JacobB

My car has 90k miles on it. I bought it with 70k. Prior to my purchasing the car, it had been maintained by the dealer at all of the regular service intervals.

That said and 20,000 miles traveled, how do I know when it's time to replace my pads, rotors, and fluid?

Currenty there is no break pad light illuminated on my cluster.

Thanks,
Jacob

Christian (Stage Ow)

The pads will get pretty thin. You should be able to position the wheel just so and check them with a flashlight without taking the wheel off.

The rotors need to be replaced if they're cracked, warped, or getting really thin. You can check this by the edges. The pads usually wear valleys into the rotors, and the edges will be taller.

The fluid I usually flush once a year, or 50,000 miles - whatever comes first. I'm not sure what the manual calls for, though.

You can check the fluid by acting as if you were bleeding the brakes. If the fluid look nasty, it definitely needs to be changed.

Hope this helps.

Brazil

metal on metal = replace.

jprice@CPS

Or if you don't let it get that far, rotors don't have to be replaced as often :-p

CalgaryS4

or if rotors are too thin.

JacobB

Is it worth getting the rotors resurfaced if they are a bit warped?

85-4kq-girl

Check the thickness. Also, sometimes pad deposits can cause symptoms of warped rotors.

JacobB

How thin is too thin?

85-4kq-girl

I do know I get a bit nervous when I see grooves and lots of rust building up.

Here is a pic of my rear rotors. They have 49k on them and 5 track days. I will be replacing them after this winter. I don't have a thickness or a closer shot to give you...it's sort of a look/feel thing for me. Even on my old Audi, if they're looking ugly and they're heavily grooved above the pad...replace.

<img src="http://www.s4girl.com/albums/TrackSports/IMG_7668.sized.jpg">

--morgan

Brazil

Alcon &gt; *