Brake Life Span

[STV4SYT]

Guys, a colleague of mine has been stung for brakes on his A3, he reckons very early.


Just after an idea of how soon i can expect to have to do pads/rotors front and rear on it.

I know they will eat them up more than an aussie car. used to have to replace pads every 5000miles androtors at 10000 on a 306 Dturbo i had. it was a company car though and got driven pretty hard.


Steve

[Manaz]

My understanding is that it's quite common for European cars to have quite hard pads, and thus they chew the rotors quite quickly.

I'm sure that along with the relative hardness of the rotors/pad compounds, driving style comes into play a lot as well - I've driven manual Japanese cars for 60,000km or more on a single set of rotors (and only two sets of pads), as I'm very light on the brakes, though I go through them quicker in an automatic (as I am on the Outback we have now). If you do trackdays (even the odd one), I suspect you'll chew through brakes at a much faster rate than someone who does a lot of highway kilometres.

Rears should last longer than fronts regardless - they do a substantially lower amount of work than the front brakes.

[acdcfan]

It all depends on how you drive a car.....
if you drive hard and brake hard you will ware them quicker, if you tailgating you will ware, if you are left foot brake sometimes you will have brake pedal engaged without even realizing....
I drive manual and use gears to brake the car down before I assist it with brake pedal.
One year after I bought my Golf I used maybe 1/8 of my brake pads .

[Purgi]

I drive manual and use gears to brake the car down before I assist it with brake pedal.
One year after I bought my Golf I used maybe 1/8 of my brake pads .

Just be a little careful with that though, as they say, it's cheaper to change pads than it is a clutch.

I managed to go 120k without a change of pads in my last manual XR8. I wouldn't change down unless the revs were going to be less than 2000 when coming to a stop though.

[Mischa]

50000 isnt uncommon for a pad change

[STV4SYT]

Thanks guys, im pretty on top of the actual dynamics of braking, just after how many actual km's a set of pads last for in your experience.

I do a lot of stop start, if im driving hard ill engine brake with the DSG, downhill ill engine brake it using 5th or 4th to save the brakes a bit.

Ive had many manual cars so am an engine braker at heart.....

I also noticed lots of brake dust around the wheels, sign that they are soft pads.

[h100vw]

Guys, a colleague of mine has been stung for brakes on his A3, he reckons very early.


Just after an idea of how soon i can expect to have to do pads/rotors front and rear on it.

I know they will eat them up more than an aussie car. used to have to replace pads every 5000miles androtors at 10000 on a 306 Dturbo i had. it was a company car though and got driven pretty hard.


Steve

I can't see how you'd use brakes that fast.... Our 98 A3 had new discs and pads 2 years ago and there's barely any wear on the discs and the pads have loads left on them.

I don't see why a European car would get through brakes any faster than an Aussie built one?

In fact with the service intervals on Euros these days, they should be lasting for ages.

I bet the Audi dealer would opt to change brake parts, long before they are needed, if they don't think it'll make it to the next service.

That kind of thing I would take under advisement and have done at an Audi specialist rather than the dealer.

Gavin

[dbryce]

... I wouldn't change down unless the revs were going to be less than 2000 when coming to a stop though.

2000? less than 2000rpm? That isn't much engine braking, if any at all, is it?

[brad]

I don't see why a European car would get through brakes any faster than an Aussie built one?

Because European cars - or at least German cars seem to have much "softer" friction materials & rotors. They seem to wear out 1 set of rotors for every 2 sets of pads.

I think Cherman cars have brakes where the prime importance is stopping power & anti-squeal. They don't seem overly concerned about brake dust or pad/rotor life. Australian consumers seem more concerned about pad life, not wearing rotors & minimising brake dust, so the build is different.

As for dealerships changing pads, we used to recommend a pad change if the thickness of the friction material was less than the thickness of the backing plate. We didn't take into account how many kms the car had done or how the car was driven. Our customers didn't want to come back to the workshop between services & we didn't want them going metal/metal so we erred on the side of caution. Unfortunatly, for some customers that were easy on brakes, that meant they were getting their brakes changed way too early.

Always ask the Service Advisor how many mm of friction material is left. New is about 10-12mm. The backing plate is about 4-5mm. I'd use 3mm of friction material as a minimum. If your happy to return to the dealership between services then you are within your right to postpone the work but most people just want to get everything done at once.

Personally, I'd find an independant mechanic to fit some quality aftermarket pads (maybe Ferodo DS2000) and quality aftermarket rotors (DBA if available).

[acdcfan]

Just be a little careful with that though, as they say, it's cheaper to change pads than it is a clutch.

Considering that speeds I am traveling are 80km/h or less I don't think it will ware out any time soon.... It will take some hard clutch riding,dumping and burning before it dies.
Yes it is much cheaper to changed pads but what about disc rotors...
I mean how much trashing you need to put the clutch through before it fails.....

[Manaz]

Considering that speeds I am traveling are 80km/h or less I don't think it will ware out any time soon.... It will take some hard clutch riding,dumping and burning before it dies.
Yes it is much cheaper to changed pads but what about disc rotors...
I mean how much trashing you need to put the clutch through before it fails.....

I agree entirely.

Sure, clutches are more expensive to replace than brake components (though what's the going rate for a set of front rotors plus decent pads, all at once?) - but they're also a damned site tougher, and unless you can't drive, are much less prone to wear.

I've had one clutch issue in ~10 years of driving where I've easily seen 40,000km+ from each set of pads (and I've never worn out a set of rotors), and that was a known issue with the dual-mass flywheel on my MY02 Subaru Liberty with the EJ25 engine (which was replaced at Subaru's cost outside of the warranty period as it was a design fault which they acknowledged).

[The_Hawk]

The sister in laws Peugeot has the pads changed just about every service and the rotors at least once for the few years she had it. Yes it was an Auto, but still...

[Purgi]

Considering that speeds I am traveling are 80km/h or less I don't think it will ware out any time soon.... It will take some hard clutch riding,dumping and burning before it dies.
Yes it is much cheaper to changed pads but what about disc rotors...
I mean how much trashing you need to put the clutch through before it fails.....

Given that I now drive a DSG, I hope I never find out!

[Preen59]

One thing you need to consider is Dealerships replacing pads and discs before they need to be replaced.

The wear indicator tab on some pads is like 10-12mm off the backplate. I know my old man cuts the tab down a lot of the time on pads and usually takes 6-10mm off the tab to allow people to get 'more life' out of the pads.

I know people have come to him for a service that have previously gone to a dealership and when paying the bill they have said "Oh, you haven't changed the brake pads." And my old man has said "Yes, they still have about 40k left on them." And they say "Oh, at the dealership they replaced them at every second service." Or every service.

In some cases, if you think your brakes are being serviced too often, i'd be checking your pads before you take it for a service to make sure that your pads DO need changing before you let them rob you blind for a service you didn't need.

[brad]

Yes it is much cheaper to changed pads but what about disc rotors...
I mean how much trashing you need to put the clutch through before it fails.....

On my 10 y.o Golf, rear rotors are $55 each for aftermarket RDA brand. They look like they just fall off/on. Fronts rotors are about $90
Clutch kit is about $300 & a days worth of pain to change it.

I'm sure the later models are much more painful financially.