My car, purchased used four years ago with an absurdly low odometer reading recently clocked sixty-thousand miles. The front brake pads were starting to look thin, and (seeing that the suggested average replacement mileage is 50K), I figured it was about time for new ones. I took the car to a local place I have had good luck with before, and dropped it off, saying, "I'd like new front pads and, if necessary, rotors, and a tire rotation."
Since we are still doing the 'social distancing' thing, and it being a beautiful, balmy day, I headed to a nearby park to kill some time. When I returned to check on the progress of the work, the amiable guy behind the counter told me, "I have good news and bad news."
He gave me the bad news first... "You're going to need new brake pads."
"Uhhhhh... yeah..."
"The good news is that you've still got about ten-percent left in these ones."
"That percentage might make the difference between me cracking the windshield with my skull or not, I've gotten more mileage than average, go ahead and replace them."
Since I drive stick and don't tailgate, I put a lot less wear-and-tear on my brakes than the average driver. Plus, the majority of my driving is on one of our local highways, and on those rare occasions that I tap the brakes while driving on a highway, someone has screwed up. Downshifting is one of those great pleasures of driving a manual transmission vehicle.
I know the counter guy was being helpful. We live in a working-class city where work has been scarce for a lot of people lately. If I had been laid off, being able to put off a brake job for a month or two would be significant. I'm actually doing slightly better than usual in terms of wages, having had overtime hours approved. Even broke, I'd break the bank for brakes.
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I went the opposite route to you - I was a firm 'stick' (ie what we call 'manual') believer until I married a man who could *not* manage gear changes despite having a driver's licence which claimed he could. So I bought an automatic for the first time in my life, and discovered that things have moved on since I learned to drive. New automatics are a lot less fuel hungry - at least, Mazda's are - and combined with radar cruise control, much more efficient than manuals. The cruise control makes me a lot safer on the roads too since the radar's reactions are faster than mine.
But I'm with you. I'm absolutely not going to drive a car I know has only '10%' wear left on the brake pads. Unfortunately, the older the car gets, the more often these repairs seem to come together. Bit like people that way :)
I did the truly radical and revolutionary move of ditching my car completely. No more car payment, no more car insurance payment, no more supporting the fossil fuel industry buying gasoline, no more buying a set of new tires from Firestone every other year and I've cut my interactions with the cops to about nil. Now I get around by walking, riding a bicycle and taking the bus. I did go thru a period of withdrawal but now I'm free. I've lost weight, no anxiety, I've never felt better in my whole life. Cars are coffins and I got rid of mine. I highly recommend going car-free.
But I'm with you. I'm absolutely not going to drive a car I know has only '10%' wear left on the brake pads
The thrill of speed is one thing... nobody likes the thrill of not being able to stop.
Cars are coffins and I got rid of mine. I highly recommend going car-free.
I've gone for stretches without a car of up to a year, and even with a car, I would bike to work about three times a week in decent weather before I started working nights. Don't want to be riding the bike home at 4AM. I need it for work, I often have to go afield in the course of a shift, and the car is really the best option in an emergency situation.
You happened to have hit on a subject I know. For years I was a rural mail carrier using my personal vehicle in that job which obviously involved a LOT of stop and go brake wear (over 600 stops). Out of necessity I became very proficient at doing my own very frequent brake system repairs. More than once I experienced total front brake pad wear-out while driving. It was a bit frightening the first time because all of a sudden there was a loud grinding metal to metal noise when pressing the pedal, but I was mid-route so felt compelled to just keep going ("neither rain, sleet, snow, nor brake failure,,, etc"). I completed the route and made it home fine, just very noisily, spent that evening with a Coleman lantern out in my driveway replacing pads and rotors.
What happens is when the last bit of pad material disintegrates the steel backing plate portion to which the pad was attached remains locked in place to become the surface pressing against the rotor. In its loud unpleasant but sort of fail-safe way, the brake system continues to function. The backing plate is rather thick and should last TEMPORARILY until it can be repaired. Disc brakes are a marvelous conception! All this is not to say don't be concerned about brake pad failure at all, I'm only saying that it is unlikely to cause any harm.
If I am told my brake pads have 10% life remaining - heck yeah I'm going to get them replaced, and these days I am inclined to pay someone else to get their hands that dirty. I am now retired and live in a small town in which all necessities are within a walk or bike ride, and I do a lot of bike riding. Totally with you Al on the health benefits! So our cars sit un-driven for days at a time. And I'm lucky enough to have a sporty one with a stick shift sitting in my garage; working through the gears on a twisting country backroad, that is fun. That car has old fashioned drum brakes, repairing those is an art-form - don't get me started!
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