[the-noname]

The front brakes are squealing on my 2019 X5. It has 30K mileage.

A dealer said the thickness of pads 4mm is almost at the point when they need to be replaced, and that the rotors cannot be cut. Hence the replacement.

They quoted:
REPLACE FRONT PADS, ROTORS, AND SENSOR $1,925
REPLACE REAR PADS, ROTORS, AND SENSOR $1,286

That’s a lot of money and I want to save where I can. Will the service cost less at an independent service shop? Will it brake my CPO warranty? Anything else I can do?

Any advice is appreciated.

[arciga18]

Can you talk yourself into the maintenance plan for 700 ?

[PKSTPR78]

Doesn’t seem right. That’s astronomical for a brake job. Even for a luxury car. I’d check with an independent shop and see what they quote you. Personally, I’d go the route of indy shop or diy and use aftermarket pads and rotors. If you diy you can probably do all four for under $600-$700.

[White340]

If you want oem pads the full set will cost around 4-500 online. The rotors would cost about 7-800 I suppose. The rest is labor. I’ve had all four pads and rotors replaced by an independent in the past on a 2008 Mercedes for 250 four years ago. With inflation call it 400, 500 tops. It’s a two hour job or less ( took 2 hours on the Mercedes because all four rotors had to be cut off after over 10 years).

So if you piecemeal it you can get it done for under 2 grand.

[White340]

Also, you could always shop bmw dealers. Call a few up, tell them what you want and ask for the best price they would do it for.

[AGONXF30]

I know the M sport brakes are pretty pricey. There is a lot of metal on the rotors alone. I do my own brakes, but parts alone aren’t cheap for the M sport brakes.

[Pro55]

30k miles is not a lot. I’m at 60k and they still don’t need doing. I’ve only ever gone to an Indy and they told me not to get them done until the brake wear sensor indicates it’s needed. They said that there is a huge amount of pad that you can’t see so even though they look low they might not be. As for the rotors for a car with 30k miles, that’s ridiculous. I bet they don’t need doing unless you’ve been using it on a track.
Definitely find a reliable Indy shop. Save a fortune.

[XxChiliPalmerxX]

I had an S6 and had to replace the brakes. The dealer of course gave me the price, and ended up purchasing brakes online, and then bringing them to my mechanic. They ended up being slotted and drilled, and looked really good. Prob spent under $1000 for 4 rotors, 4 sets of pads, and then the installation, which was probably about $500 or so. From what I remember, I purchased them from brakeperformance.com. Worth a shot.

[HowardThings]

That sounds about right honestly. IIRC rotors are about 400-500 each list price. I got quoted $1500 with my wholesale account with a dealer we work with. Pads are also in the hundreds.

My advice: At the moment, there's basically no one that manufactures aftermarket rotors for these cars. You can upgrade to the X3m rotors which are drilled and have lighter OEM hats. The upgrade is well worth the price difference IMO.

BMW brake pads are great performance wise and have a great bite but they are super aggressive on the rotors chewing them up, and obviously dust a lot. I'd get some OEM rotors with some aftermarket pads and you'll brakes will last a decent while longer. It'll definitely help with the longevity of the rotors themselves.

[sparrky]

It’s what you pay for a $70-80,000, couple thousand pound SUV. If you can do it yourself, or if you have a local indy shop, you can save on the cost.

[JALS]

I don’t know there, but in europe all brake rotors, have engraved the minimum thickness, so you only change discs if they are bellow the minimum thickness, or they are warped..

[AGONXF30]

Originally Posted by JALS

I don’t know there, but in europe all brake rotors, have engraved the minimum thickness, so you only change discs if they are bellow the minimum thickness, or they are warped..

They are the same rotors (BMW ones) so they also have a min thickness engraved.

[97supratt]

So if he gets the job done at an Indy shop his CPO coverage is denied?

[paul21]

Front brake rotor: $400 MSRP, $250 discounted
Front brake pad: $375 MSRP, $225 discounted
One front brake: $775 MSRP, $475 discounted

Parts for two: $1,550 MSRP, $950 discounted
Labor: $150/wheel = +$300
Rough estimate $1850 MSRP vs $1925 quoted; $1250 discounted so there is some room to negotiate but that's about the limit

You could do the labor yourself in about 4 hours with about $150 in tools, so you could get away with $1250 total cost for the front. The rear is going to be similar except the rotors and pads will be cheaper, but the labor will be similar. An independent shop would be cheaper in labor, but the raw material cost is still a large chunk of the total cost.

[VETTEPRO]

BS on not turning the rotors. I'm about to buy my 3rd X5M and I turned the rotors on both the others when I installed my Hawk Carbon Ceramic pads. No issues and no squeaks at all.
I'll do the same on this one. Not all brake places have a machine that will do it but it can absolutely be done. You also have to set the feed to extra slow.
I have lifts and tools, so I did the labor myself. But turning the rotors and the actual pad cost was like $300. (fronts) A little cheaper for the rears. I actually got the pads on Amazon. It was cheaper than through one of my suppliers.

