Don’t trust the electronic pad life monitor…

[Time2gofishing1980]

What up.  2020 Sierra 1500 3.0.  Have about 51k on it. I’ve been getting a DIC “ new brake pads detected, reset brake pad monitor?” Message intermittently. No new pads have been installed.  Furthermore, I’m getting pretty significant grinding from the front brakes thought monitor shows 61% life remaining on both front and rear pads. I looked into the monitoring and saw how it uses 3 diff contact points in the pad life to estimate wear. 
 

51k seems like a lot of miles to still have 61% life remaining. Also seems suspect that both front and rear have the same life remaining. I’d expect front to wear more quickly. 

 

what have you seen for brake life in your trucks?  Anyone experienced a similar issue? Will probably order new pads and rotors and replace the front brakes

 

 

EDIT:

 

inboard rear pads were totally toasted. The rear left, which has the pad life sensor, was 100% gone. The metal backing was grinding into the rotor. The passenger side inboard pad was almost totally gone.
 

GM states frequent towing and heavy loads accelerates the inboard pad wear. I tow a bass boat frequently and have a plow on it with 800lbs of ballast in the winter. 

 

the outboard pads had maybe 30% remaining.

 

The electronic pad life monitor said 59% remaining on the rear. 
 

lesson learned. Don’t trust the indicator because it doesn’t work. 

 

haven’t looked at the front yet but I suspect I should replace them also. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Time2gofishing1980
Content update

[Rtrick87]

1 hour ago, Time2gofishing1980 said:

What up.  2020 Sierra 1500 3.0.  Have about 51k on it. I’ve been getting a DIC “ new brake pads detected, reset brake pad monitor?” Message intermittently. No new pads have been installed.  Furthermore, I’m getting pretty significant grinding from the front brakes thought monitor shows 61% life remaining on both front and rear pads. I looked into the monitoring and saw how it uses 3 diff contact points in the pad life to estimate wear. 
 

51k seems like a lot of miles to still have 61% life remaining. Also seems suspect that both front and rear have the same life remaining. I’d expect front to wear more quickly. 

 

what have you seen for brake life in your trucks?  Anyone experienced a similar issue? Will probably order new pads and rotors and replace the front brakes

I’ve got a 2020 RST with 26,500 miles and mine shows 76% front and 85% for the back. They’ve been squeaking about two weeks. Pretty sure they need to be replace with soon the stop and go Massachusetts driving I do. All we need to do is pop wheel off, there’s a pin through the caliber and a metal bracket that holds the pads in. Pop those out and slide new pads in without removing rotor. Problem I’ve seen is by doing this, truck will detect new pads and go into limp mode with a max speed of 43mph and you need a scanner to clear. I came to post about asking if anyone had problems with installing brakes 

[Gangly]

I have approximately 75k miles on my 2020 and I have between 50%-60% life left on the front and 70%-80% remaining on the rear.   However, A LOT of those miles are highway miles so my vehicle's brakes don't receive the same use and abuse that a vehicle driven in stop and go traffic would experience.

[mwlewis558]

I have 50k on my 2020 and the brake pad life screen was blank for the front and showing 60% on the rear. I had the dealer look at it and he said there was a bad sensor for the front pads so they replaced. They said I'm still in the green on brake pad life so we didn't change the pads. Now by brakes are squealing so freaking loud.