My car was 33.5K miles, RWD and last time I was at the shop (in the winter for oil change) I was told a brake job is needed.

Cost of a brake job (pads and rotors) is $375 USD from this independent shop.

My car is leased and I only have another ~4 months left on it and 6.5K miles. Want to save money on this maintenance if I can.

Priced out the rotors and pads from a local shop and it was $160 USD. Qualis (made by Wagner) rotors and OE+ "Motomaster" (made by Wagner) for the pads.

I am a DIY guy and I see there is lots of videos online. How hard is a brake job? Any good videos? All the DIY I have done so far on the car are air filters and oil changes.

Any specific tools I need for the job other than the caliper clamp? I plan on using the trunk jack for getting the car up, hope this is ok.

 

Check out the Factory Service Manual stickied on the main page of the sedan forum. It will literally get you through every job needed.

 

The brakes are easy enough to do but please do not just use the oem jack alone for the brakes (unless you are talking about just using it for jacking purposes) and invest in some jackstands.

 

Are the pads actually worn? Do you drive in lots of stop/go traffic? 33K miles seems low miles for brake service.

 

This. Unless you drive like a maniac or track the car they still should be have a decent amount of pad left. Besides, if you don't have any issues now and only have 4 months left on the lease I would just let the lease run out and turn it in without having to spend anything.

 

I got the car with 18K miles on it. From the 18K mile mark to now (33K miles) I have driven it on the highway 90% of the time (going against traffic, cruise control, minimal if any braking). Before I got the car at 18K miles I don't know how it was driven.

That all said I drive very passively, light on the breaks, cruising to stops. So yes replacing the brakes on this RWD car at 33K seemed a bit early to me too.

Without taking the wheels off here is a quick pic of the rear drivers hand side outer pad




They look 'ok' to me, I will try and measure now. Thoughts?

 

Doesn't look like you even need to mess with em.

 

If you only have 4 more months to own that car don't do anything to the brakes. Plenty of miles lift in those pads.

 

Ditto. They still have a lot of meat left. Not sure why you need to replace.

 

Ok thanks guys for the advice.

Yeah ~4.5 months left, 6.2K miles.

This makes me question the garage I've been using In the past I found them to be pretty good.

 

Before you jump to that conclusion, jack the car up (safely support) and inspect the inboard sides. You may or may not be surprised.

 

Those rears have about 40% pad material left.

You need to inspect the fronts. Front pads wear out faster than rears.

Also you don't need to buy new rotors. All independent shops will always tell you that you need new rotors for the brake job but they are only trying to get money out of you. Trust me I used to work at a shop for 2 years.

Yeah there are a few cars that came in that really did need rotors because the pad material worn completely and it was metal on metal contact and screwed the rotor surface up, but in your case with only 30k miles a rotor replacement is not necessary.

I have a 08 Acura TL with 94,000 miles. Still on factory front and rear rotors. Front pads have been changed twice. Rear pads changed once.

 

Yes...I would check anyway.

But if all you've said is correct (not heavy on the brakes, mostly highway driving, 30k total on the car) not very likely that they be much different on the inboard especially with that much pad left on the outside unless there are other brake issues at play which would not be fixed by rotor and pad replacement. Is he feeling any grinding? Is he losing braking power? If not, there's likely no issue to deal with. But again...check anyway. If the inboards look good I would definitely start to question the shop's integrity. And unless you see something that may be a safety issue, I wouldn't even bother if your lease is up in 4 months.

 

I don't know how true the posts regarding rear brakes wearing faster than the fronts are especially under light braking due to the VDC applying heavier on the rears to help maintain level braking. But there have been more than a few claiming rears going out much faster than the fronts. Especially with the OEM setup.

 

I was also surprised when Infiniti told me I needed rear pads at 43k. I NEVER changed anything on my Altima SE-R (100k)! I had my mechanic check into it and sure enough they needed replacing. I'm easy on the brakes and have a short commute with no traffic but did buy the car used with 27k miles.
I'm not sure if the braking systems are now letting the rear brakes do most of the work during .