When to replace the brake pads??

[JayG]

A couple of things on changing brake fluid.

You could change it at least every 2 years, more often if you track the car.
Unfortunately the Blue fluid is no longer available due to govt regulations that brake fluid must be amber or clear

[BoomerRoadie]

jb92563,

Great point. I'm glad you brought this up.

So I just ordered my brake pad stuff from Pelican. I ordered to standard NON-ceramic type pads made by Textar. The guy who helped be out (Bruce) set me up with all the other stuff I will need.

He too mentioned bleeding the brakes, but said I could get away with only bleeding the front brakes and not worry about the rear. Do you guys agree with that? Reason I ask is most of the stuff I've read about that say you do all 4 wheels. I know on an aircraft I used to fly we could do just one wheel at a time, but I'm not sure how much transfer there is here....

I have read/heard to do this every two years. The car came with great records of all the maintenance that's been done on it, but the problem is, these dealer mechanics can't write and I can barely read their hard writing!! I think I need to have my wife decode their writing, she used to be a teacher!

SO, let's for the moment assume I cannot read/decode or otherwise verify an actual last brake bleed date. In this case I should for sure do the job.

One final question for the moment...I have no idea what kind of pads are on the front wheel right now. The only thing I can be sure of is: they were put on by the dealer at some point and I really can't complain about the amount of dust. The wheels do get a little dirty, but whipping them clean is very easy. I just don't know if they are ceramic or not. My guess is they are NOT ceramic.

Did I make a mistake by getting non-ceramic pads? I was pretty happy with the $88.00 price of those pads. I can't say I'd be happy about $110.00 pads, but what do I know...

[jb92563]

Originally Posted by JayG

A couple of things on changing brake fluid.

You could change it at least every 2 years, more often if you track the car.
Unfortunately the Blue fluid is no longer available due to govt regulations that brake fluid must be amber or clear

You can buy Hydraulic fluid dye but the UV kind is only advertised for vehicles since it does not change the color of the Brake Fluid due to the Gov rules.

However the other colors are available and are under $10 for a bottle that will last even a racer a lifetime as you only use a couple drops every other time you flush.


God forbid that some kid see my can of Blue Brake fluid and think that its blueberry CoolAid, Oh, but wait, my gold brake fluid looks like Apple Juice.
So just as Bureaucrats come to dumb conclusions so must I, hence it must be true that kids prefer Blueberry over Apple Brake Fluid, and naturally it has been verified by special interest group's scientists by testing that on actual children.

[BoomerRoadie]

Ok, I need some more help....

I spoke to my mechanic today and told him I wanted to do my own brake job. He encoraged me and gave me some pointers. The kicker was that he said to fully expect to replace the rotors as they will likely be out of spec. He told me to check mine and see how deep the lip is at the very edge of the disk. Anything at or near 1mm will be too much and require replacement. Furthermore, if it happens to be ok, I need to be sure to use the same exact pads as on there now, otherwise it will squeal a lot.

I checked mine and I'm just under 1mm deep at the disc edge, but the brake light still has not come on. He suggested waiting for the light to come on and when it does, order the rotors and do the job first chance.

This all sounds like honest advice. What do you think? Should I just put this off as he suggested and do it when the light comes on?

Thanks all.

[njbray]

That sounds like good advice. Why change the pads and rotors before you need to.
I expect by the time your pads wear down and the light comes on, the rotors will be ready for replacement too.