dwade1109

Hi everyone, longtime lurker first-time poster here.

I have a 1999 RX300, FWD, 95k miles, original engine and transmission.

I was out of town for two month and lent the car to my sister so she did not have to take the train. She called me about 6 weeks later and told me she thought the brakes were slipping. I told her I would look at it when I came back.

I came back and found the brakes spongy. I took the car to a local national brand auto mechanic shop and was told the car needs a new traction control master cylinder, flush, and front and rear pads AND rotors. Needless to say I was displeased, moreso when I was told the cost would be 1.5k.

I had three questions regarding this problem:
1) Anyone have any negative experiences with after market brake parts versus OEM? I have no plans of selling the vehicle, I will take it as far as I can get (150-200k?) and then move on from there.
2) Does this cost seem exorbitant? I don't have the time or resources to DIY. I checked online and the parts do not seem THAT expensive. I called two other stores and was given a 1.1-1.2k estimate. I have not talked to the Lexus dealership yet.
3) In theory this fix should last the life of the pads correct? Which should get me pretty far in the future.

Thanks for all your help in advance! Looking forward to reading and learning more from y'all in the future.

James

BMBLBEE

I just finished doing the brakes on our 2000 AWD with 202,000 km (120k miles). This is the second time from brakes which were last done by the dealer at 140,000 km and a cost 0f $2500 which included several other maintainance items. Ours had a bad pulsing feeling when you applied the brakes and I suspected the front rotors needed turning.

My son has a friend who works at a car dealer who took the front and rear rotors and turned them for free. I bought decent quality pads at Napa for $170 and it took me about 4 hours not rushing anything to do the complete job. For me it was an easy DIY because I have a very well equipped shop. Total cost $170 + beer. and the brakes feel great now.

If you can't go the DIY route I would suggest you check with a couple specialized brake shops to make sure it needs everything that was indicated by the first shop. New rotors may not be needed if there is room to resurface your existing ones and pads are no big expense so the big ticket item sounds like the TC master and labor. How many hours did they quote and did they break it down by each component?

Good luck & I hope you're able to get a better price.

dwade1109

They quoted 3.6 hours of labor for the TC master. The total cost parts and labor for the TC would be $650. When I asked about resurfacing the rotors they repeatedly told me there is no room.

Does anyone have any experience buying the parts yourself and taking it to a shop to be fixed? Seriously, I could order everything online. They made a big deal of saying that it would not be guaranteed, but anyway these guarantees are jokes for the most part. Regardless no shop in my area (including the dealer) has the right TC master so it would need to be ordered anyway.

carguy07

If you are on a budget, just go to rockauto and order the cheap stuff. It will work fine. $137 in parts, I'm sure you can find a shade tree mechanic that will work for less than $50/hr cash. The pads and rotors are only going to take a few hours tops, not sure about the master cylinder, but it can't be that bad. Does the ABS have to be activated to bleed the brakes after the master cylinder has been replaced?

carguy07

I would be interested in knowing if the reservoir is low on fluid. If the pads were worn out there is a decent chance that the reservoir was low on fluid and let some air in the system and the master cylinder could be just fine. If that was the case all you would need to do is bleed the brakes and get to the pads and maybe rotors before too long.

dwade1109

I appreciate the input! That would definitely save a lot of expense for nothing, I will check it out tomorrow.