Brake pad life screen

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Imagine thinking that more information available to the driver is a bad thing.

IMAGINE. I can do that while listening to John Lennon's Imagine song fantasy. LOL It just seems to be so much useless technology. Well for old grumps like me.

 

[Dave9]

In the salt belt the corrosion will destroy the rotors and pads long before the friction material wears out.

I don't find this to be true at all. Sure there is some rust buildup on the non-contact areas, but simply driving it once every couple weeks scrubs the rusts off those areas.

Never had to replace rotors or pads due to rust before the friction material wore out. Granted, when I do brakes I clean any important areas and put silicone paste grease on.

 

[The Critic]

I don't find this to be true at all. Sure there is some rust buildup on the non-contact areas, but simply driving it once every couple weeks scrubs the rusts off those areas.

Never had to replace rotors or pads due to rust before the friction material wore out. Granted, when I do brakes I clean any important areas and put silicone paste grease on.

Maybe not you, specifically, but it is a real issue. Just look at some of the south main auto brake job videos.

 

[Dave9]

^ Probably due to last garage doing them, just doing a pad slap, or they wait waaaaaay too long to do brakes.

What is the attached pic supposed to show? I don't see much rust?

 

[The Critic]

^ Probably due to last garage doing them, just doing a pad slap, or they wait waaaaaay too long to do brakes.

What is the attached pic supposed to show? I don't see much rust?

Picture was attached in error. I removed it.

 

[IveBeenRued]

Does it sound like a waste? Brakes are not brain surgery. Even non mechanical people are usually smart enough to ask their mechanic when they need overhaul. I guess the world is gearing up for a population who does not know how to do anything for themselves any more. We had a highly educated "Doctor of Engineering" at work who could not even figure out how to get to / let alone replace his flat tire with the spare. We did it for the poor guy. His parents bought him a brand new car for Christmas each year! Some lucky folks at the plant bought a few off of him before he was tranfered and got his automatic promotion up the ladder to management.

We are already there buddy. Just two years ago I personally witnessed a service writer at my local dealer fleece an elderly driver out of $622 for front brake pads for her Ford Fusion. I have no idea whether or not she needed them or not but giving the average consumer the ability to check a screen to get some indication on whether or not their dealer is attempting to cornhole them, can only be a good thing. At least it would give them pause and the ability to go get a second opinion.

Conversely, I’ve personally seen someone with a car that no longer had an inner brake pad. The piston was making direct contact with the rotor but he said “I don’t trust that place, they keep telling me that I need a brake job whenever I go in for a tire rotation.” Maybe the car telling a a distrusting person like that when it’s time to change out the pads will be a good thing.

 

[64bawagon]

I don't find this to be true at all. Sure there is some rust buildup on the non-contact areas, but simply driving it once every couple weeks scrubs the rusts off those areas.

Never had to replace rotors or pads due to rust before the friction material wore out. Granted, when I do brakes I clean any important areas and put silicone paste grease on.

They throw way more salt up here than they do in Cinci. Typically its the inner rotor surface that starts to get the creep from the outer edges. The floating pads start to get rusty on the tabs and the shims get a little rust jacked and they dont float as good as they should. The coated rotors and good quality pads are a big help but the modern ceramic brakes last so long because they arent quite as abrasive as semi metallic. My 05 Chevy 2500HD went through 2 sets of rotors before I had to replace the pads at 100K, and thats with a lot of time towing a 10K trailer.

BTW, they will actually salt dry roads on sunny days or when its 40 degrees out. Sounds crazy but I have seen it way too many times. Throwing salt is a religion for the Orange trucks up here.

 

[Dave9]

^ They put out salt here too, if there is any chance of snow. Coated rotors would make zero difference, is just about looks as the coating is immediately scrubbed off the contact area if it were applied there in the first place. I take that back, by coating the cooling channel vanes the rotor will stay cooler running but I never stress my rotors that much to matter.

I'm sticking with my theory that the caliper slide rails were not sufficiently cleaned and silicone paste greased (along with the pins) the last time they were done, or possibly the vehicle is mostly driven on highways so racks up a lot more miles till the pads wear out. Then again not all braking systems are equal but I long ago lost count of the # of vehicles I've done pads on and never had rust replacement issues before the pads wore out, unless as I'd already stated, last time it wasn't done properly so more than one brake pad swap worth of buildup.

Having stated this much, I check the brakes a few times between new and worn out (more often than once a year) , and if I detected any uneven wear I would address it immediately, is a fairly simple thing to clean off rust and relube, though never have I had to replace a rotor due to rust, not even remotely close to doing it... though there is an exception, that if the pads were dragging and caused deep grooves in the rotor, there's vehicles that relatives have brought to me in this state and needed both pads and rotors replaced, but there was no rust problem on the rotors themselves.