What was the mileage of your CS when you did your first pad change?
I am almost at 19,000 miles and am wondering how long the pads are lasting with street usage. I have about 3days of DE usage but the majority of use has been on the street. Bought new pads ($500) from the dealer but I've just been too lazy to take the wheels off and look at the original pads. I did not buy new sensors yet because I am hoping I can reuse the old ones.
Are the sensors reusable if they have not ever touch the rotors?
You will get answers that are all over the map, becasue everyone uses their brakes
very
differently. I would suggest you take a good flashlight and inspect the pads yourself. the pads start out with 10mm of material on them, and the sensors are designed to give an alert at around 2mm - that's still 20% of your pad material left. Look through the the spokes of your wheels and see how much is left, not counting the backing plate. Take a look at the new pads you have for reference, and you should be able to make a pretty good estimate of how much pad material is left on the ones still on the car. Couple of things to remember, the further down the material wears, the wear accelerates because of the extra heat conducted by less pad material available to buffer the heat. Also, less pad material means more heat will be transmitted to the caliper and pistons, heating up your fluid more quickly - for street driving, this is really not a problem, though. You can re-use the sensors, if they've never been activated by touching a rotor.
brad
Hello beez,
You stated above that you may use the brake wear sensors over again "if they've never been activated by touching a rotor". I'm curious, why can't the sensor be re-used if it only rubs the rotor for (illustration sake) let's say 50 miles?
My plan was to keep a set of brake pads on stand-by and make the pad change at first sign of the brake pad warning light.
Thank you,
Joe
Usually brake wear sensors are a loop of wire enclosed in a plastic "plug". The rotor eats away at the plug, breaks the wire connection, and the warning goes off. The sensor is therefore consumed by being activated.
Thank you CheerIO and beez! Regards, Joe
Well, I changed my front pads last Friday because the brake light service light came on. The mileage was 19,339. It was so easy to change the pads. After I did the first side, I had the second side pads out in about a minute. I also changed the brake fluid while I was at it. My rear pad still have a while to go before I change them.
I didn't install my sensors after my last break job. They hadn't gone off so I just tied them up. You sound like someone who takes good care of your car and pays attention to your pad thickness. You might consider an extra set of pads for DEs. No sensors make the change so much easier.
I have not done any DE driving this year. But if I do next year, I might put in a more track oriented pad set. I could not believe the price of the stock pads. Since the sensors were only $135 for all four, I decided it was cheaper to use the stock pads up and put in new sensor with every pad change.
I found an easy way to get the sensors out. I took the pads out, then used a small screwdriver under the bottom of the sensor and pried them up. That was much easier than trying to take the sensors out before the pads:cheers:.
Last night I heard my brakes squeal softly and I thought it may have happened by chance... but again this morning it happened again SURPRISINGLY without an alert!
1. Does this mean I need to change the pads, or is it just dirt?
2. Is it easy for any mechanic to change the pads, or should he be specialist in sport cars?
If the pads are worn down to the sensor a light will come on, on your dash. Or you can grab a flash light and check the pad thickness yourself.
Pads are an easy DIY check out the how-to in the articles section.
Thank you for your reply... I'll see how to check the pads thickness today, but may I ask if it is ok to depend on the sensor light alone?
