Hi,
I am getting conflicting information from two Mechanics.

When I bought my used 2001 Vanden Plas a month ago they were supposed to replace the front pads and rotors. Upon inspection of some bad brake noises my mechanic revealed that the dealer did not replace the rotors - but did put on new pads. The rotors have lips and are not in good shape.

After complaining I now have a set of new rotors from the dealer.

Independent mechanic told me that the month old pads cannot be used as new rotors require new pads to form properly to the Rotor.

Dealer mechanic said I do not need new pads because the current one are only a month old.

Second option is obviously cheaper, but I don't want to take short cuts with my brakes.

Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks.

 

It will "probably" be okay given the newness of all components. Mechanics do not like to replace brake components piecemeal because mismatched components take longer to "bed" sometimes causing squeeling and less than 100 % performance for the first several days and that causes bring backs. I am assuming we are not talking ceramic pads here, in which case all bets are off.
I had an old XJS that I put together with all mismatched components and it sorted out pretty quick. Mind you, the XJS was a much more forgiving design than the XJ.
You did not mention how the brakes are performing. Let us know.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the information. These are not ceramic brakes we're talking about.

Brake problems i have right now are a grinding slow stop and there is a squeak that we (mechanic and I) have narrowed down to the right front break. (It only happens when I hit uneven pavement at over 40km.) There is also a bit of a high pitched metal sound when breaking lightly sometimes.

The current rotors have a large lip on the top and bottom. The brake pads as I mentioned are new.

So, it sounds like I could go with the cheaper solution and just put the new rotors on with the current one month old brake pads. From what I gather after a few days of driving they will have moulded or gripped to the new rotors?

Thanks for the advice...