What metric do you use to estimate remaining brake pad life on a typical economy sedan?

On 11/8/20 4:10 am, N8N wrote:
> On Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 12:28:48 PM UTC-4, Steve W. wrote:
>> Arlen Holder wrote:
>>> On Fri, 31 Jul 2020 14:04:50 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 wrote:
>>>
>>>> Every pad I've installed for decades has had them, including the ones that
>>>> use electric wear sensors.
>>>
>>> How many miles do you get per front pads, in general?
>>>
>>> As for mechanical sensors, my bimmer has only one wear sensor per axle
>>> o No mechanical sensor; only electronic (front left and rear right).
>>>
>>> Although electronic is essentially mechanical, since it's a stub of plastic
>>> that wears on contact, exposing the wires embedded inside that plastic.
>>>
>>> One issue is removing the sensors often breaks them if you're not careful.
>>>
>>> Since we rotate so frequently, checking brakes are easy; but this question
>>> was for estimating miles for someone else who doesn't rotate as frequently
>>> as I do (due to mountainous terrain causing specific "camber scrub" wear to
>>> the inboard corners of the front tires).
>>>
>>> At the moment, with the data we have, it's about 4,000 miles per pad mm.
>>
>> There is no rule of thumb for brake wear because it depends more on the
>> driver, vehicle location and the pad materials than anything else.
>>
>> Drive out in the plains where the only hills are long and low and the
>> brake wear is going to be much different than if you live in the
>> rockies. Same with driving in New York City versus San Fransisco.
>>
>> Another factor is the vehicle itself and how it is set up. Some will
>> chew through brakes fast while others barely nibble. Some will go
>> through brakes in 40K or less while others might make it to the junkyard
>> on the OEM rears pads.
>>
>>
>> The Journey we have had all the brakes done by the dealer with OEM
>> parts prior to our purchase, They have about 55K on them and the fronts
>> are worn maybe 1/2 way. The rears however were just replaced, but not
>> for wear, the rotors rusted into junk and damaged the pads. So it got
>> new NAPA coated rotors and premium ceramics to see how they work on it,
>> have had very good service from them on many other vehicles.
>>
>
> Another factor is riveted vs. bonded linings, you can run a bonded lining a lot thinner than a riveted one. 5mm might be thiiiiiis close to grinding the rivet heads.
>
> nate
>
Rivets? In this era? Bonded shoes are all I have seen for *decades*.

--

Xeno


Nothing astonishes Noddy so much as common sense and plain dealing.
(with apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson)