Brake pads and rotors change after 10.000 miles???

I had my car ( 2007 Cayman with tiptronic) today at the 10.000 mile service and they told me that both rotors and pads of the front brake need replacement. Although this is my first porsche it seems too early to me - I never took the car to the track and would call myself a modest driver. Does anyone here has the same problem? And after how many miles did you had your brake pads and rotors replaced? Thanks

With a Tip that doesn't surprise me at all. Automatic cars are harder on brakes than well-driven manual trans cars are. Modern pads wear rotors, so the pads and rotors often go as a set. You can read lots of complaining on the MB and BMW boards about front pads and rotors lasting only 10-15K miles, so you're not really that far out of the ordinary, unless you drive mostly highway miles. Do you do a high proportion of stop and go driving?

Unless there was some other problem like some brake component dragging or binding up or defective rotors to begin with then you are way early for pad and rotor changes. Pads maybe if you tracked your car or were very hard on your pads, but my rotors are at 25K, have seen plenty of track driving and other than grooves they still have enough thickness. I would politely decline and then get a micrometer and measure the thickness of your rotors yourself and see what they are. I would also visually look at the pads and see how close to the warning sensors they are. If your pads are worn you can easily install new pads yourself, see the articles here. If your rotors are beyond the minimum thickness then yes you need to do something, but I highly doubt that they are. You might also want to take your car to another shop and have them inspect the brakes as well and get a 2nd opinion. As I said you "could" have a problem and thus it ought to be looked into, but it is highly unlikely that rotors need changed this early without something else being wrong that caused the rotors to go.

Like K-Man S, I can't imagine pads and rotors needing replacement after only 10k miles of road driving, unless something else is wrong. I have over 23k miles on the original rotors and that includes 3 seasons of autocross and track. The rotors have some heat cracks from tracking, but not enough for replacement. I'm still on the original pads too, although I switch them out for track pads for tracking. I guess the pads have about 18k miles on the road and at autocross.

I agree with Ken and Jim - it's highly unlikely you'll need rotors. I have more than 35k miles on my car, and 20-some track days and too many autocrosses to count, and still have the original rotors that are nowhere near needing replacement. On the other hand, I have replaced the pads quite a few times. Rotor wear can also be checked by looking at the wear "lip" around the circumference on both sides - wear of 2 mm is allowed on the rotors, so if your lip is less than 1 mm on each side, then you're ok. Also check your holes to see if there are cracks around them. Slight cracking around the holes ok, but cracks that go from one hole to another means immediate replacement is necessary. brad

I have 31k on my car and while the rotors are original the pads have been replaced lots of times. The rotors are grooved but have only small cracks in some of the holes and none of the cracks have gone from one hole to another. I would say that they are coming close to the end of there useful life BUT the amount of times they have been on track or at an autox is just silly. I can't imagine that somebody(anybody) could go through a set of rotors in just 10000 miles. G.

Have you ever measured the rotor thickness in one of the grooves?

No I haven't, but the Porsche tech who looked at my car a couple of months ago told me that I still had a little life left in the rotors. I also have a brand new set of Rotors sitting in my garage ready to be swapped out, which I will more than likely do before attending any more track days. Now just to figure out whether to do it myself or pay somebody that hopefully knows what their doing to tackle the job. G.

I'm going to do a rotor install article just as soon as the garage warms up enough...

Replacing rotors is a very simple task. If you can change brake pads, rotors are well within your ability. I replaced my fronts a few weeks ago after 16k miles of use.

Agree on the procedure. Why did you replace your rotors?

When changing rotors, is it also recommended to replace the bolts that hold the brake calipers to the steering rack? (sorry I'm not sure what the term is for the rear assembly)

Yes, generally speaking, if you take the calipers off for any reason (including changing the rotors) you should replace the caliper bolts. They're not very expensive, really. brad

The "standard procedure " is to replace rotors with pads, according to my dealer. Back when my 2.7 was new and my brother and I were the first people to ever try to buy new pads for one, the service department refused to schedule a pad only service. Not after looking at anything...just based upon "policy" They said Porsche recommends that pads and rotors be changed at the same time. So I called a parts department at another dealership and ordered the pads to do a DIY job. The rotors were still like new.

I'd be on my fifth set of rotors if this were absolutely how things were to be. G.

The "policy" of replacing pads and rotors as a set is a scam that a few BMW stealerships try as well. A good one will measure the thickness of the rotors.

Call me cynical but I would suspect that, since it's winter, and a lot of Porsches are in hibernation, your local Porsche tech is barely earning his keep - so perhaps the service advisor is looking for something to keep him gainfully employed. FWIW, I'm at 25K miles, with about 15 track days, and I will probably be putting on new pads and rotors (myself) in the spring when track season resumes.

Had over 70,000 miles on my 06 CS & had never replaced rotors. She was a DD no track. Was at dealer for AOS replacement & they performed their routine check & made no comments about rotors.

Its really easy. Measure the rotors, if they are within spec and don't shudder at all during low and high speed braking they are fine. Even if they have some gouges, as long as they don't shudder, you are OK.

do you have a link to the article? I can't find it using the search engine in the articles section. Thanks in advance

Getting only 10k out of a set of stock Porsche rotors on a street car is almost impossible. You would have to really over use the brakes. You would have to be very hard on the car and go through a couple sets of pads in that time or just wear the pads down to the metal and keep driving. 20k is normal for performance car that's driven hard on the roads in my experience. However, much heavier vehicles (IE: Range Rover) can burn through pads even faster.

Does anyone know what the minimum rotor thickness is for 2.7 Cayman ?