I brought the family hauler to the mechanic for a tire swap and he claims my brake pads are on their last legs and are unsafe to drive on. I argue they haven't even worn down past the grooves yet, and I'm not throwing away pads with life left. It doesn't help my case they squeal (wasn't me who installed them). Tell me I'm right.
Judging by the moisture on the piston boot and the uneven gaps between the rotor and pads, I'd personally replace the caliper, pads, and rotor (and the other side as well). Brakes are cheap and easy to do and critical to the safety of yourself and everyone else on the road. It's not really the place to eek out the last 27 cents worth of use...
I'd make sure the slide pins are not seized, and run them.
Those pads are fine.
Those are like 1/2 way worn? Mabye 5/8ths? With how little I use the middle pedal that's 50k miles worth of braking probably.
Make sure the caliper slides properly and run it.
Your mechanic just told you something very important... That is time to find a new mechanic.
Fine
What do the other ones look like?
Otherwise, yeah, someone's looking for easy bucks.
You wouldn't believe how many times my wife's family members asking me about doing brakes and they look like this but were recommended at an oil change etc.
Maybe the mechanic was looking at another corner than pictured?
As a tech, with what I see there I would tell you "your pad material is the same thickness as the backing plate. It's time to start thinking about replacing them."
naturally they ask how long will they last
"Unfortunately I cannot tell you how long you have left, it depends on a lot of factors like driving style. I'm saying you shoud be thinking about replacing them soon."
bentwrench said:Maybe the mechanic was looking at another corner than pictured?
This was the worst corner by far. Now I'm looking at them the spring clips dont look centered. I guess I will give everything a clean and grease.
In reply to DrBoost :
The fun part is, at least in this climate, when friction material gets down to 4mm or so, it's just as likely to just simply corrode off of the backing plate and disappear. This leads to a single exciting braking event involving lots of pedal pumping to get pressure again, followed by heavy grinding.
We usually start recommending pad replacement at 4mm.
Your pads are absolutely fine. Are you sure he said 'pads' and not calipers or rotors?
DrBoost said:As a tech, with what I see there I would tell you "your pad material is the same thickness as the backing plate. It's time to start thinking about replacing them."
naturally they ask how long will they last"Unfortunately I cannot tell you how long you have left, it depends on a lot of factors like driving style. I'm saying you shoud be thinking about replacing them soon."
Depending on how the person drives, those pads can have thousands and thousands of miles on them. There is no way they should be thinking about replacing them soon, unless 'soon' means 15-20K miles.
In reply to FatMongo :
Deoending on climate, if you go 15-20k on those pads, the rotors will be a hot mess of rust and horrible pulsations from lack of use long before the pads are worn out.
90% of brake jobs I do (number pulled from ass) is because the brake rotors are massively rusted from lack of use, not because the pads are worn out. Brakes are definitely in the "use it or lose it" category. One of the best things you can do for your car is brake hard on a regular basis. Those insurance-tattle dongles make me a LOT of money!
It's a daily routine for me to keep the brakes nice and cold until I can get up to 40-50mph or so and do one or two ears-folding-over-the-eyes braking events to clear the overnight rust from the rotors. It sounds awful, but like taking a hot shower to scrub off sunburn with a rough washcloth, it feels so good in a proper maintenance way,
From what I can see in that pic, I'd run 'em. They are worn evenly and have about 4mm usable thickness. I don't see any damage to piston boot or pin boots, nor excessive corrosion on anything.
On the squealing front, I've had luck re-bedding brakes to remove squeal. You know, where you run it up to 60-70 and brake hard to 10 a few times until they start to warm up enough to smell.
Oh, and from an enthusiast standpoint, the pads are fine. You're on this forum, so they've probably got 3 years of life left in them.
From a completely-ignore-car-maintenance, there's a good chance they wouldn't last a year with an average, ride the brakes down every hill driver, and said average driver isn't going to check them in that time.
Don't be too hard on the mechanic if he's otherwise good. Remember that he sees the worst of society with a lack of mechanical empathy daily.
Check them in the spring, but you'll be fine.
Keep in mind that the rate of wear accelerates as the material gets thinner due to the loss of heat capacity. This means that the second half of the pad will wear faster than the first half.
I'm with everyone else, though. Lube, bleed and monitor.
In reply to WonkoTheSane (Forum Supporter) :
Mechanics are like doctors: The ones that only know/care enough to give out generic one-size-fits-all advice are not worth your time or money.
Not totally on topic, but often when I, as a mechanic, mention that someone's brakes are half worn after 75,000 km, they will obsess over it until I change pads out if sympathy.
I said they were half worn. Math suggests you can go another 50,000 km, at least, but some people just don't want that thought rumbling around in their head.
Keith Tanner said:Keep in mind that the rate of wear accelerates as the material gets thinner due to the loss of heat capacity. This means that the second half of the pad will wear faster than the first half.
I'm with everyone else, though. Lube, bleed and monitor.
This brings up the "on a track car those are done" thing, but do they really wear faster on the second half on a street car? Maybe it's my local lack of mountains that has me asking that. I don't think my brakes get hotter than gently warm unless someone around me does something dumb.
This has me wondering, am I supposed to get my brakes hot once in a while? I really don't use them, like ever. My pads look the same at 150 as they did when I bought the car at 98.
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