 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / February 2007How long would you expect disc brakes to last?
How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? Roughly. I know it depends on a lot of different factors such as how heavily you brake and whether you do a lot of nose-to-tail start-stop driving in town or mainly drive on motorways/freeways. I ask because my Peugeot 306 seems to go through brakes at a great rate - every other service (so every 24,000 miles) I need new pads (especially at the back) and/or new discs where the pads have worn down far enough to score the discs. This is a small car about the size of a Ford Focus or a VW Golf with disc brakes all round. I would have thought that my brakes might last longer than average because as an Advanced Driver (member of Institute of Advanced Motorists in UK) I tend to look further ahead on the road and slow down by lifting off the power if possible rather than braking for every bend, and I brake progressively: light braking at high speed, getting heavier as I slow down. Is 24,000 miles on a set of brake pads/discs fairly typical or is it excessive. And why would the rear brakes wear out more often than the front brakes, given that you'd expect the front brakes to bear more of the braking force? > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > Roughly. It all depends on were and how you drive. I have seen people wear out a set of brakes in as little as 15,000 miles while others get 70,000 miles on the same model vehicle. > I know it depends on a lot of different factors such as how heavily you > brake and whether you do a lot of nose-to-tail start-stop driving in town > or mainly drive on motorways/freeways. It also depends on the quality of the brake pads used. > I ask because my Peugeot 306 seems to go through brakes at a great rate - > every other service (so every 24,000 miles) I need new pads (especially at [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > braking for every bend, and I brake progressively: light braking at high > speed, getting heavier as I slow down. Don't know anything about Peugeot but how long did brakes last on any other vehicles you have owned ? Also, are you using good quality brake pads or are you using the cheapest pads you can buy. In the U.S. we have some really crappy auto parts stores that sell parts cheap, with a lifetime guarantee, but the parts are junk . > Is 24,000 miles on a set of brake pads/discs fairly typical or is it > excessive. And why would the rear brakes wear out more often than the > front brakes, given that you'd expect the front brakes to bear more of the > braking force? I can't answer those questions for you but why not take the car to someone who is familiar with that make and model and ask their opinion on your brake wear. > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > Roughly. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > brakes, given that you'd expect the front brakes to bear more of the braking > force? Hmm - well, consider that material is removed from pads with every revolution of the disk, light braking is probably not what you want. If your goal is to get the most life out of your brakes, you probably want to slow down by lifting the power, and when slowing down from high speed, wait until the last minute then brake hard. Hard braking gives fewer revolutions of the disk, less material removal. Ted > > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > > Roughly. [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > - Show quoted text - So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! 24k miles is typical. Usually rears wear twice as long as fronts. Could be the way Peugeot's are set up, or something wrong. > So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! > > 24k miles is typical. Usually rears wear twice as long as fronts. > Could be the way Peugeot's are set up, or something wrong. Honda rear pads also wear much more quickly than the fronts. They're teeny- tiny and quite soft. Plus the rear discs develop more rust than the fronts, so you get additional abrasion from startup.  SignatureTegger > So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! Yes, it does. Soft braking heats them up hotter and they wear out faster. That is why your not supposed to "ride the clutch" with your foot, it wears it out faster. Same principle. Ted > <dahpa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Ted LOL. Yeah, OK > > So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > out > faster. Same principle. Well if you drive around with the brake pedal depressed you are going to wear out the brakes just as when you ride around with the clutch depressed will wear out the clutch. But I don't see the connection to the question asked. The person that uses the brakes hard so that the disks get excessively hot will wear out the brakes faster than someone who doesn't brake as hard or as often so that the rotors have an opportunity to cool. Stopping slowly will cause less wear simply because most of the energy needed to stop the vehicle doesn't come from brake friction but from other friction sources and wind resistance. Also the rotors can shed more of the heat the longer it takes to stop. My experience is that for any given type of pad and braking habits, the pads that wear the longest are on cars where the rotors have the smoothest finish. Dust, heat, corrosion, metallurgy and pad material all affect the surface finish on the rotors. But the driver and the type of driving (stop-and-go or hiway) are the biggest factors. People who use their brakes moderately most of the time definitely get longer life on the pads. On the other hand, maybe you mean that every time you brake you lock up all four wheels and come to a screeching halt. I can imagine that would probably extend the life of the pads since the wheels aren't turning at all. -jim -jim >> So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! > >Yes, it does. Soft braking heats them up hotter and they wear out faster. If you make the same stop from the same speed it will generate the same amount of heat energy. But "soft" braking spreads the heat energy out over a longer time so the peak temp will be lower. Hard braking, OTOH, leaves little time for heat dissipation so peak temp will be high creating more likelihood of rotor warpage and I would guess more general deterioration of the pad simply due to the higher heat. >That >is why your not supposed to "ride the clutch" with your foot, it wears it >out >faster. Same principle. Not the same at all. Riding the brakes is NOT the same as using them to stop the car. Riding them simply generates heat energy without a purpose since you are not doing it to stop the car and assuming you continue to move, you continually add energy to the system from the engine power, and then dissipate that energy in the brakes by riding them. And yes, it will heat the brakes up. But it has nothing to do with "soft braking". On Feb 15, 6:26 am, dahpa...@yahoo.com wrote: > > "Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > > So hard braking saves brake pads?!?! You must smoke the good stuff!!! Agree. If you use only your brakes to stop then a long slowdown vs a last minute panic stop from the same speed will generate the same amount of heat and wear. It has to. You can of course stop wisely by letting off of the gas pedal asap and not touch the brakes until needed and that will substantially reduce the brake wear and improve gas milage. The guys that wear their brakes (and the rest of the car) out the fastest are those who are rapidly accelerating and decelerating all the time to get ahead a car length or two. They are either wannabe race car drivers orr hyper-nvervous personalities. Or both.... > 24k miles is typical. Usually rears wear twice as long as fronts. > Could be the way Peugeot's are set up, or something wrong.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > Roughly. Ill ask my son. He has a 306 in Norway. I dont remember his complaining about unusually short pad life. > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > Roughly. > > I know it depends on a lot of different factors such as how heavily you > brake and whether you do a lot of nose-to-tail start-stop driving in town or > mainly drive on motorways/freeways. As you noted it is difficult to say whether 24,000 miles is high or low because brake wear is determined by how you drive, the conditions you drive under, the design of the brakes and the material used in the pads. My experience has been that pads from the car manufacturer are designed to minimize noise and as a consequence tend to wear faster. > I ask because my Peugeot 306 seems to go through brakes at a great rate - > every other service (so every 24,000 miles) I need new pads (especially at [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > brakes, given that you'd expect the front brakes to bear more of the braking > force? If rear pads are truly wearing out faster than front ones I suspect a problem with your brake system. > How many miles' usage would you expect to get out of a set of disc brakes? > Roughly. Martin, I told you I would ask my son about his experiences, and did so today, but he does not have a 306. My mistake. His is the 307. He has about 50,000 km on it, and has had no brake pad problems. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.