waveyd

My 2011 S4 was just in for it's 25k service (a bit early at 23k miles) and the service adviser just called to tell me about the brakes.

He stated that the front pads are at 4mm (recommend a change) and also that the rotors (at 27mm) are worn and need changing. The rotors are smooth because I check, and there's no wobble but he says they're expected to wear this quickly as it's a "high performance" car.

Now I've run many Carreras (inc C4), and a Maserati QP that was heavy on everything and they never needed new rotors, or even the rotors skimming.

Anyone else needed their rotors skimming/replacing so early, or am i being scammed?

Bobby Kinstle

Every audi I've ever owned ate rotors like candy

johnnyro

It's not called skimming, the correct term is getting your rotors turned. This is done on a lathe (pronounced lay). You're not being scammed the OEM rotors and brake pads used by Audi suck. Worst brake dust in the world. Impossible to keep wheels clean. In my wife's old A4 (2010 2.0T) the brake pad warning sensor came on at about 32000 miles. I performed the work myself and put new pads and rotors in the front. To my surprise when I went to O' Reilly's to have them turn the rotors. I discovered that Audi purposely makes the rotors so thin that you can not turn them on a lathe. Therefore you have to buy new ones. If you get them at the stealership they wanted an outrageous astronomical price of like $200-$300 I can't remember but those scumbags also wanted $160 just for pads!! And piece of crap brake pads at that. You can buy good performance pads with low dust for $60- Hawk performance brake pads, EBC, etc... I bought cheapo pads from NAPA that were OEM and performed better than the stock ones for $50 for the front and rotors were $80 from O' Reilly. At the end of the day I could have bought the rotors cheaper on line, but didn't have time to wait for them to come in the mail.

johnnyro

Forgot to add that my recommendation for you is to wait until the brake pad sensor comes on to get them fixed. When her sensor came on it still had maybe 500-1000 miles to go. If you aren't handy find a trustworthy mechanic instead of getting raped by the stealership. Order the pads and rotors on-line look at some aftermarkets. Do some research and put something better on your car for cheaper

407guy

Bumpin' this old thread.

So at 30,000 miles it isn't 'crazy' for the dealership to say they need "replacing" on an S4?

We just had this mentioned to us. It's my wife's car and she doesn't necessary stomp on the brakes or drive aggressively (all the time like me). Trying to figure out how legit this really is or just some way to get our money.

Thanks for any info/guidance.

Bobby Kinstle

That's about how long my first set lasted

407guy

Thanks.

eric strauss

… new front pads and rotors at 15K intervals. Lots of canyon use however. Our A6's (two), each cleared 30K before they needed replacing. My E36 BMW went 65K with only one pad change, but it had a manual transmission and did a lot of highway commuting.

Good luck

Eric