Hah! Either or...

 

Hmm.. you mean brakes should be replaced when they have 30-40% left? That is kind of waste, they should be good for at least another 5000 mile, but I am not an expert on brakes.

I don't really feel any different for the 1st day they changed my brakes 1.5 year ago and now. There is no different in performance and there's no noise at all. If I didn't go to the dealership for service, I wouldn't think my brake needed to be replaced. But again I am not an expert. From the end-user perspective (who would try to save money), I would use it for another 5000 mile. But from a technical perspective, brakes should be replaced when reached 30%-40% left even though no lost in performance?

 

First off, I only brought up the wear indicators. I never said anything about when you should change your brake pads, and I definitely didn't tell you to change them with 30-40% left. You were the one who got suckered by the stealership into doing that.

Second, eh... do you even know what wear indicators are? Not what they do, but what they are, how they look like, how they work? Even after I just described them to you in the post you quoted?

If you replace the pads just before the wear indicators start touching the rotors, you should be somewhere around 25 to 15% left, if even that much... I'm not sure. You have the brake pads out and a way to measure them, you figure it out for yourself if you care that much.

 

Okay, I might have misunderstand your statement,

"I wouldn't suggest running any brake pads this far,".

 

I'll quote myself for you...

In other words, it's better to change your pads before you hear the wear indicators.

 

It all depends on what PEAK brake fluid temperature you wish to achieve?

One thing not discussed is how wear and previous applications CHANGE the friction coefficient of the pad material..........each brand will need to be tested new, mid, and almost worn out to SEE the changes in graph.

The material is supposed to be homogenous but as we all know in mass production things vary.

Change and flush your fluid every year [20,000 miles] and you never need be concerned about that aspect at least.

 

i wish i knew about the wear indicator thing before. all i knew was basically that my brakes are almost out

 

I think it would be nice to understand if the wear indicator is a bad sign to hear (given you change brake oil every year).

If you hear the squeal what percent exactly will you be at for your brake pads? Up above it's mentioned 15%-25%, can anyone narrow this down to a lesser margin (are there too many variables to reduce the margin to less then 10%?)

I really don't want to remove my wheel every 5000 miles and measure brake wear even though it is a 30 minute job. If that is what I have to do to save my brake system I will do that.

Thanks

 

Here's what I do... look at the thing... if any of the brake pads look like it's about to touch the wear indicator soon, change the pads. Realistically, you have a while before the brake pads are gone, but me being me, I don't want to risk the metal wear indicators scratching up my rotors, making it more expensive later. In fact, I'll change everything out when I feel the parts are affecting my braking. Don't know about the rest of you, but the piece of mind is worth it to me...