Front pad lifespan.

[o89canucks]

Was wondering what everyone else was seeing for average lifespan of the front brake pads on their cars. Just did the brakes this weekend at 38k miles and the front pads had minimal wear. Had a little bit of a shimmy in the front end so I still opted to get the rotors turned out, and reused the original factory pads. Just seemed to me to be a lot of mileage on those pads to be seeing that minimal amount of wear and wondering if this was normal for everyone else?

[Brian]

Atleast 100k mi

[Kamikaze1987]

I got 45k so far and was gonna change them this weekend but they still looked new and the rotors were perfect... my friend was amazed at how long the little pads lasted so far

[AlexNet0]

i just changed mine at 65k and there was still pad left.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

I have like 42k, and I hear the indicator probably once a week. So I'm going to change them out and keep them as back ups since there should be some life in them still. Someone here told me that light braking is worse than heavy braking (I always did light braking).

[hafeez]

I changed my pads this weekend and my car is at 80k right now. They had a little life left in them but i'll keep them as backups just in case. I was just wondering about the brake shoes though; how do you know when to change them?

[texkid]

Reaching 30,000 miles and the mechanic says the shoes and pads still look new. Only had to turn the front rotors at about 20,000 miles (roughly).

[o89canucks]

Originally Posted by hafeez

I changed my pads this weekend and my car is at 80k right now. They had a little life left in them but i'll keep them as backups just in case. I was just wondering about the brake shoes though; how do you know when to change them?

Pull off the rear drums and check shoe thickness. I would replace them if they have heavy stress cracks in them also. May as well do a clean and adjust while you are in there if the shoes don't need to be replaced.

[supmet]

Originally Posted by texkid

Reaching 30,000 miles and the mechanic says the shoes and pads still look new. Only had to turn the front rotors at about 20,000 miles (roughly).

How can the pads look like new if you already had to turn your front rotors?

[o89canucks]

Originally Posted by supmet

How can the pads look like new if you already had to turn your front rotors?

The rotors can still get warped or glaze over without wearing much of the actual pad surface off.

[Tamago]

i got 50K miles out of my set, and that included autocrossing almost every weekend for 3 years.

my corolla i did 75K miles and still had plenty of pad.

and my 1988 pickup did 280Kmiles on it's first set

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by o89canucks

The rotors can still get warped or glaze over without wearing much of the actual pad surface off.

It's pretty much unheard of for disk brake rotors to actually warp. They get irregular patches of brake pad material deposited on the surface when used hard, especially if left with the pads in stationary contact with them while hot (i.e., the car's stopped for a bit after making a hard panic stop), and that makes the car shudder and pedal pulsate. Turning the rotor takes that off and gives a clean new surface, but they may also clean up with gentle normal use for a while, or with vigorous cleaning.

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

It's pretty much unheard of for disk brake rotors to actually warp. They get irregular patches of brake pad material deposited on the surface when used hard, especially if left with the pads in stationary contact with them while hot (i.e., the car's stopped for a bit after making a hard panic stop), and that makes the car shudder and pedal pulsate. Turning the rotor takes that off and gives a clean new surface, but they may also clean up with gentle normal use for a while, or with vigorous cleaning.

I don't know. I've turned lots of rotors over the years and what I see is runout and warpage (as in making two or three passes and still only removing metal at...let's say 12 o'clock, outboard, and 7 o'clock, inboard, for example). Now's the best time to see warped rotors because they're made so thin to save weight that they're usually below machine minimum (not discard thickness) after using up 1 set of pads.

[Tamago]

what's this noise about rotors not warping? lol

[lilredrocket]

I have warped rotors and have turned warped rotors. It happens....

[o89canucks]

Originally Posted by Yaris Hilton

It's pretty much unheard of for disk brake rotors to actually warp. They get irregular patches of brake pad material deposited on the surface when used hard, especially if left with the pads in stationary contact with them while hot (i.e., the car's stopped for a bit after making a hard panic stop), and that makes the car shudder and pedal pulsate. Turning the rotor takes that off and gives a clean new surface, but they may also clean up with gentle normal use for a while, or with vigorous cleaning.

Who told you that pile of garbage???

I have resurfaced a lot of rotors and you can definetly tell that a rotor has lateral runout when it is on the brake lathe. Take a hot rotor and drive through a puddle or snow and it is like taking a hot pan off the stove and pouring cold water into it from the sink. I have even seen the lateral runout be so bad (most common in Mitsubishi's) that the steering wheel will have a shimmy while the brakes aren't applied.

The clamping force of the pads against the rotor is so stong that even if your theory of "brake pad deposits" had any truth to it, the "brake pad deposits" would be removed the very next time that you braked.

I guess flywheels never get hotspots in them either or warp out and never need to be resurfaced either if this theory were true?

[Yaris Hilton]

There are lots of other experienced mechanics who'd disagree with you on those points. I'll cite this reference:
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...rakedisk.shtml

[1stToyota]

While pads do a fine job at removing rust they're not cutting bits for removing large amounts of iron, and holding steady pressure on a stomped pedal isn't the same as locking bits down in place on a lathe.