I Think They Got It Right

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by dkjones96

I recommend the ceramics.

decreased stopping distance, cleaner wheels, less rotor wear, longer lasting...a great choice all the way around(pun intended).

just make sure they are 100% ceramic material!

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Hypermiling extends the life of brake pads significantly. I was told that the rear pads on my VW should only last 15,000 miles at the very most, and they could be done by 8,000 miles.

The REAR pads? My experience has been that rear pads (or shoes) tend to last for a long, long time. I could believe that kind of mileage if it were the front pads, if you did a LOT of FAST mountain driving...

Now, back in the day when I was a teenager, I used to get that kind of mileage out of my brake shoes, but then again, I lived near a really great twisty mountain road...

[theholycow]

Yup. Those two reactions ("The REAR pads?" and "8,000 miles?") were what I thought of when I was told that.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Was just into Wile-E's front end yesterday for a tie rod end replacement, got 1/4" left on the pads... actually I think those were on him when I got him, so 60,000+ KM on them.

I used to get a lot less on pads in the UK... mostly because if you want to maintain about a 30mph AVERAGE across country on the A and B roads, you'll have to be either on the gas or brakes. Tires tend not to last too long either. Oddly enough when you had a choice of motorway or A road routes, you'd get about 10% better mileage on the A roads, vs taking only about 2/3 the time on the motorway, even though you'd be continually up and down the gearbox and squirting down every little bit of straight as hard as you could.

[dkjones96]

In my experience, rear pads/shoes tend to last well beyond the 100k mile mark.

My Cressida got a rear brake inspection at 185k and they were getting close to replacement but still worked fine at ~205 when I sold it. The Tracker had probably 40% wear left on the rear brake shoes at 110k right before it got totaled(I didn't even have the new front rotors worn in yet), and the Durango at 51k got the rears checked last weekend and they looked great, smooth, non ridged drum and easily more than half the shoe left to wear.

I will admit tho, the only reason the Cressida pads lasted that long was because the e-brake assembly acted like a drum inside the rear rotor, those shoes were replaced twice in the 100k I drove that car... pretty sure we all know why.

[QDM]

I put the first set of replacement front brake pads on my 93 Toyota 2wd 5spd pickup at 190,000 miles. Still has the original rear brakes and clutch at 235,000. With a service life like that you can bet I spent a little more and bought OEM Toyota pads from the dealer.

Q

[IndyFetch]

I've never had to replace rear brakes on anything with less than 150,000 miles.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Come to think about it, I can't say I've ever replaced rear shoes for actual wear... I've replaced them for fluid contamination, and because I was in there when springs or other hardware rusted out, or because they wore uneven from a hardware or cylinder rust-up/problem...

[Ford Man]

I can usually get about 100K miles out of set of brakes and even then they have some wear left in them without getting into the rotors or drums.