake pads but they still had 5K-10K miles of life left when I finally had them replaced at 120,000 miles. The Lexus dealer told me last fall that my front brake pads were worn out at 128,000 miles. The first set lasted 73,000 miles and according to my measurements, the second set will likely last beyond 150,000 miles.

Brake jobs are a "cash cow" for dealers and repair shops and I don't think you should ever trust a dealer or repair shop to tell you when a brake job is needed. My advice is to buy the appropriate gauges and measure brake and rotor thickness yourself -- then have the brake pads and/or rotors replaced only when you are certain they are below specification.