View Full Version : Brake pad mileage and life?
How many miles have you guys gotten before having to replace the front pads? Just curious. Mine are looking a bit thin and if I am to ride to the races this weekend then I'll need to replace them before I got.
Setter32
Mon 7/8/02, 3:42PM
on how you ride. On the street, I rarely use the brake to slow the bike down.............. therefore I'm at close to 19000 miles and my fronts are still good. I may change them anyway.... just to get better pads for the track.
:D
Maybe I should WD-40 them? You know, stop the squeaking......
That's what I'm supposed to do, right? ;)
All kidding aside, I am pretty hard on brakes in general. I like to test the braking power on my vehicles a little too often I think. (read:follows too close) I'll check them when I get home. They look a little thin but I did not look very closely at them.
Now that my garage is all clean I can just hang up the bike and go to work. I'll change the oil while I am at it....
dnakase
Mon 7/8/02, 5:09PM
You should still be able to see a slot in the middle of the pad when looking at the caliper from the front. If not, or not much, then its time.
What about brake feel? Ever since I smacked into the brush guards on the tail lights of a Chevy Suburban coming off a long off ramp... "Oh? He's stopped?... I've been aware that my front brakes are spongy and lacking in power.
Different pads? Stainless Steel braided lines? Or just be more attentive?
I think I was seeing things because the squeak was annoying me..... There's plenty of material left there. and the squeak that was driving me crazy for the last few days has magically disappeared. :confused:
Setter32
Tue 7/9/02, 10:53AM
I get them too.............. but only when it's cold.
If the ambient temp is warm enough........... or the disk......... there is no squeak.
:D
Punkbrad
Mon 1/13/03, 2:13PM
OK - i need new rear brakes badly, anyone done this before, im kinda scared to rip the back wheel off, can anyone help me do this...? i also shoudl do the front too, as long as im tearing the bike apart.. is there a brake party in the future?
thank you,
bradley.
Setter32
Mon 1/13/03, 2:39PM
....correct me if I'm wrong here.......
...but I don't think you need to remove your wheels to replace the pads........
...just unscrew the whole caliper setup ....... then replace your pads.......
...gotta double check on this though.....
:D
Rod is correct. There should be no removal of wheels unless you just feel like making your life difficult.
Punkbrad
Mon 1/13/03, 4:20PM
Originally posted by Burst
Rod is correct. There should be no removal of wheels unless you just feel like making your life difficult.
okay, stupid question #1 - answered! thanks fellas
question #2 - what kind/type of pads shoudl i get, OEM's or is there somethign better/cheaper?
thanks
pb
Setter32
Mon 1/13/03, 4:38PM
...I've "heard" that OEM last the longest.........but they are tres expensive...
...therefore......I've just bought some EBC brake pads for my front...........don't know how they are compared to the stocks.......but they are def cheaper.....
:D
ZombieDude
Tue 1/14/03, 7:52AM
I changed mine at 21,000 and looked like I had at least a couple thousand left on the pads. The rears went out at about 18,000 and I hardly ever use them! Am assuming that the rear pads were dragging.
bwarbiany
Tue 1/14/03, 8:17AM
That reminds me... I've got some stuff I need to do soon...
Bleed my brakes... Don't know how...
Replace grips...
Fix left fairing...
Put on an undertail... (okay, currently too poor for this, but hacking the old one would be a good thing)...
Maybe one of these days we do need another maintenance day...
Brad
the rear pads do drag.... I almost never use mine and they are toast. The brake stay is the cause. It puts pressure on the caliper which makes it twist ever so slightly. I am going to replace it with a ball-joint mounted brake stay.
Reddog99
Tue 1/14/03, 3:48PM
Now I'll have to put that on my list of things to watch for...
Pat
Setter32
Tue 1/14/03, 4:13PM
....hmmm...............same here........
....my rear pads are worn as worn can be.............and I rarely used them............
