Brake replacement cost: front pads and rotors, priced for your state
Pick a vehicle type and a state: the estimator prices a front brake job, new pads and rotors on both wheels, at your state's shop rate.
Pads and rotors, sedan, national: typical cost
$217
Range $140 to $483 · front axle · before sales tax
| Labor time, sedan | 0.8 h |
| Shop rate, national | $114 to $159 per hour |
| Labor, typical | $108 |
| Parts, typical listing | $110 |
Compiled by Radif Partners · How costs are estimated · automaker labor times, BLS technician wages, parts read October 20, 2026 · not a quote
A front brake job, new pads and new rotors on both front wheels, comes to about $217 on a sedan at the national median shop rate of $134 an hour, with a range of $140 to $483 before tax. An SUV typically runs $272, a pickup $294 and a luxury car $304, the gap coming mostly from dearer parts. Labor stays short in the 4 automaker times read: 0.8 h on the sedans, 0.9 h on the SUV, and 0.7 h to 0.9 h across all vehicles. Parts make up about 51 % of the typical sedan bill, with a median pad and rotor set of $110 in the catalog read on October 20, 2026. From state to state, the same sedan job moves from about $194 in West Virginia to $239 in the District of Columbia.
Pads alone or a full brake job
Rotors are the iron discs the pads squeeze. They wear too, more slowly than the pads, and they can also be grooved by a pad worn to its backing plate, or develop uneven thickness that a driver feels as a pulsing pedal. When a mechanic finds them below the minimum thickness stamped on them, or too damaged to machine, the usual answer is a brake job: new rotors and new pads on the same axle. Rotors are replaced on both sides of the axle together so that the car brakes evenly.
Compared with pads alone, the work adds the removal of the caliper bracket and the old rotor, cleaning the hub face so the new rotor sits flat, and fitting the new disc before the pads go in. The bigger difference is the parts bill. On a sedan, pads alone come to about $112 at the national rate, as shown on the brake pad page; the full front job, about $217. Whether your rotors can be kept is for the mechanic who measures them to say.
Time allowed by the automakers
The labor figures here are the times automakers pay their dealers for the operation, printed in the bulletins they filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Only 4 such times were found for pads and rotors together, so each one matters, and each has a caveat you can check in the table. The SUV time is for a Honda CR-V on which the rotors are resurfaced rather than replaced. The luxury time is the sum of two separate lines of an Acura bulletin, one for the discs and one for the pads, not a single published figure. No pickup bulletin was found, so the pickup range uses every time read, 0.7 h to 0.9 h.
| Type | Vehicle and engine | Bulletin filed with NHTSA | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury | 2016 Acura ILX, 2.4L I4 | Acura Service Bulletin 16-004, February 2, 2016 | 0.7 h |
| Sedan | 2013-2015 Dodge Dart (PF), all | FCA TSB 05-011-15, October 3, 2015 | 0.8 h |
| Sedan | 2015-2016 Chrysler 200 (UF), all (sales code BRG) | FCA TSB 05-002-16, February 13, 2016 | 0.8 h |
| SUV | 2012-2014 Honda CR-V 2WD, 2.4L I4 | Honda Service Bulletin 15-030, May 23, 2015 | 0.9 h |
These times come from different bulletins and vehicles than the pad-only times, so the two pages do not stack neatly: the GM pad-only operation on a large luxury SUV, which also scuffs the rotors, is paid 1.6 h, more than any pads and rotors time listed here. Treat the hours as the order of magnitude of a front brake job on a common car, knowing that a given model can take longer than any time listed.
Rotor and pad prices
The parts figure is a front kit: two rotors and a set of pads, priced per reference vehicle. For the two sedans the cheapest kit in stock listed at $48 and the dearest at $355. SUVs have a median of $151, pickups $187, and the two European luxury cars $210, with a top listing of $678. Heavier vehicles carry larger rotors, which accounts for part of the climb; the rest is the price level of each make's parts.
| Type | Reference vehicle | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan | 2016 Honda Accord 2.4L L4 | $48 | $115 | $355 |
| Sedan | 2017 Toyota Camry 2.5L L4 | $64 | $105 | $285 |
| SUV | 2016 Ford Explorer 3.5L V6 | $80 | $168 | $393 |
| SUV | 2017 Honda CR-V 2.4L L4 | $65 | $134 | $205 |
| Pickup | 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 5.3L V8 | $84 | $189 | $672 |
| Pickup | 2017 Ford F-150 5.0L V8 | $94 | $185 | $474 |
| Luxury | 2016 BMW 328i 2.0L L4 Turbo | $76 | $180 | $537 |
| Luxury | 2016 Mercedes-Benz C300 2.0L L4 Turbo | $109 | $239 | $678 |
A shop can fit a rotor from a different grade than the median listing, and its price will include its own margin. If the quote names a parts total, type it in More options so the estimate uses your figure.
A front brake job for four vehicle types
Pads and rotors nationally: from sedan to luxury car
$217 to $304
| Sedan, 0.8 h | $217 |
| SUV, 0.9 h | $272 |
| Pickup, 0.7 h to 0.9 h | $294 |
| Luxury, 0.7 h | $304 |
The state effect
A brake job is mostly parts on a common car, so moving from one state to another changes the labor line and little else. Technician wages, published for each state by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, scale the national band of posted rates from a shop survey. The result puts the typical rate between $105 and $162 an hour, and the gap between the cheapest and dearest state for this sedan job at about $45. The labor rates page gives the band for each state.
Questions for the shop
Ask whether the quote is for one axle or two, since rear brakes are a separate job with their own parts. Ask whether the rotors will be replaced or machined, and what grade of rotor and pad is planned. Ask whether the caliper slides will be cleaned and lubricated, which is normally part of the job, and whether any caliper or hose is being replaced, which is not. A brake fluid exchange is a separate service with its own line. With those answers, the quote checker can compare your hours, rate and parts with the usual band for your state.
Brake noise, vibration or a long pedal have several possible causes. This page assumes a mechanic has inspected the car and found that pads and rotors are due.