Brake Pads Condition After 75k Miles...

[TexasAl]

I've had the my 2008 truck for a few years now, and I recently started feeling a vibration when I would apply the breaks. It finally got noticeable enough that I decided to do a brake job and replace the rotors and front pads. Well, couldn't believe how much pad was left on there. There is probably about 80% of the pad left on both front brakes. In the dark, I couldn't tell which pads were used and which were new. That is just amazing. I went ahead and replaced them since I was already taking off the rotors, but wow. Does anybody have an explanation for this? Are AC Delco pads that good/hard? Rotors looked good as well, but I didn't feel like getting them cut, only to risk having them warp again. Your thoughts? By the way, the new rotors fixed the vibration I was getting when coming to a stop.

[&CDFiXER%]

When I started having brake issues on my 99' due to my rear brakes, my front brakes still looked like they were nearly 80% at 80,000 miles.

[jblakeney]

I changed the rear brakes on my 3/4 ton on the rear about a month ago. First set of brakes the trucks had replaced. 193k the most of it has consisted of a goose-neck on it pulling something. Fronts were about half wore.

 

The OE pads are a premium pad......

 

Jbo

[c4cruiser]

Factory brake pads on the GM trucks are amazing in terms of wear. When I traded my '99 Silverado back in '08, it had 77K miles on it and the pads were at about 80%. I expect my 08 Silverado to have similar pad life. Both the 99 and the 08 came with 4-wheel discs and overall braking performance is very good.

 

If the GM engineers had to do something absolutely right, they did it on the brake pads.

[Black02Silverado]

My 02 has 113k and the pads still look like they are around 50% pad life left.

[music]

Glad to hear others having the same experience. Inspected front/rear recently, and couldn't believe how much life remained @ 39k miles.

[KMGZ400]

how do you guys make your pads this long.. wtf

[00Silverado4x4]

how do you guys make your pads this long.. wtf

 

Depends where your miles come from. First two years owning my truck was 50k highway driving mostly. 100 mile round trip to/from work didn't require much braking. Now its mostly town type driving so my last 40k driving has been a lot harder on my brakes. Then of course is the type brakes. OE pads were ceramic now I have semi metallic so they don't last quite as long. Finally of course your driving habits. I'm better than some but definitely not easy on my brakes either, especially since my truck is used as such.

[Black02Silverado]

Mine are highway miles for about the first 80k, back and forth to work on four lane road. Now it is mostly city stop and go. I have read that our silverados just seem to last longer than the newer trucks.

[Z45]

My 02 has 113k and the pads still look like they are around 50% pad life left.

You must never use the brakes. We had many identical trucks at work, some drivers needed new brakes in as little as 15,000 miles and others could go far longer. All depended on the driving style. For instance one of my survey techs always assumed the light would turn green and was still going 35 mpg 200 ft from the intersection and when it turned red, he would have to jam on the brakes hard to stop. Other drivers paced themselves and did not have to rely on the brakes to slow themselves down all the time.

[ruggedlife]

my 05 1 ton had factory original pads and rotors at 100k, they were startin to get glazed i was goin to resurface the rotors but ended up gettin rid of it, managers 03 went 145k one oem original brakes

[jblakeney]

There is a REALLLLLLLLY BIG variable in brakes, in terms of longevity. Area, driving habits, towing, speed, highway, city, rotor condition, plus a few I know I missed.

 

OE pads tend to last a long time down in my neck of the woods. Most of the time people change their brakes down here due to run out on the rotors first (pedal pulsation), long before the pad material would be considered gone to its change point. But if you can drive without causing your rotors to warp, you can get some crazy high numbers out of a set of pads.

 

With that said, a Premium set of aftermarket brakes will produce the same window of time as the OE's if not better. OE's tend to put good brakes on from the start.

 

Jbo

[zach1990]

how do you guys make your pads this long.. wtf

 

40,XXX some odd miles on this set of brake pads and i bet i could sell them to you as brand new. Its all in how you drive

[lester4029]

i recently have been experiencing grinding noises everytime i step on the break for the longest time i kept thinking it was my rear breaks but when i checked them they still had 80-85% of pad left on them it wasnt until i had a tire rotation done that i found out the noise was from my front break pads. they are so bad that now everytime i step on the breaks at night sparks fly from them lol

[flyboyron]

Even though I hate the price, I think the factory pads are worth the money.