....I thought maybe I had issues.............and was using them subconsciously or somethin...........
...now I know...............interestin.......
:D
Maybe your rear brakes are dragging because of improper alignment of rear tire. I had this problem when I made some adjustments to my chain tension. I had my bike on a rear stand, and when I spun the wheel, it didn't turn as freely as it did before. Found out that it was the rear brake causing the resistance. Seems like the swing arm reference marks on my bike aren't that accurate.
that would seem to make sense except the bracket that the caliper attaches to is mounted on the axle and the angle changes with the angle of the axle. If the brake stay were mounted on ball joints, even a drastic misalignment of the rear wheel would not cause it to drag.
All of that aside, I am very careful to align the rear wheel properly. I measure from the swingarm pivot rather than using those marks on the side of the swingarm.
edit: forgot to add when rear wheel is aligned properly, it is harder to turn the wheel than if I offset the alignment slightly. this tells me that the brake stay is twisting the caliper a bit. I could be wrong......... nah, I am *never* wrong. :D :rolleyes:
Yup, your right. The caliper bracket is attached to the axle. Just looked at it. I guess it does slightly twist. Hmmmmm....
I think the brake stay was just poorly designed.... The bolt that holds in on the caliper should have had some sort of bushing or something.
I was looking at a Ducati up at Palomar and the brake stay had these nifty little ball joint ends. I just need to find where to get them without having to go to a Ducati dealer......
So you gonna invent some ball joint ends and sell em too? :D
possibly.... or I could just tell everyone where I buy them. Tho, that would only work if they would be easily adapted to teh current brake stay. If it won't work that way then I'll possibly sell the whole assembly.
dnakase
Tue 1/14/03, 6:29PM
Replaced my rear pads when I got Sportecs installed about a week ago. Fronts still good. 7k on the clock.
V.Nuys Suzuki replaced the old ones with EBCs. With the new rubber and pads the rear has better feel and don't just lock up like the MEZ4s used to.
Got to keep from applying my right big toe too often though. Bad habits are hard to shake.
SUCATI
Tue 1/14/03, 6:37PM
Originally posted by rb643
Maybe your rear brakes are dragging because of improper alignment of rear tire. I had this problem when I made some adjustments to my chain tension.
rb643,
I think that is what happened in my case. During a tire change I cocked it wrong or something. Now I remove the brake torque arm (stay) from the caliper and install it and the caliper last after I've aligned the wheel correctly.
I put in DP rear pads when I replaced them. They're sintered metal like the stock pads are. I've found they work great on my BMW.
Mike
Setter32
Mon 3/31/03, 2:35PM
...I was going to change the brake pads on my bike over the weekend........
...so I checked the front.........they are almost as good as new...:eek: ..................note..they have 23000 miles on them......
....needless to say.......I did not replace the front....
...so I moved on to the rear...........and only one side is worn down...almost to the metal.....
....and I rarely ever used the rear......WTF?.........
....what's up with my rear pads?......
:D
bwarbiany
Mon 3/31/03, 3:22PM
Originally posted by Setter32
....what's up with my rear pads?......
:D
SV rear brakes have a tendency to drag...
I say you should just remove them... Brakes, pads, rotor, reservoir, pedal, etc... Less unsprung weight, rotating mass, and you'll never lock up the rear :D
Setter32
Mon 3/31/03, 3:27PM
...I think I'll just WD40 them.....
:D
Setter32
Mon 3/31/03, 8:00PM
....alrighty.....
...I've just installed the rear pads............and yeah..........they're gonna drag big time.........
....I'm gonna have to pry them open with a screwdriver.......to get a big enough gap to stick the disk back in........
....as soon as I remove the screwdriver..........the damn cylinders push the pads back in..........
....WTF?.......didn't the engineers encounter this problem when they were testin it????.................bastards.........
