Okay, anybody with a factory service manual here? I need to know the thickness of the oem brake pads when new, and the thickness at whick they are replaced under the 36, 000 mile warranty. Here's why....

@ 15K miles I had my front brakes replaced and the rears measured 5.5mm.

@ 22K miles the front brakes measured 8mm and the rears measured 5mm.

Now at 30K the front brakes are reported to be 50% left and rears at 60%.

This suggests two things. The front pads have magically extended their life by 50% somehow...(50% left after 15K miles means they should last a toatal of 30k but the first set only made 15k). Second, the rears have never been changed, recently started to get noisy but had always been quiet, and they seem to have 70K milege expectancy based on the techs comment. I smell BS.

Help with facts please...

 

Anyone???

 

Could be wrong, but I know they changed the pads on the 05 and 06's so there are no brake warrnaties. Maybe the pads they changed on your car were the new pads so now they won't need to be changed as often? Just a guess.
Lips

 

bltzkrg you got your brakes changed all those times under warranty?

 

I didn't know 05' brakes aren't under warrenty. I thought they had the same warrenty as the older models? is this true?

 

the brakes, i believe, did not come under warranty for 03-04's until a tsb was released pertaining to premature wear of the braking system (rotors and pads). basically, if at any point under 36k you need them replaced, it's on them, anything after that, or if you tracked the car, it's on you. this does not pertain to the 05's because they believe that problem is fixed.

on a side note... does anyone know the spec difference on the 60-0 between the two models?

i know the 04's stopped on a dime, about 4ft shy of most porsches. (111 or something). i don't want to get into a discussion about brake fade.

 

the '05+ brakes are quite a bit larger than the earlier years.

 

From what you've described the projections sound possible. Brake life wear is only an estimate by measuring the pad thickness. Front and rear can wear at different rates even given the same original thickness.
The original fronts may have been replaced (under warranty I presume) before they were actually worn out.

 

The fronts were replaced at 15k miles...they measured < 3mm which I believe is the point where they are required to replace them. I'm just thinking that they should be worn out every 15k miles...I haven't changed my driving habits and the first set only lasted that long. Maybe they changed the composition of the pads???

 

That's likely what happened since warranties were extended on 03/04. I owned a Mazda MX6 and the dealer changed the pads on very early at Mazdas request because the originals were too grabby and were wearing prematurely.