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My brakes are grinding. I think I waited too long after the warning light...
My Brake Pad warning light turned on a couple weeks ago. And I have driven about 2000 miles. I initially thought it was the front brake pads because I didn't think the rear pads had sensors. So I checked the pads up front. And they still seemed good.
Is this good for the fronts?
So I thought I was ok to drive a little more while I saved some money for this repair but this morning I went to reverse down the driveway. And when I applied the brakes. It just grinded from the rear of the car. So I got out and took a picture of this :
Both front and rear brake rotors have a pretty big lip on the outsides. But the rear is awful. It has grooves as well. I'm also thinking it's not long before the front gets as bad as the rear so should I replace all 4 brake pads and rotors? Or would rear be fine for right now? I probably shouldn't drive the car until I replace the brakes.
Opinions? I'm worried about cold weather stopping power. I also plan to install myself because there are a couple great videos with a step-by-step guide to doing the brakes on the Q7. Any special tools needed?
That outer rear pad still has friction material left but it IS time to be scheduling replacement. It could be that your grinding noise is simply due to the rust on the rotors that accumulated while the vehicle was stationary. (driven in the rain last? ) It could also be that the inner pads that we cant see are worn more and are into the backing plate but I doubt that. I have a set of Centric pads and rotors and new sensors on the shelf waiting to go on ours. It is on its second set of pads (this will be third) and original rotors. Our rotors like yours have a large lip and it is time for them to go. The lip will cut into the wear sensor and cause a warning light earlier than would occur with less worn rotors. Our fronts did this a couple of months back and I cut the wires and bypassed the sensors in order to get the remaining life from the pads before changing them. Doing this has allowed us to get 50,000 miles from this set of pads! There has been no noticeable loss in braking performance either.
BUT--- I've got to install the new ones soon. :-)
Thank you for the reply! Good info. It very well could be rust on the rotors. I think my rear rotors are so screwed up and corroded that there is constantly rust on them. I never realized that brakes would be so expensive on a vehicle. But the stopping power of the Q7 is amazing so I guess it's worth it.
The lip will cut into the wear sensor and cause a warning light earlier than would occur with less worn rotors.
I'm pretty sure the sensor wire is embedded in the pads themselves and once the pads wear down to the wire and is broken, it triggers the brake warning indicator. I don't believe the rotor is involved in triggering the sensor.
Also, if a warning is triggered, I've read that the brake pads should be replaced within 1000 miles to avoid scoring the rotors. Which, I guess is less of a concern if you are also replacing the rotors although braking performance could be significantly reduced of you wait too long..
Have you done brakes before? You might want to buy a caliper tool kit to compress the calipers. Don't forget to open the brake fluid reservoir before doing so. Having one saves a lot of hassle and they are cheap. Harbor Freight or Amazon have them. I've not done our Q7 yet, but did all the rotors and pads on my wife's MDX last year. It's also helpful to have a breaker bar and some WD-40 in case any of the fastener bolts are stuck. Have fun!
Does the Q7 have an electric e-brake? If so, the rear calipers need to be retracted using a VCDS or similar tool that has the ability to retract them. If not, you can do some expensive damage to the e-brake.
The 2017+ Q7 has an electronic e-brake. The models before (2015 and earlier) all have regular e-brakes.
Originally Posted by snagitseven
Does the Q7 have an electric e-brake? If so, the rear calipers need to be retracted using a VCDS or similar tool that has the ability to retract them. If not, you can do some expensive damage to the e-brake.
Just replaced the rear pads and rotors on my (2007) Q7 and there were a couple of special tools needed, a 16mm triple square socket being the "rarest" one I think, T50 torx and 8mm triple square as well. I didnt need any special tools to retract the caliper pistons, I simply used a screwdriver to push the pads back before removing them.
A 46cm (not much longer) breaker bar is useful to remove the caliper bolts, there's not much space so you can't really use anything longer.
Good luck!
Thanks for the replies! What brakes does everyone use? I'm thinking on powerstop Z23 rotors with their ceramic pads. Anyone have experience with these? All the reviews I've read seem to be great. Any other recommendations?
07-14-2016, 06:07 AM
My brakes are grinding. I think I waited too long after the warning light...