:D
PasCaTT
Tue 4/1/03, 8:24AM
Generally speaking (I've done car brakes several times but not bike though I can't see that they're much different) aren't you supposed to compress the pistons before you put the pads in? Their's usually some trick to it like pushing in and rotating the piston clockwise at the same time to get it back down. (VW/Audi brakes work this way) Either way, good luck.
Originally posted by Setter32
....alrighty.....
...I've just installed the rear pads............and yeah..........they're gonna drag big time.........
....I'm gonna have to pry them open with a screwdriver.......to get a big enough gap to stick the disk back in........
....as soon as I remove the screwdriver..........the damn cylinders push the pads back in..........
....WTF?.......didn't the engineers encounter this problem when they were testin it????.................bastards.........
:D
if it's anything like a car, you remove the cap from the reservoir, and SLOWLY compress the cylinder. if you go too fast, the brake fluid will spray everywhere. then when you are done, replace th lid, and hit the brake a few times to push it back out.
Setter32
Tue 4/1/03, 12:24PM
....the problem is not installing it..............I've already done that....
....the problem is that the pads will constantly press against the disk........
....no matter how much you compress the pistons.........it always pop back up to the point where the pads will press against the disk.....
...no wonder it's easy to lock up my rear without alot of pressure.....
:D
they are supposed to press the disk. all the time. if you get some aftermarket brakes, they can be louder than the stock ones, and it would seem that something is wrong, but it's not. if the brake pad didn't make constant contact with the rotor or whatever it's called on a bike, then stopping would really suck
Setter32
Tue 4/1/03, 3:34PM
...that makes sense....
...but......I think they (the rear pads) are pressin too much....
....cause they will wear down to the metal........even if I rarely ever use them...................somethin is def wrong with that picture......
...and how come the front doesn't do the same?.........cause I can see a little gap between the pads and the disk on the front brakes.......
....and after 23000 miles..........my fronts are almost as good as new........:confused: .........and my front feels plenty good........
....I don't get it.......
:D
When I changed my rear pads at 13,500 miles, I noticed that that they weren't wearing evenly. The outside brake pad was worn quite a bit more than the inside brake pad. Aren't they supposed to wear evenly? Weird...
yea, i got 11000 miles on mine, and the rears are almost toast. i hardly ever use them. my fronts got life in them still, but i'm gonna replace all of them. i think ive heard this before about the rear brake "killing" itself
Setter32
Tue 4/1/03, 4:33PM
The outside brake pad was worn quite a bit more than the inside brake pad.
....same here.......
:D
Punkbrad
Mon 5/5/03, 8:38AM
i recently changed my back brakes - and they are already worn down to nothin! i dont use the back that much (i thought) but i will changing both the front and back brakes tomorrow - if anyone else needs or wants to do this, come on by! i am picking up the pads today from Berts
PB, are your old rear pads warn evenly or are they wearing at an angle?
There was some discussion on saturday about the torque arm causing the caliper to twist and cause that.
Notice anything?
Punkbrad
Mon 5/5/03, 8:48AM
no, the metal is showing all the way across the core plate! hahaha..
no its even, but i will chek that - if the tourqe arm needs an adjustment, i will pop it back into palce! thanks for the ehads up tho!
im pretty sure its even, oh yeah, any tips on sintered or organic or semi sintered pads? since im using steel rotors, i want semi or organic right? i prefer which ever will last longer, sintered ?
I've been riding with sintered for about 2 years. They last a while compared to the organics. They're a little slow to grab until they warm up, but once they do... one finger stoppies. I used to ride with semi, but since I switched to sintered.. I'm stickin with them.
Punkbrad
Mon 5/5/03, 9:13AM
Originally posted by Q
I'm stickin with them.
no pun intended!
Tillers_Rule
Mon 5/5/03, 5:06PM
I just replaced my MUCH worn down front pads at 15K.
Strange thing about my rear. I had to replace them after only 3,500 miles, and they were WAYYYYY worn down.
