At last year's service (nearly a year ago), the garage rang whilst they had the car to say the front pads were getting low. When asked for clarification they said about 5,000 miles (car had done about 42k at this point) so I said to leave it until next year as my anticipated mileage for the coming year was around 5-6,000 miles. Sure enough, I've done about 5,000 miles and, so far, not a word from the warning light.

So, my questions are these:

1) How long do brake pads typically last (I know it depends on how you drive but, even though I say so myself, I'm pretty gentle and don't use the brakes half as much as some people) before the light comes on?

and

2) How much life is left after it does?

I've seen comments on this forum suggesting that they should last into the 80ks but would be nice to know how others have fared. My car has so far done 46k in six years.

Many thanks - Stuart

Way too many variables to say IMO. You could do 80K on a set if you do lots of motorway miles or if you do 80K of start stop hard breaking you could go through 3 sets in that time.

You don't need to remove the pads to see how much life is left on them.

Taking the wheel off helps but if you can see through the spokes you'll be able to see how much thickness remains on the pads.

It is very much a "how long is a piece of string" question I'm afraid, as has been mentioned above there are way too many variables.

Fair comments, I was just interested to hear the experiences of others.

I'd say unless you're really really going for it, you're going to see at least 30k miles out of a set of OEM pads on OEM discs.

Typically it will be a lot higher than that for out of town driving.

That doesn't mean ignore them for that mileage, just that you should carry out regular checks and if you're budgeting, then new pads every 30k, new disks every 60k is probably a fair way to budget.

Some times, one pad will wear faster than the other due to a sticking caliper. Not so likely on a new model, but possible. Just make sure you can see enough meat on both.

The warning lamp comes on when the pad has worn enough to earth the lamp. There is only one wire, so the other pad could concieveably be worse. As others said, easy enough to check.

My combi was still on its first pads/discs at 60 000 miles when I got it, and still serviceable. (lease car - I saw the service files).

FWIW, also remember that the inner pad (that you can't see) can often wear quicker then ahte outer pad, as the piston is on that side.

That means when it looks close you should replace them, rather than waiting until it's totally worn. Otherwise you can end up having to replace discs too, never mind the lack of brake force.

My mk1 and mk2 were traded in at about 80k on the original front pads. One of them had new rears at 70k but I can't remember which.

At my last service at 75k miles, service sheet said 35% worn. These are the original pads.

As silver says have a look through the alloys with a bright torch if needed. The dash indicator is for the front only and at 90% IIRC.

83k on the fronts at the moment. Rears were done at about 75k. Disks still OEM front and rear (seemingly made from the same material as Captain Scarlet!)

I sold my vrs with 130k miles with the original pads and discs.

Lots of motorway miles and no tailgating is the key here

I changed mine before the light at about 60k. Plenty in the pads them but the disks were looking thin.

Edited 15 June, 201313 yr by Aspman

Hmmmm. Had a similar sort of experience some years ago with my fraud mundano. Main Stealer rang when doing the service with much the same report. I declined the offer (especially after getting 'the quote') 6 montbs later I went to my indy tyre and exhaust bloke who told me there was still about 10 k on the pads left. I'm rather synical so assumed they were just trying to get an easy few quid out of me and put another 'tick in the box' towards meeting their monthly target. That was the last time I used them. If SWMBO got 42k+ out of a set of pads I'd buy her some flowers!

Check yourself dealers will add this on and hope you take them up. I've heard it being said at a dealer before. I've also had it said to me with 10k of mileage on the pads......they went on for another 70k.

To save posting another thread, the rear pads what is the start thickness?

During the "how fast event" I really struggled to slow the car down, braking was not great. I put it down to possible fluid issues but looking at the rear pads they are down to about 5mm (outside pad). Front pads are fine.

Any reason for excessive wear? As none of my cars have worn the rears first. Could this be related to the xds system working on track?

Cheers

Thanks for the comments guys. When the summer rain eases up I'll shine a bright light behind the alloys to see what I can see.