where should I get front brake pad service in Los Angeles?

My math for a PROPER brake job at an independent shop:

$100 for pads (includes 10% markup for sourcing & tax)
$200 for rotors (ditto)
$50 for two bottles of brake fluid and one can of brake cleaner (ditto)
$400 for labor (about 2.5 hours depending on prevailing hourly rate)
---------------
$750 all in

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Slapping brake pads on a 3rd gen Tacoma is most definitely NOT proper maintenance.

 

Lol! That should pair well with your $300 oil change. Come by my shop any day, I would really appreciate your business.

 

No dealer is going to just slap on brake pads they will cut your existing rotors or if needed replace them.

 

The brake pad only price is just to get you in the door and your vehicle on the rack with the wheels off.
After they take a few things apart you'll get a phone call - "oh by the way, the rotors are too thin to resurface, we need to replace them". By the time you get your truck out of there it's the same price as everybody else

If I tried that I would get Yelped into oblivion. Everybody and their mother knows it's going to get rotors too. It's just reputable independent shops have to be upfront about it and dealerships can pretend like they're going to pad slap it just to get you in the door

 

My only other comment here is that the practice of "re-surfacing" brake rotors is becoming obsolete. If it hasn't already.

By the time one considers the time and effort to put used, warped, out of round, out of balance, brake rotors on a lathe machine, and mill them to within OEM balanced specification (which is often times not possible after the fact) it is simply less expensive to buy new ones in the first place.

As a final point, many shops simply don't want the liability or hassle. Or the space it takes for the lathe machine on their shop floor which can be put to far better use.

 

Nah, no thanks. My numbers above are solid and realistic. Maybe you or your shop tech(s) can swap brakes around on both front wheels in an hour. Or get parts for less. That's certainly possible. Everything torqued to spec. Road tested. Brakes bedded.

And nobody is paying $300 for an oil change.

 

Came in as I needed an oil change $60 which is needed then saw I needed front pads $289 I am using their website to post this. Ha