Milcars in Watford. Might give another London dealer a ring for a quote just to see if it’s a case of London labour being insane before condemning them, much I’m balking at £1200!
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Yes, sorry, you did say above.
I suspect any main dealer will come out at a similar price, where as any indi will be in that £600 area.
My issue with this is the fact you need them at all. Sure at 19k miles front pads I could be convinced that they will be worn, but this would suggest heavy use as the cars are quite light.
Scored discs…..I am sceptical of, but is a very easy visual check, ie have a look yourselves, are they scored?
corroded rears, again just clean them up if corroded. If they are corroded this is often from lack of use which is the opposite to what is suggested with a need for total replacement.
Get a 2nd opinion from an indi…..it may just need front pads.
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Well said that man
Disc corrosion is inherent in using the car, and is often used by garages to generate revenue because the MoT test says that discs are a part of the chassis and chassis corrosion can be a fail. Was disc corrosion an advisory on the most recent MOT test? The only reasons for changing discs are if they are warped or when they are below minimum thickness, occasionally due to a deep score mark. You can visually inspect for scoring and for general wear by feeling the braking surface near the edge. If you can feel a ridge, measure the disc thickness but I would be surprised if they were excessively worth at 20000 miles.
I would take the car to one of the specialist workshops and ask for the grinding noise to be diagnosed. If the previous owner was the last of the late brakers the pads might have become glazed and then a pad change is sensible!
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Thanks for that! I need to get my discs and pads changed before I track the car, it’s good to know that they won’t take customer supplied parts. Do you know who will?
I haven’t asked around after the quote and just bought a jack and a couple of torque wrenches instead to do it on my own 
It would be very useful to know if there’s a Mazda specialist around NW London/Herts that would fit customer parts though for jobs that I can’t do at home
I find with customer supplied part acceptance in many a place is you’ve generally got to build up a relationship with them first. I find when you’ve seen them a few times, and they know you’re well into cars etc, they’re fine.
Hi all, bit of an update - been having to try and work this out around work, which has been busy!
Japex quoted me £1121.23 for four discs, pads and new fluid (or £1052.24 without the fluid - it was changed at the last service last March; can I forgo new fluid for now?). The issue, they said, was that they can’t get a matching set of aftermarket discs front and rear, so it’d have to be OEM parts at a substantially greater cost.
I contacted Brayleys in Milton Keynes after seeing that they offer a discount through the Club, but they never got back to me. I’m going to chase this one over the phone, because a discount could be incredibly handy, even at dealer prices.
Following the big quote from Japex, I’m going to ring a couple of trusted local (but not specialist…) indies and see if they can do better, or allow me to supply my own parts. If they allow that, I’d be tempted to pick up this set of EBC discs and pads from MX5Parts, which should come to £350ish with the club discount: Brake Kit, Front & Rear Discs & Pads, 2.0 MX5 Mk4 & RF – MX5 Parts
Regardless, it’s looking like a big hit on my wallet so I’ve parked my MX-5 until I can get something booked in (and until next payday). I’m starting to suffer withdrawal.
As for the brakes being so worn after so few miles: I suspect the last owner drove it quite hard, given the service history in the Mazda app shows both front tyres were changed due to wear when Milcars serviced it last Feb. I’ve driven it quite hard since, and I suspect most of the damage was done on a Welsh road trip with a few mates last May…
Oh, and I can’t do the brakes myself. I live in flats, the tenancy explicitly forbids working on cars for anything more than ‘routine maintenance’ (seriously!) and one of the neighbours got caught out on it a few years ago. Tenancy aside, I’m inept, don’t have the space and don’t have the tools…
Apologies it’s not more substantial an update, but life has got in the way!
Seems a good deal from mx5parts👍
Couple of hours labour if no hitches with anything seized surely will cover fitment. I’m guessing it’s getting a garage to fit customers supplied parts could be a bit problematic, they usually like to supply and fit.
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Brakes surely qualifies as routine maintenance?
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I am surprised at these prices. I use my local motor factor who gives trade discount for counter sales. Rear discs and pads £101, Front pads £35. This is for my 1.5 ND in Sept 2024. The factor uses APEC as their supplier. I find these perfectly satisfactory for everyday use. APEC and Pagid are regularly used by the independant garages.
Two reasons they don’t like to fit customers own parts is, one they get a trade discount on parts they purchase and then make money from selling the parts they fit to you, and depending on their discount, that could be 50%, so nice little earner. The other reason is that if there is an issue with the parts and there is a warranty claim, who is going to pay the labour? When the EGR valve failed on my 2013 Defender, I could through my job get a genuine Pierburg valve and the garage was willing to fit it but if it failed I would have to pay them to do the job again and claim the warranty costs from the supplier and as I used to do the warranty claims as part of my job, and it was no fun as they would always put a limit on the labour charge which was usually less than what the garage charged.
Another option is not to go to that garage. They aren’t the only ones on planet Earth
My experience with APEC was they were off soon enough. The ‘trusty independent’ said they’d be great, even though I wanted genuine Suzuki rear pads (a Swift Sport). Low and behold, they were naff compared to the genuine ones, and soon enough, I had to buy twice and got the Suzuki ones. No surprises they were great- exactly the same as the ones I had liked in the first place.
You are missing the point. No garage is going to cover the cost of doing the job again, do you really want the hassle of dealing with trying to sort it out, I had plenty of experience trying to sort out warranty claims with car parts and it was usually a pain. Yes you can go elsewhere but find out what their policy is when it comes to something going wrong. I see you mentioned APEC brakes. I worked for 11 years at Ferraris Piston Service and they supplied that make of brakes as their budget range, they were absolute s**t and caused no end of warranty claims.
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Yes, fair enough.
I guess I’ve never had a bad experience giving parts (touch wood).
People laugh how I’m Mr. OEM, but I’ve never got anything in my car life, recommended by ‘trusty independents’ which was as good as what was on the car in the first place.
A few years ago manufacturers tried to stop garages from repairing cars especially cars under warranty, so the repair industry went against this with the right to repair and they won, but they still try it on but if the parts are of OEM quality then there shouldn’t be an issue, bearing in mind that manufacturers don’t make the stuff themselves. So stick to the known brands, they may be more expensive but the usually work.
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