30K on front brakes...

[Bluebird]

I have been changing the front pads on my truck at an average interval of 30K. There is about 15% remaining when I change them. I do this to be safe, because I have taken a rotor down with brake pad rivits once,#@$%! Is that about average? I do not tow much, carry 500lbs. on the weekends.



Thanks in advance for any comments, Patrick

 

[JLEONARD]

Seems like pretty heavy usage to me. I get more than double that but I'm on the highway a good deal of the time and I have a manual trans.

Are the rears adjusted so they are taking some of the load?

Jay

 

[dpuckett]

I'd say that is a short lifespan, unless you are getting $10 pads each time. I think I average 50-60K for a set of fronts; mixed city and hwy driving. Girlfriend's 04 Dakota has 50% at 42K. I got 40K from a set on my mom's pickup when I owned it, but I did some serious towing that summer.



Check your rear adjustment- they should be pretty tight- slight drag wont cut it. Then get some Performance Friction or Wagner Thermo QUiet (or whatever they call them) pads in there; something decent to good.



Daniel

 

[The patriot]

It's in the driving habits....

I went over 100K on my 2nd gen's front pads. There was still some left even at that.

The wife goes through a set on her mazda 626 about every 15K

Now her rotors are shot. I wonder why???

 

[rumblefish]

Check your rear adjustment- they should be pretty tight- slight drag wont cut it.

how much should there be?

 

[Dieselman359]

I'm not too sure how much is enough, but I do know that I can usually tell by how far my emergency brake goes down. We probably could all tighten them a little, its easy to neglect.



I almost forgot, I've got the Car-Quest lifetime pads. I'd say that they have at least 50K on them and they look new. I'm sure that the exhaust brake helps.

 

[Philip]

Your milage is low on a set of pads.



I pulled my fronts apart in Nov to do a wheel bearing service. I had 30% left on the pads. I have almost 8 years and 90k on them. Of that 90k miles about 20k is towing loads up to 10k and loads in the bed up to 5k.



Check and make sure the rears are working properly like Daniel stated. If the rears are not working properly. Then the front are the only ones doing the work. This can lead to premature pad wear.



The one question no one has asked yet. What is your driving style??? Do you wait till the last second and then climb all over the brakes? You wear out brakes real fast hauling down a 6k truck like it is a light weight sports car.

 

[Bluebird]

Front pads...

Thanks for all the replys folks, I always keep learning. I have not touched the rear brakes in over 70K, parking brake works fine. I drive her pretty easy, I buy the best that NAPA offers, around $65. Maybe that's not good enough I'll research some of the other pads mentioned. TDR, is the best Thank you again everyone I read much about the 3rd Gens, I continue to believe that the 1st-Generation is the right truck for many purposes...



Patrick.

 

[dpuckett]

Rear adjustment

I always adjust mine so that when I give a good heft (dually, remember) in one direction for about 1/2 turn, I get no more than 360 deg before it stops, preferrably 270. Any tighter than that, and the rears get warm when driving. ANy looser, and they seem to not do their fair share. BTW- when you have good self adjusters, they will tighten the brakes up about the same amount after half dozen good hard rearward stops.



DP

 

[JTsokalas]

For what it's worth I just recently, at 201,000 miles, did my brakes for only the third time. This was the first time I had the rotors turned and they had no grooves, but they had a bit of a warp that had been bothering me, so I finally had them turned.

I'm not sure they are all like that, but I have to think they should last more than 30,000 miles. Maybe your calipers are sticking and not releasing?

John