NightCrawler

I had my rotors replaced under warranty at a little over 12k miles. They didn't replace the brake pads. Will be interesting to see what happens if the vehicle needs brake pads down the road.

A6ninja

First off, thank you to all of you for your input! Great stuff and helpful!

I ended up calling two different high end Audi repair shops in town that have great reputations. They both quoted me ~1400 for the front and rear. Turns out the light was for the rear pads, the front ones are fine. Therefore, I would imagine the cost will be ~650 with a third party repair shop.

I too looked up the cost of the parts and figured out there was 1k in labor involved which did not sit well with me. I told Audi I would handle the brakes myself.

I will let you know what the shops tell me regarding the rotors. One of the shops ONLY does Audi repairs, no other vehicles and he told me over the phone it would be much cheaper if I didn't need rotors. So they must not be "mandatory" like the dealer claims. I'm sure its a legal liability issue for the dealership to do just pads and no rotors.

Again, thanks to all of you for your help and I will update once the work is done

davidglt66

I have replaced pads without rotors on my 2002 A4 twice with no issues. When I do find the rotors worn to minimums or warped then I replace pads and rotors (always OEM every aftermarket set I tried failed in short order). On my wife's Honda it is on its third set of front pads with old rotors, if they are not warped and not worn down to minimums and there is no scoring or grooving then they are fine to use again, on a Honda you can only turn them on the car, off the car will cause issues.

NVThs1

I don't think there is a wire on our parking brake.

On a side note. Has anyone looked into Adams Rotors? I thought about getting a set personally and was wondering if there is any feedback. I think they are an approved vender here or on AZ.

jr'sAudiA6

My .02 on the subject. I have my original front rotors from the when they were replaced with the Stasis/Alcon BBK. The front/rear rotors are solid single piece rotors and look to me that they should be able to be turned, providing you do not turn them below there minimum thickness. The fronts are simple to replace but the rears do require that you have the ability to back off the electric parking brake, if you are also replacing the pads. I have replaced my rear pads 3 times now without turning the rotors. I also have swapped my rear street pads with track pads for the last 8-9 track events I have been to. I have had no ill effects on break behavior or pad wear. My initial rear pads wore out prematurely because I failed to get track pads for the rear and they wore down really fast under track conditions. The car currently has 47K + miles and recently had it's 45K service performed at my dealer. The techs know the car is tracked and give it a little more attention then they normally would and have indicated the rear brake rotors are fine and had about 2mm left on the pads. I then replaced the pads myself with carbotechs street pad for the rear. I like them for the better braking performance and slightly less brake dust.

Glacier6

FWIW, I just took my A7 in this morning for a simple tire rotation, but asked about the brakes. My Service Tech confirmed that if they need to replace the pads, they will replace the rotors as well (they are supposedly even wear items).

He did say however, the rear pads and rotors should last until around 55-60k miles and told me it was about $675 to replace the front pads and rotors.

NightCrawler

$675 is a lot better then the $1,000 OP was quoted! That's about what would have expected the cost to be.

A6ninja

Did he by any chance give you a mileage timeline for the front brakes? Curious if 25k is normal

Glacier6

He did not. I have to take it back in Monday or Tuesday to have a speaker cover replaced and can ask at that time.

A coworker of mine has approx. 33k miles on his A7 and pads/rotors are still going strong.

Vodka G

it all depends on how much thickness you have on the rotors. Usually Euro cars brake pads tends to eat the rotor more than Japanese and domestic cars. (in my experience)