[Bking60]

Ours came with low dust pads then left front had issues after a hard brake event while under warranty. They replaced both fronts, rotors and pads but used the old-style pads that dust up the wheels. Brakes feel much better with the softer pads.

[Bking60]

Originally Posted by paul21

Front brake rotor: $400 MSRP, $250 discounted
Front brake pad: $375 MSRP, $225 discounted
One front brake: $775 MSRP, $475 discounted

Parts for two: $1,550 MSRP, $950 discounted
Labor: $150/wheel = +$300
Rough estimate $1850 MSRP vs $1925 quoted; $1250 discounted so there is some room to negotiate but that's about the limit

You could do the labor yourself in about 4 hours with about $150 in tools, so you could get away with $1250 total cost for the front. The rear is going to be similar except the rotors and pads will be cheaper, but the labor will be similar. An independent shop would be cheaper in labor, but the raw material cost is still a large chunk of the total cost.

Is it just regular metric tools and a scan tool for this job?

[paul21]

Originally Posted by Bking60

Is it just regular metric tools and a scan tool for this job?

As far as I know you'll need bimmercode and a clamp that doesn't rotate the piston. There's also a risk of causing errors, but I'm not sure what people do to cause that.



See:
https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1614088
https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1673153

[P1]

That seems like a lot of money to spend at only 30K miles. My F15 went to almost 100K miles on original brakes.

[PhilH930]

Interesting thread. I have a 2020 X5 M50i which was in for a PDC malfunction. The service departmant recommended two new front brake pads (4mm) along with two near rear pads (also 4mm) and two rear rotors (down to 23.4mm with min spec at 22.8mm). For comparison, the front rotors are still >30mm.

Car has 33k miles, mostly highway driven. Granted I live in a heavy traffic city, and many will say driving style. I've never replaced brakes on a car, which includes two Audi A4s, Infiniti G37, BMW 5 series, BMW F80 M3. As an example, the M3 made it to almost 50K miles on original brakes, same journey/route.

The price is pretty steep ($690 front pads, $1700 rear pads and rotors), but not a significant amount of options really. Any thoughts.

[Trey10325]

Originally Posted by PhilH930

Interesting thread. I have a 2020 X5 M50i which was in for a PDC malfunction. The service departmant recommended two new front brake pads (4mm) along with two near rear pads (also 4mm) and two rear rotors (down to 23.4mm with min spec at 22.8mm). For comparison, the front rotors are still >30mm.

Car has 33k miles, mostly highway driven. Granted I live in a heavy traffic city, and many will say driving style. I've never replaced brakes on a car, which includes two Audi A4s, Infiniti G37, BMW 5 series, BMW F80 M3. As an example, the M3 made it to almost 50K miles on original brakes, same journey/route.

The price is pretty steep ($690 front pads, $1700 rear pads and rotors), but not a significant amount of options really. Any thoughts.

Over many years of maintaining German cars, I've found that dealer service departments love to prescribe brake work. It's easy, fast and super profitable. Your car has brake pad sensors that will alert you when it's time for new brake pads. Personally, I wouldn't change them until then, but it's possible you would have to make a return trip to the dealer within 6 months or so. I've had many times, though, when they argue that the pads will be getting low before my next scheduled visit. On my Cayenne, I was told I'd need brake pads soon, did I want to go ahead and do them now? The low pad sensor didn't go off for another 20 months, and even after the sensor goes off there is enough residual pad thickness to get you by for a while.

Dealers always push rotors as well. If the rotors are still above minimum thickness, aren't warped and don't have significant lipping, they don't necessarily need to be replaced. As a general rule, I've found that replacing rotors with every other pad change works out about right. The service salespeople will argue that the rotors may be under the minimum before the next pad change, but that allowance is already taken into consideration when BMW specified the minimum rotor thickness. They'll also argue that not changing the rotors might result in noisy operation. Sometimes that's true for a hundred miles or so, but just bed the new pads in properly and it's unlikely you'll have a problem. I don't bother to "turn" rotors, it's not recommended anyway. If they're warped, don't turn them, just replace them.

Lastly, if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, doing the brakes yourself is not hard, and there are lots of Youtube videos. I often do my own, especially now that I've retired. Usually takes me about 20-30 minutes per wheel. I've calculated that I'm paying myself about $500 per hour, compared to paying inflated dealer labor prices. An independent will be somewhat cheaper. I order the parts to my doorstep online, and my total time spent is usually less than the time I'd waste going to the dealer, getting dropped off and picking up.

Check out a site like pelicanparts.com if you want to see how much OEM (or OEM equivalent) pad and brake discs cost (your dealer is paying even less).

[vinibabs]

If it was under 30k miles would ultimate care cover the brake job?