Normal front brake pad replacement interval?

Thank you so much. Yeah, I asked him for the thickness of the pads and rotors and his response was that he can't measure rotor thickness "without taking everything apart"? Does he mean without taking a wheel off? LOL. I can see the rotors myself through the rims! Am I supposed to believe you can't get a micrometer in there at all? And how can they tell that the pads are at 10% but can't tell me the thickness? According to the dealership exactly one year ago I had 7mm left on the front brake pads (the lowest edge of their "green" band on the multi-point inspection. And I had the rear brake pads done at 112K 2 months prior to that (after a strange sound coming from a rear wheel). So I GUESS it's possible that I have worn the front pads down over 4 mm to the "red" in one year? Also, is it normal practice now to replace the rotors on the first front brake pad change? They said they do it as a standard practice now and haven't resurfaced rotors for anyone in 2 years because nowadays rotors are made so thin and cheap that resurfacing just causes problems. Is this true? I was definitely not anticipating pads AND rotors all at once

 

yeah, to be fair, I was expecting a much longer list of to-dos and a much higher bill but this is still raising red flags.

 

i agree with you, and they could be right. but you never go with one opinion, whether it's a mech or a doc.

 

112k is definitely early, so maybe the fronts do need to be changed. i'm not sure about the rotors, that may be true, and you have to see/feel them to determine if they need to be changed. they are not expensive though.

 

Thanks. Yes they are not expensive which is why his original quote of $597 just to replace the front brake pads and rotors sounded disgusting. He better be flushing the brake fluid with that too

 

That would mean I wore them down at least 4 mm in one year. I went 7 years with the car prior to that, and the first time I replaced any brakes on it was the rear brakes May 2024.

 

If you do a lot of city driving, and especially where the yellow lights are short, and you're heavy on the brake, maybe.

My Gen 2 had plenty of wear left on the fronts at over 200K. Mostly highway driving. I had to replace the rear brakes, but it wasn't a wear issue. The slave cylinder on one was leaking a little and that caused some squealing when I used the brakes.

It's weird you had to replace the rear brakes first - unless you had a parking brake problem.

 

I have 285k miles, still on original pads and rotors. When I eyeball my pads, the outer one looks to be 4mm, and maybe my inner is 2-3mm. So far no noise issue, I’ll definitely give it a better look on my next oil change to check the overall health of my vehicle. No major repair besides the headgasket.

 

$600 is indeed a lot for just front pads and rotors if that's all they're doing. That's like $250 an hour. That being said I have no idea what normal price is. There is also a chance they'll run into issues with stuck caliper slide pins. That's a price I'd give if I didn't really want to do it but will be happy to if you pay me a bunch.

It is normal practice to replace the rotors along with the pads on these cars. I would bet money you don't need them, but it's one of those things where you might as well do it at the same time. New pads will probably last the life of the car so might as well do rotors and forget about it. Yes it's true that no one resurfaces rotors anymore (in general), the cost to do it is about the same or more as just getting new ones.

 

I used to resurface rotors all the time at the dealership when replacing pads. We would only replace the rotors if it’s not within spec of the thickness. But rotors are so cheap now a days, it’s sometimes cheaper to just replace the rotors.

 

I usually just replaced pads, once in a while shims too, if the end tabs were rusting out.

Only one time needed replacement rotors, one had cracked.

 

The only way you'd need pads is if you rested your left foot on the brake pedal all the time.
You should find another shop.
You certainly do NOT need rotors, except for the same reason.
Do you brake hard? Or are you easy on them?

"Turning" rotors is just about a thing of the past. They make them so thin there isn't enough
to SAFELY turn them to keep them in specs...

 

Front usually last 210k
Rear usually last 190k