Question on brakes

[dishon22]

ok long story short i bought my car 2004 sle with 19,000 miles in dec of 2005 and i put 26,000 miles on it since now i took my car to the dealership for and oil change yesterday and he told me that i have about 5% left on my brakes now my brakes were sqeaking very slightly about 2 months ago but they have stopped sqeaking since the brakes really seem fine to me. also when i purchased the car they had put new brakes on the car what do you guys think....

[Biggi_e]

i swithed my brakes out twice already but i also brake hard sometimes...but i also have about 59000 miles on my car

[dishon22]

and im very light on my brakes and the service advisor said that the front needs to be changed and the back needs to be cleaned

[TW85]

At 26,000 miles, my brakes have started to squeal when I put light pressure on them. Surprised the dealer didn't say anything to me when they rotated my tires, but then again, I'm not convinced they actually rotated my tires. I wouldn't be surprised if they just wiped their fingers across the rims to make it look like they did (the rear tires have more tread than the fronts, just as they did before I took the car in).

[Jon11582]

You can visually inspect it yourself.

After 26K, its not out of the question that you need your pads changed. Typically they last 30K to 60K based on driving habits and type of pad put on. You said they put new pads on when they sold you the car...maybe the pads they put on weren't as long life as OEM pads.

If you cant get a second opinion from a friend who is halfway familiar with cars, I'd say the truth is that you probably have more like 25%+ left. As I said, you can visually inspect it by just looking at he pad behind the front rims. If you cant see the pad or can only bearly see the pad and can only see the metal backing plate, then yes you are low. A pad starts with the pad about the same thickness as the backing plate. Make sure you check both sides. If your low on just one side, you should get your front pads changed, and make sure they take a look at the rotor on the low side, because it might need to get "turned", or resurfaced.

[FLUXEMAG]

squeaking brakes do not mean they need to be changed always. Mine have sounded pretty bad since 20k, I took them off, cleaned them (there was >50% left) and put Blue gasket sealer between the shims and the pads to dampen the effect.

However, if you hear a dragger on the rotor, you need new pads. It's a little metal piece embedded in the pad which flaps out and drags on the rotor once it gets worn down.

[QtPiie]

yeah Mines are at 28K and the are starting to squeak not too bad tho.. just sometimes.

[Sentinel]

Definately check the pads if you get a squeak. It dosn;t mean that the pads are worn, but there is that indicator that Fluxemag indicated. It starts to scrape on the rotor when the pads are geting low.

Make sure you take the tires off to check, as sometimes one of the pads will be worn more than the other. Brakes are one of the easier DIY repairs to do, at least with discs. (Drums can be a pain sometimes)

On tire Rotation: I usualy put a mark on my tires before getting rotation / balancing just beacuse some service guys are lazy jerks. If I took mine to a dealer and they did that: the service manager would have a lot of explaining to do. He||, It dosn't matter WHERE you go. You pay for something, you better get it.