Been advised by garage to undertake unnecessary work.

alderpoint

bigjl wrote: »

You could have got another few thousand out of them if you wanted to but their ability to brake efficiently would decrease as the amount of pad material decreased.

Can you explain that please? By that reasoning, a new pad (11mm) is almost four times as efficient as a pad with only 3mm left - which is clearly not true.

Zandoni wrote: »

The important part is when the car is serviced next, 3mm is not going to last a year or 12,000 miles. So the Volvo dealer was perfectly correct.

The dealer can't possibly know this. Depending on how and where you drive, 3mm could last 1 month or 5 years.

With wear indicators on many cars, you don't need a pessimistic dealer to tell you the pads will need replacing - the car will tell you itself.

Zandoni

alderpoint wrote: »

The dealer can't possibly know this. Depending on how and where you drive, 3mm could last 1 month or 5 years.

With wear indicators on many cars, you don't need a pessimistic dealer to tell you the pads will need replacing - the car will tell you itself.

Any decent garage would strongly advise replacing pads at 3mm, this is because most people only want to take their cars into service one a year. As you said yourself they could only have 1 months wear left in them.

photome

IMO drop it

you now have new pads so you know you are ok for a good while

you could have removed your car from the Volvo dealer and taken to an independant to do the work but you live and learn

photome

alderpoint wrote: »

Can you explain that please? By that reasoning, a new pad (11mm) is almost four times as efficient as a pad with only 3mm left - which is clearly not true.



The dealer can't possibly know this. Depending on how and where you drive, 3mm could last 1 month or 5 years.

With wear indicators on many cars, you don't need a pessimistic dealer to tell you the pads will need replacing - the car will tell you itself.

I have never had a car with brake wear indicators (got a 12 plate and a 62 plate car at mo). Is it true that many cars have them or just a few of the millions of cars on the road

facade

photome wrote: »

I have never had a car with brake wear indicators (got a 12 plate and a 62 plate car at mo). Is it true that many cars have them or just a few of the millions of cars on the road

In the 80s & 90s lots of cars had wear indicators that were a thin wire embedded in the pad, when the pad wore enough for the wire to touch the disc the light came on.

As manufacturers got more penny pinching, these became "Sqealers", a short soft rivet through the pad that made a hell of a noise, but didn't damage the disc.

Then some bright spark realised that most owners don't lift the bonnet between services, and they could use the drop in brake fluid level as the pads wore out to trigger the low fluid light (which they renamed as "brake warning"). This doesn't work if you top up the brake fluid level yourself. I suspect that your cars use this system.

alderpoint

Zandoni wrote: »

Any decent garage would strongly advise replacing pads at 3mm, this is because most people only want to take their cars into service one a year. As you said yourself they could only have 1 months wear left in them.

Accepted but the garage doesn't know how/where you drive: only you know that. Use your experience to learn how heavy you are on the brakes and then you can take a sensible view on their advice. The main reason a garage advises replacement is that they don't want you coming back later complaining.

Mind you, if my local garage tells me my pads needed replacing at whatever thickness, then I tell them to go ahead - since I'm on Halfords 'brakes for life' then they pay the cost of it, not me.

Zandoni

alderpoint wrote: »

Accepted but the garage doesn't know how/where you drive: only you know that. Use your experience to learn how heavy you are on the brakes and then you can take a sensible view on their advice. The main reason a garage advises replacement is that they don't want you coming back later complaining.

Mind you, if my local garage tells me my pads needed replacing at whatever thickness, then I tell them to go ahead - since I'm on Halfords 'brakes for life' then they pay the cost of it, not me.

You also have to bear in mind that most people don't have a clue when it comes to the workings of their car.

alderpoint

Zandoni wrote: »

most people don't have a clue

'nuff said.

facade

alderpoint wrote: »

Mind you, if my local garage tells me my pads needed replacing at whatever thickness, then I tell them to go ahead - since I'm on Halfords 'brakes for life' then they pay the cost of it, not me.

Is that how it works?
I thought you went back to Halfords, and they insist that you need new discs everytime, that you pay dear for, before they will fit "free" pads.

Supplying you with free brakepads "for the rest of your life" must have a catch somewhere, they don't do 'owt for nowt.

photome

facade wrote: »

In the 80s & 90s lots of cars had wear indicators that were a thin wire embedded in the pad, when the pad wore enough for the wire to touch the disc the light came on.

As manufacturers got more penny pinching, these became "Sqealers", a short soft rivet through the pad that made a hell of a noise, but didn't damage the disc.

Then some bright spark realised that most owners don't lift the bonnet between services, and they could use the drop in brake fluid level as the pads wore out to trigger the low fluid light (which they renamed as "brake warning"). This doesn't work if you top up the brake fluid level yourself. I suspect that your cars use this system.

ha you may well be right, I always check and top up if and when required