how long do brake pads last ?

[charb]

hi i had my pads replaced last july on my corsa. i have only done 6000 miles since and yesterday my car started to grind a bit when i started braking. this is what happened last time (after 27000 miles) and was told they needed doing. surely they should last longer than 6000 miles. has anyone any ideas as to what else it could be. thanks

[djl]

on my cars i have changed pads every 2 years or so. i do about 8000 a year:beer:

[kaya]

vehicle/driver type make a big difference, automatics use em faster

[moonrakerz]

They may not be worn out, you may have trapped some road debris between the disc and the pad and damaged one or both of them.

Talking about damage - never hold your car stationary on the foot brake, use the hand brake. Holding the car on the foot brake doesn't allow the discs to cool evenly; if not, they can warp.

[Silent_Bob]

Why do automatics use them faster? Mine doesnt.

[stumpjumper]

I seem to be getting 11-15K out of mine but that's with a lot of high speed motorway braking (rush hour start/stop). The type of compund on the pads makes a big difference too, so might be worth asking for an upgrade quality pad next time you get them changed.

[Grumpy_Old_Duffer]

I find they wear out quite quickly doing hand-brake turns, trying to outrun the law!!!;)

[chrisw]

Why do automatics use them faster? Mine doesnt.

There is much less engine braking which is why they tend to wear faster.

I'm amazed at the low mileages people are getting, I usually get around 50,000 miles out of a set, doing the average 10000 iles a year and a mixture of motorway and town driving

[Wig]

hi i had my pads replaced last july on my corsa. i have only done 6000 miles since and yesterday my car started to grind a bit when i started braking. this is what happened last time (after 27000 miles) and was told they needed doing. surely they should last longer than 6000 miles. has anyone any ideas as to what else it could be. thanks

Learn to check them and change them yourself, then you won't mind so much. Did you put GM pads on?

[charb]

had them done at kwik fit so i took it back but they said brakes and discs fine, tyres ok so nothing to worry about, said its probably dirt. thanks for your replies

[tomstickland]

Depends on pad compound, brake discs and use.
6K sounds low to me, get the opinion of an independant garage, not quick fit.

[Silent_Bob]

There is much less engine braking which is why they tend to wear faster.

I'm amazed at the low mileages people are getting, I usually get around 50,000 miles out of a set, doing the average 10000 iles a year and a mixture of motorway and town driving
Ah never thuoght of that, although mines a semi automatic so I can control engine braking on it - that would explain it though.

[waster]

vehicle/driver type make a big difference, automatics use em faster

I drive an auto 4x4 discs all round and mine are currently at 33,000+ without being changed.

[GabbaGabbaHey]

Talking about damage - never hold your car stationary on the foot brake, use the hand brake. Holding the car on the foot brake doesn't allow the discs to cool evenly; if not, they can warp.I think you need to be doing some pretty heavy braking before you'll get your disks hot enough to risk warping them. Perhaps on a track day (where you wouldn't use the handbrake either) or at the bottom of an alpine descent, but unlikely in normal driving.

A much better reason for not holding the car on the foot brake, especially at night, is that (especially with today's high mounted third brake light) you will dazzle anybody who is stopped behind you (e.g., at traffic lights) and destroy their night vision. Pretty anti-social.

[saintscouple]

I recently had my disks and pads changed, when after a couple thousand miles, had a terriable grinding sound which eased when i pressed on the brake.
What had happened is apparantly the pads need a groove down the middle to free any trapped debris, but not all pads have this groove and should be scored manually when fitted - this wasn't done on mine - but all fine now it has.

[tomstickland]

I think you need to be doing some pretty heavy braking before you'll get your disks hot enough to risk warping them.
You'd be surprised - do one 75-30 hard braking maneovre and the discs will be hot enough to risk warping. "Warping" is not generally the metal going out of shape, but is actually a deposit of pad material on the surface of the discs, and sitting at the lights with the footbrake on can cause this to happen.

[waterbaby]

Is changing brake pads and discs something I can do myself? I just did my oil and filter, and that has two spanners out of five in the Haynes manual difficulty rating, and the brake pads and discs also have a two spanner rating.

However on the back cover of Haynes there is an example page, which just happens to be the oil and filter renewal, and it has one spanner there:confused: . If the brake pads and discs are more difficult than the oil and filter, I wouldn't attempt it alone, as I don't truly understand how cars work. Even though after reading the instructions I think I could do it. It's not something I would risk getting wrong:eek:

Also, would £17 be a price for one brake pad? Presumably it is not the cost for 4?

[Mikeyorks]

said its probably dirt. thanks for your replies

My previous Land Rovers braking degenerated quite severely after about 10 days - owing to a build up of dust around the pads. Astonishing quantity of black muck from the front wheels at each jet wash - but restored the braking to normal.

[tomstickland]

£17 would probably be a set of brake pads ie: 4 parts, two for each front wheel.
Changing discs and pads is pretty simple, a bit more involving than oil and filter, but well worth doing yourself.

[GabbaGabbaHey]

You'd be surprised - do one 75-30 hard braking maneovre and the discs will be hot enough to risk warping.It depends on the car, I guess, but certainly on my cars (Porsche 911, BMW M5) there is no way that a single 75-30 braking manoeuver would get that much temperature into the disks.

"Warping" is not generally the metal going out of shape, but is actually a deposit of pad material on the surface of the discs, and sitting at the lights with the footbrake on can cause this to happen.I think that you are mixing up warped disks with glazed disks.

Warped disks can indeed be caused by (a lot of) heavy braking and the metal does actually go out of shape. You can feel it as a "pulsing" in the brake pedal on light braking.

Glazed disks, on the other hand, are caused by a build-up of crud on the disks, and lead to reduced braking efficiency. This can sometimes be cured by braking hard a few times (when it is safe to do so, of course).

[tomstickland]

No, I'm basing what I said on a number of articles I've read on the internet by some braking guru, who claimed that in 10 years of inspecting warped discs he'd never found one that actually showed out of flatness of the material.

Porsche 911 and M5 are both engineered for high speed use and, I agree, a single 100-30 will not take it to "warping" (whatever the definition), but do a 100-30 in a Corsa and then sit at lights with the brake pedal on and that'll do it.

[Ticklemouse]

but do a 100-30 in a Corsa and then sit at lights with the brake pedal on and that'll do it.

Jeez - would you WANT to do 100 in a Corsa? (assuming of course you can get it to that speed in the first place)

[tomstickland]

I don't know, I've never driven one, but the 1.6 GSi must make 115BHP or something and is therefore capable of 115mph at a guess.

[Silent_Bob]

Maybe downhill. Cars like that should be restricted as they cant stop anywhere near as quick as true sports cars. Unless they have uprated discs/pads/brake lines and callipers.

[tomstickland]

Well, when I used to be part of a Vauxhall tuning club there were countless Novas running 150BHP 2.0 16v engines and they used the brakes from the Vectra. These could stop better than most modern saloons on account of their light weight. There's no overcoming mass when it comes to braking.

I had Vectra 3.2 V6 brakes on my Astra GTE and they were astounding, what with being designed for a 1400KG car and then being used on an 880Kg car. I binned the servo and went to a bias box set up, that was better still, made you realise how binary most modern car brakes are. No use for anything other than hard braking.