Guy sure got his money's worth out of these pads

[Falcon_LS]

I dropped by my mechanic last night as I was in the area, and he was doing a brake job on a '07 Expedition. The car was in terrible shape with bondo all over the bodywork, but it got even better.

The wheels were stuck to the rotors and couldn't be removed. They started to move a bit only after blasting them with CRC Freeze Off several times, but still needed a good bit of effort. The brake pads then came off:

 

[Colt45ws]

Oh, those are still good. Until the pads fall out it is no problem at all.
(I actually worked on a car that spit a brake pad when I was moving it in to put tires on it.)

 

[KFoster]

Wow he sure did get his moneys worth.

 

[OldCowboy]

Not a problem. That'll buff out!

 

[hypervish]

It's still got a good 10k miles left. Send them over to me, I'll use them.

LOL, wow! Any idea on how many miles are on those? Probably still OEM.

 

[simple_gifts]

I've never removed brake pads from a car; I just keep installing them.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: hypervish
It's still got a good 10k miles left. Send them over to me, I'll use them.

LOL, wow! Any idea on how many miles are on those? Probably still OEM.


170,000 km (106,250 miles) on the odometer, so if they are the factory pads, that's how far they've gone. Car was in terrible condition though.

 

[Mark_Walk]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
I've never removed brake pads from a car; I just keep installing them.


Now that's funny!

 

[Astro14]

You can run brake pads until there's 2MM of steel backing left right? They're not really worn out until the pistons hit the rotors...

I've seen rotors come off a car with pads like that...and they were worn down to the cooling fins...the rotors looked like a turbine in spots...what puzzled me is how the pistons stayed in the caliper bores and didn't leak with the pads gone and the rotors nearly gone...

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
You can run brake pads until there's 2MM of steel backing left right? They're not really worn out until the pistons hit the rotors...

I've seen rotors come off a car with pads like that...and they were worn down to the cooling fins...the rotors looked like a turbine in spots...what puzzled me is how the pistons stayed in the caliper bores and didn't leak with the pads gone and the rotors nearly gone...

Car manufacturers know people do this sort of stupid stuff and way over spec how far out the piston can go. Its still over the safe limit, though. If I seen a car like this, it would be getting calipers along with pads and rotors.

 

[paulo57509]

Just turn them over and use the other side. Waste not, want not.

 

[JHZR2]

Id be worried if I was the mechanic, as you know the person with that car wont want to do the right work to make it correct.

 

[GMFan]

I can't imagine how noisy it was when he hit the brake pedal....probably the only reason he actually brought it in to the shop.

This isn't too uncommon.... I knew a guy with a 2003 Honda Civic and his brakes were squealing for months and when he brought it in for a brake job they told him he needed new rotors because the pads were worn down to the metal.

They are among us!

 

[PandaBear]

I used to have a boss that got annoyed by the noise of the wear indicator clip and take it off, thinking that he will change the pad in a month and forgot about it.

One day he had no brake when he was getting off the freeway, almost got into an accident.

 

[Virtuoso]

I wish I had a picture of the pads I just replaced on our Malibu. On one side (caliper had been sticking) the pad material was paper thin. The other side still had a little meat left. I put 70,000 miles on these pads, and who knows how long they were on before?