Thread: Brake Rotor/Pad cost

Originally Posted by Vasculardoc

What kind of kms are you guys having your rotors done at ?
We've just had our 2013 D4 serviced in darwin at 25000kms and the dealer has said we need new rotors and pads all round. We are just about to do a trip to tassie via the dirty way so I sucked it up for the front ones ($1200), we have to wait for the rears to come up from the other end of the country ($950) but the more I think about it the more I think we are being gouged. Our truck has mainly done light use, tows a boat about 5 times a year and mainly runs the kids to school. We had a cayenne turbo prior to that (2.5 tonnes of uber tank that got hammered and the brakes were very thirsty on pads) and we only replaced pads after 40000kms and rotors took longer than that. Seems a bit suss to me that we are having to do rotors at the first pad change.

So I guess the other question is what rotor thickness is acceptable before replacement ?

Mark

Brake wear is related to driving style,and the type of driving,around town or country.Dirt roads and sand also chew out rear pads.
Mine have done 40k,rears are half worn,fronts are around one third worn.

As a comparison,the last D2 i had needed rotors and pads at 100k,my tojo work van is on almost GVM all day,does a lot of around town work,has 235k on the clock and the brakes have never been touched
The van brakes are very, very good,i would say almost as good as the D4.

Methinks I'm being taken for a ride. I will measure the rotors when we get the truck back from having a bit of touch up work done and see what the rears are like. I've already done the fronts as we are about to do a big trip, but I might tell them to take a leap re: the rears.

Mark

I get my local Midas to handle brakes on Toyotas and a Mercedes. With the Mercedes, they said that Australian rotors would cause squealing, so they increased the price (they quoted) and provided me the Mercedes rotors and I got a big discount vis a vis a Mercedes dealership.

With a Prado, I have found the 3rd party brakes last forever, but the braking capacity is very poor. Its a 1997 Prado (bought new). I forget if it had better braking when new ... on that basis, I have suspected that the softer rotors might stop better.

IMO manufacturers put in poor life brakes to save money when manufacturing, and to provide profits for their dealerships. Brakes are not warranty so they lower service charges but sting you for brake costs by having low life pads and rotors.

Have found Australian rotors to be generally as good as imports (and Australia exports them to other countries).
The cross drilled and slotted rotors "high performance" do stop faster, and you pay more for them.
"high performance" front discs shouldn't cost you more than about $200 EACH, and if you get asked to pay too much just get them online.
What is more critical is to fit "soft" compound pads.
Bendix make "hard" and "soft" pads across most models, just go for softer pads.
Got over 150,000k's from first front discs, 250,000 from rears, but I do long runs, little stop/start. so life depends on your conditions.

I've got to say that based on the service life so far on my Akebono brake pads is that I'd be surprised if I get less than 100000 k's out of a set.
After 22,000 k the pads are 10% worn and the discs show no sign of lipping.
Quiet and no brake dust.

Love them, pity they are not available for the 3.0 ltr D4.

Originally Posted by ~Rich~

I've got to say that based on the service life so far on my Akebono brake pads is that I'd be surprised if I get less than 100000 k's out of a set.
After 22,000 k the pads are 10% worn and the discs show no sign of lipping.
Quiet and no brake dust.

Love them, pity they are not available for the 3.0 ltr D4.

Exactly the same with mine Rich. I purchased a full set of Akebono pads from Pedders and had the LR dealer I bought the D4 from install them with four new OEM rotors and sensors a while back. The dealer is very interested in the Akebono pads and has been monitoring the wear of both pads and rotors.

The D4 was serviced and brakes inspected a little over a week ago, with the Akebono pads having been fitted for a bit over 20,000km now. The dealer reported about 1% wear on the pads, and no sign of wear or lipping on the rotors. They said that they are very impressed by the performance of these pads.

I love 'em. No more black brake dust, and I have never noticed any difference in brake performance / efficiency. We're currently looking to see if they are available for my young bloke's new VW Amarok front end, which is even worse than the D4 was for brake dust on the wheels.

Originally Posted by Melbourne Park

IMO manufacturers put in poor life brakes to save money when manufacturing, and to provide profits for their dealerships. Brakes are not warranty so they lower service charges but sting you for brake costs by having low life pads and rotors.

Just for ur information...brake wear IS covered under warranty , however only if they are wearing at an abnormal rate, and of course for faults in manufacture. Just to give u an example...holden zafira ppl carriers were requiring new front disc rotors at 20,000 to 35,000 km and after a lot of complaints holden revised its supplier and supplied new discs on a case by case basis up to 60,000km under warranty but ONLY if the OP complained about it. (Secret dealership business :sly: ).

Cheers Rod

Ps.. Akebono are really good brake pads :thumbup:
Sent from my GT-I9507 using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by josh.huber

I used remsa pads on my d4 when I changed them out a couple months ago were highly recommended by brakes direct but I'll put them in the bin the are developing a low speed squeak like a taxi and in my opinion more dusty then Lr pads. I have a full set of machined genuine rotors in my shed for $50 if anyone wants them I upgraded to dba slotted rotors

After a couple of months with the Remsa pads / DBA Rotor (non slotted) combo on my D4 3.0L, I have no squeaking and significantly less brake dust (but still have some). I don't know if it is just in my head, but I don't think it has as much bite as using OEM pads.

For 2 weeks or so I was on worn OEM pads with the DBA rotors, and could notice it had significantly more bite than with the OEM rotors. Now the Remsa pads have had plenty of time to bed in etc, I think it wasn't doing as good a job with Hill Descent Control on my weekend trip on some hills I have done many times before.

Overall I think I would go back to OEM (or try another brand) next time and live with the dust. Keep the DBA rotors though.