Hiya,


Quick sanity check (..yeah, yeah, please read on before answering!)


Had the car serviced, followed by the brake pad wear warning coming on after a month - guess about 1,500km. I wasn't best pleased, as to me, the cost in travel/time back to the garage exceeds the benefit of squeezing a few weeks out of the pads.


When I called to discuss with the service manager, he told me that they always waited for the light to come on before changing the pads, as the warning came on with 20-25% of the pads left.


After about another 500km, I'd guess that there is about 5mm left all around.


Do you:


1. Subscribe to the theory 'only change when the warning light comes on'
2. Think that 5-7mm on the pads = 20-25% left?


Many thanks,


Rob

 

New pads are generally around 12mm so 3 mm would be 25%. I normally change my pads at around the 3 mm mark irrespective of the dealers wanting to change them at 50%.

I check the thickness of mine on a regular basis and once they reach 50% I will buy a new set. They will then be changed as they near the 3 mm mark.

 

Thanks Jim!
Now if only I could find a way to turn off the nagging warning message..

 

As far as I understand Rob, the light is triggered as the sensor makes contact with the disc. You could try disconnecting it to see what happens.

 

I subscribe to the theory of taking the wheels off and checking the pad thickness twice a year at the same time as I check tyres and suspension for damage/wear.

Graham

 

To those of us who have hung up our spanners this is known as a 'service'!







My question was 'should the garage have given me a call and discuss if the pads were close to end of life..' Or am I just dreaming of customer service times long since past.?

 

If you wait for the warning light to come on you have to replace the wear sensor as well. I just check the pads and when it gets close to touching the sensor I swap them out. It's actually a pretty straight forward job on the XK.

At least you don't need a $350 cable and software like you do on my Audi....

 

Thank you! That's extremely helpful - it kind of makes my point that leaving the pads has actually cost money as well as wasting my time.

 

Just FWIW....

Back in the day when I was in the business I had a shop policy that customers were notified at 50% pad thickness. Notified, not 'upsold'. Once in awhile we'd get someone who wanted 'em replaced at that point purely out of convenience. Not often.

At 25% we would recommend replacement but not as a 'must do today' thing. Most customers said yes at 25%.

At 10% we would *urgently* recommend replacement. On most pads that's just 1 mm. Damn little.

Cheers
DD

 

I guess it's just a matter of the dealer notifying you of how much time you have left before the warning light comes on. It's not always that easy to say without actually measuring the pads - it would be a guesstimate at best.

When I bought my Q5 I looked at the pads all around and I thought I would have at least 3-4k miles before they needed to be replaced but, turned out it only took about 2k.