Brake pad wear indicator

[steve333]

Hi all,just had my cls serviced & mb service manager rang to advise front/rear pads need changing,when i enquired why the wear indicator hadn't illuminated on the dash he said they're actually 80% worn & could go on for a few miles,question is, roughly how many more miles should i get out of them before the wear indicator illuminates or at what wear percentage are the sensors set to trigger the warning?(cars on 27,000 & original pads/disks).

 

[christopherwk]

If your car has 27,000 miles on pads which are 80% then assuming you are still doing similar style of driving, then you've got another 6,750 miles to go!

Not sure at what %age the warning comes on, but you would still have a few hundred miles of driving left once the warning comes on - as did mine when mine came on, though I'd book it in and take it to the workshop when it doesn come on.

I reckon you could possibly safely get another couple of thousand miles out of them.

 

[Will]

Leave the pads for now and get them done locally when the time comes

 

[steve333]

If your car has 27,000 miles on pads which are 80% then assuming you are still doing similar style of driving, then you've got another 6,750 miles to go!

You would still have a few hundred miles of driving left once the warning comes on - as did mine when mine came on.

I reckon you could possibly safely get another 5,000 miles out of them.

Thats exactly what i thought,surely the mb service manager wasn't trying to get me to change the pads allround when they had 5k+ miles left on them,thanks for the help

 

[Will]

Brakes are an easy money spinner for them. Quick/easy to fit and a good few £££s in the process. Many people won't question them as brakes are a 'safety' item

At least you'll get the dealer stamp still

 

[christopherwk]

I just edited my post to say a couple of thousand from 5,000 just to be on the safe side!

The car will tell you when its time to replace the pads, and I'm sure there's some sort of safety margin built in, so replace them until then!

Replacing beforehand would be a waste of money when there's still usable life in the existing pads.

 

[andy27168]

MB will tell you they need replacing if in their opinion they will need doing before your next scheduled service.
As others have advised get them replaced when the light comes on.

 

[steve333]

Brakes are an easy money spinner for them. Quick/easy to fit and a good few £££s in the process. Many people won't question them as brakes are a 'safety' item

At least you'll get the dealer stamp still

Car has full mb history & took out a service care plan when i bought it to keep it up but any non service items i will get done elsewhere,will leave the pads until the wear indicator illuminates,do you know anywhere locally when the time comes Will?

 

[andy_m]

Hi Steve333, i've just done my rears after my local MB service guy told me they were 80% worn, I took the most worn pad of the 4 and held it against a new one - it was about 60% at most. A word of warning though - my car only has one sensor on the rears, if there was some slight uneven wear from pad to pad you could risk metal-to-metal and no warning light. Take your wheels off and have a look...

 

[Will]

Car has full mb history & took out a service care plan when i bought it to keep it up but any non service items i will get done elsewhere,will leave the pads until the wear indicator illuminates,do you know anywhere locally when the time comes Will?

Hi Steve,

Brake pads are a pretty straightforward job

If you're not a DIY person and rather than paying silly MB labour rates for swapping pads, take it over to TM Motors in West Molesey. Tony, the main man, is a lifelong MB enthusiast who will perform or arrange better-than-main-dealer repairs for a fraction of the cost

Feel free to mention the recommendation, but there's not really any need - he runs a great MB specialist garage and will look after you

Will

 

[steve333]

Hi Steve,

Brake pads are a pretty straightforward job

If you're not a DIY person and rather than paying silly MB labour rates for swapping pads, take it over to TM Motors in West Molesey. Tony, the main man, is a lifelong MB enthusiast who will perform or arrange better-than-main-dealer repairs for a fraction of the cost

Feel free to mention the recommendation, but there's not really any need - he runs a great MB specialist garage and will look after you

Will

Thanks for the heads up Will,been looking for somewhere local(as west molesey is) to take the car for non service repairs & it's nice to know a fellow mb club member knows & recommends them

 

[DITTRICH]

80% worn means 20% left. The wear sensors do work as I took my front pads to 100% and went into the garage the next day to get them done after the light started flickering on. The brakes can start to make grinding noises if the discs are worn and the discs are slightly lipped. There are thickness specs for the discs and it is worth asking them what those specs are and what measurements they made. This line of questioning resulted in only the pads being replaced as the discs were still in spec. All this was very different and much less costly than what I had been originally told.