$800 to change brake calipers and hoses

Nope, but I had a mechanic tell my wife on her SUV when she went in for a simple oil change, that the pads were so worn on the brakes she was going to not be able to stop and kill somebody. Complete BS because the pads were like 2 months old. Not all mechanics are sketchy, but my wife has had several mechanics try to get her to believe random crap. Now that we own a house with a driveway, I can do most repairs myself. Next plans are to get an actual garage/shed so I can do bigger repairs and engine work.

 

yes, when braking hard. Normal breaking was a little weak but i just assumed it was cause the 4x4 was bigger/heavier than my 5 lug. I didnt have any problems actually stopping

 

Dream on, give you 5 years and the garage will be full of boats, bikes, surplus truck parts. Ask me how I know.

 

Thats scam...they would charge her and not even do anything. Not all places are like that. I had one place tell my wife it was $300 for pads on one side.

 

The $800 just for calipers must be a Maryland thing; As stated above, I paid less than $500 parts and labor for calipers, pads, and rotors at my mechanic.

On another note, how is one supposed to get a project car titled in Maryland? I guess one has to wait until it is restored to get a Maryland title?!?!

 

Dealing with rust and clearcoat is gonna be a lot more time consuming than a brake job.

I understand if you're on a time crunch but I'd try to not get in the habit of paying labor on these things or it'll bleed you dry in a hurry.

 

That's the exact content of my garage! How did you know?!?!?!

It only took me about 1 year, though.

 

This is a pretty manageable DIY job. YouTube is your friend.

 

830.00 is ridiculous, do it yourself and save 500.00 or so

 

I just replaced my brake hoses and bleeding the brakes is not that bad if you have two people or a vacuum bleeder. There is conflicting info on whether to bleed the LSPV first or last. I did it last and the brakes are fine.

 

You better hope it's the calipers.
I had this issue on my Taco and it was corrected a couple times, in different ways.
None of those being the calipers.

 

What did the issue end up being?

 

Old lower control arm bushings the first time.
Second time was loose steering rack bolts.

I would also check old steering rack bushings. On the first gen taco if they are old, the steering rack moves a lot which will affect your steering and braking.

EDIT:
You have a 5 lug. I have no idea if the steering rack is similar.
Either way, bad suspension bushings or rack can do this.

This is why DIY is best. A shop will do the easy thing (replace all brake parts) then if it doesnt work, they will go down the list I mention. It gets expensive.

 

sweet thanks for the info, when i get the truck back ill take a look at that.

 

I have a 5 lug with no problems. The one that needs an inspection is the 6 lug that i just bought. I should probably edit my about me to include both trucks

 

Okay cool, so my comments apply.

Easy way to check the rack bushings - Jack up front end. Have someone turn the steering wheel and look under. You can see big rack movement if theres issue.
Rack bolts - easy, torque them but that prob wnt be the issue unless you just replaced it.
LCA bushings- hard to tell . Even when I took mine out they looked "fine". But I DIY so I started going down a list of items to replace. It took me a long time getting rid of that damn steering pull. Hopefully for you its the caliper.

 

Wasn't there some brake lines included in the price? Flex lines or hard? I could see charging extra labor if the fittings are rusted to hell

Some rubber brake lines go through a metal bracket, the bracket gets rusty and it pinches down on the brake line resulting in un-even braking force side to side

 

The price of this repair is subject to supply and demand economics, just like everything else. The high price of new and used vehicles has caused many shops to be inundated with repair jobs, as people are repairing cars rather than getting new ones. In many cases, this has resulted in high auto repair prices.

I suggest you do this yourself. It isn't that hard and there are many YouTube videos on the subject. I just did my calipers, rotors, and pads. I took my time and it worked out great.

 

^ This.

While it might be true that this brake calipers, pads, lines, and bleeding are well within reasonable DIY range- We don't know the state your rig. If all the bolts are rust fused together, then maybe the shop is taking that into consideration with their estimate.

Ultimately you gotta judge for yourself if you're capable of performing the work compliantly and safely, or if you'd rather have the peace of mind to have the shop do it. Personally, I'm the only person who has touched the brakes system on my truck- but when it was new, I started off with pad and rotor changes, and progressed to handle more involved repairs over the years. If you don't have any experience with any of these systems, it might be a bit much to tackle.

If you get it wrong, it could be VERY wrong.

 

I drove for 2 days with both fronts metal to metal, and then did a pad swap at work. That was 2 years ago.