Now, at 17K+ miles, I'm still on the second rear pad, with PLENTY of life left.
I'm not sure if it was a defective pad that came with the bike or what:confused:
darko
Sat 5/17/03, 10:32AM
My front brake pads have 11000 miles and they are just half wear
maybe not even half.Discs are blue is this because pads are too hard.Brake pads are stock Tokico HH.
bwarbiany
Sat 5/17/03, 1:42PM
Originally posted by darko
My front brake pads have 11000 miles and they are just half wear
maybe not even half.Discs are blue is this because pads are too hard.Brake pads are stock Tokico HH.
I haven't heard of that... Maybe you're not using your brakes hard enough... I've heard of a lot of people that wear at least half their pads in 11,000 miles...
Just a thought, I could be wrong, but what I think might be happening is that your brakes are heating up but you're not actually applying them that hard, and so the pads or the rotor might have a slight glaze... Someone who's more of an expert have any input?
Tillers_Rule
Sat 6/28/03, 1:09PM
I just replaced my origonal front sets at roughly 15,000 miles. Lately i've been getting alot of fade so decided to bleed them, that worked for oh about 1 stop before it was bask to mush.
So I check my pads and thier in need of replacing already, with only an additioanl 4,000 or so miles.:confused:
The only big ride i've done is the Malibu one a few weeks back.
Oh well. Im going sintered this time, and stainless stell lines:D
kflex
Tue 11/11/03, 9:20PM
Does anyone else out there with a 03 650 have a squealing rear brake when applied lightly that has not really gone away with a few miles and a good cleaning of the pad and caliper.
Kiel
No_Brakes23
Tue 11/11/03, 10:03PM
And what's up with the [whhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrr] when I am going down tight side? My brakes only seem to make that noise there.
Loyolan
Tue 11/11/03, 11:39PM
Holy crap! Mine has squealed since day one. Pretty loudly when braking lightly (usually from about 15 MPH). It's kinda embarassing, like i'm on a ghetto ride or something.
I thought it would go away after i cleaned the disc several times and/or with some miles, but it hasn't and I have 3000 miles on her already.
Hey guys, whats the average lifetime of a brakepad, and how can you tell if you need new pads?
Round to nearest 1,000 miles is fine... :D Thanks.
I'm still on my original front pads with 28k miles on them, and they still have life left. My rear lasted only about 11K, but I think it was because they were dragging.
bwarbiany
Mon 1/26/04, 2:22PM
Mine are at about 20K miles now, and they're just fine... I might consider replacing them before another track day, but since I don't have the money for SS braided lines at this point, I might not even do that...
kc1717
Mon 1/26/04, 2:49PM
mine on my r1 lasted 7000 before they felt like stopping power was reduced by more than 30 percent, even though they still had yet to be worn down.
my sv pads lasted longer than i owned it 8000+
kpalmer
Fri 3/5/04, 1:33PM
Several weeks ago I purchased a used 2001 SV650S. Until now I've only had time to go for a few short rides and I haven't really looked at any maintenance issues. The bike has under 7,000 miles and some scratches on the fairing and exhaust. Other than a few scratches, the bike looks to be in good condition. The previous owner said she took it to Honda of North Hollywood for maintenance.
The problem is that the rear brake is partially engaged or something. After a short ride the front rotors where cold while the back was hot. With the bike on the rear stand and the transmission in neutral, I tried to spin the rear wheel. I can move the wheel by hand but it won't spin on its own.
What should I look for? What's the most likely cause of the problem?
I'm going to put the bike on the stand and take a look at it tomorrow morning. (It's going to be too dark to work on it after work today.)
Thanks,
--KP
I've never seen a thread merge that fast!
SUCATI
Tue 3/29/05, 7:37AM
I put 30K on the fronts before changing.
I cocked the rear pads once and wore them out real quick. Changed them at 15K. They'll last longer next time.
Mike
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