What is a good price for repairing brakes on my 1999 Subaru Outback? That's probably a silly question. It seems I may need to replace the pads on all four tires and perhaps the rotors too. Just one more thing to deal with. Any suggestions on shops in Wenatchee Washington.

Takes me less than an hr to put pads on all 4 corners in a parking lot..

 

With a Subaru, all you need is a single wrench, brake grease and a heavy duty caulk gun to do the brakes.. You can use a c clamp or a brake piston compressor if you wanna get fancy. But a caulk gun works fine

Takes me less than an hr to put pads on all 4 corners in a parking lot..

 

With a Subaru, all you need is a single wrench, brake grease and a heavy duty caulk gun to do the brakes.. You can use a c clamp or a brake piston compressor if you wanna get fancy. But a caulk gun works fine

How do you operate a caulk gun to compress the piston??

Flip it upside down over top where the line connection is on the back, and then the plunger will ride on an old pad. Its not the best way but it works.

Flip it upside down over top where the line connection is on the back, and then the plunger will ride on an old pad. Its not the best way but it works.

Yea, I can see how that can work. I use a large C-clamp to get the job done.

If it is just the pads, it's fast and cheap. If you need rotors also it's still  fast, maybe 1.5 hrs. What you need to know is, if you will need calipers. This adds lots of extra $ to the job, still should be in the 2 hrs range. What should it cost??? well shop time varies from $30-$90 an hour or more.  Call a local parts store and ask them prices on just pads, then add rotors, see how much that is. Then ask how much "loaded calipers " cost , you will not need pads if you buy loaded calipers. Add rotor cost to the loaded calipers. Now you know  apx. parts cost.  Find out what the hourly charge is where you want to have your work done and see what their time & parts estimate is. Try to locate a mechanic who knows subarus, stay away from big name shops , they tend to replace everything even when it is still usable (liability issues if you ask them) cost will be astronomical . Same at a subi dealer... usually good work but massively overpriced on parts and labor.   

She asked you about the shops that can do the brakes and not about the procedures.

 

Leitah.  Any shop can do it.  Make sure you see the pads and rotors yourself since all shops will be happy to charge you for replacing parts, even if there is no need to do it.

 

Good luck,

 

Sam

i never heard of using a caulking gun to do brakes. ive used c clamps and have been known to just push them in by hand on a few cars ive done.

i never heard of using a caulking gun to do brakes. ive used c clamps and have been known to just push them in by hand on a few cars ive done.

I hadn't either until a post on facebook. And then one day I was without a c clamp but had a caulk gun, so I proved yep it works.

Takes me less than an hr to put pads on all 4 corners in a parking lot..

With a Subaru, all you need is a single wrench, brake grease and a heavy duty caulk gun to do the brakes.. You can use a c clamp or a brake piston compressor if you wanna get fancy. But a caulk gun works fine

SMOKIN IDEA! Id never have thought of that!

I've used a brake pad a a lever to push the piston in. I've used a c-clamp, even my thumbs on my old Honda, and I've used large waterpump/channellock pliers.

Thanks for the tip about a caulking gun as a clamp.

It never occurred to me to use one for other than caulking.

I am going to try it out next time I have to glue wood or plywood together.