Brake Pad Life?

[zionzr2]

How long have the stock brakes pads been lasting?

[Mavrik]

Depends on driver and driving conditions... I've seen however on a 03 Vibe GT, rear pads need replacing at 40,000km (20,000+miles?)my brakes however are still good on 27,000km.

[ColonelPanic]

The brakes are one thing I actually have something positive to say about with this car. I'm at 55,000 and still on the original pads/rotors up front and the original shoes/drums in the rear. The Malibu I had before this, jesus - it would eat up a set of pads and rotors up front every 10K - and that was normal for those things, practically every damn Malibu, GA, Alero ate 'em up like that. So 55K out of these made me smile. BUT, they need to be replaced SOON. I probably shouldn't have let them go this far as the rotors are looking rough... The rotors are grooved out the wazoo up front, so I doubt they can be turned. The brakes in general are feeling very weak although they aren't at the point where the wear indicators are squeaking. I barely have brakes at all when I first get in the car in the morning... The thing really doesn't wanna stop. So I'm sure I need new pads and rotors up there... The back may be ok, but I dunno. I couldn't get the drums off to check them when I was looking last spring, so I said forget about it and just left it. I've never really had to screw around with rear drum brakes that much, I've had some last 150,000+ so I won't even worry about looking at those.ugh... I'd like to say forget about it and keep driving it until I trade, but I'm probably looking at another 10K+ until that happens so I guess I'll have to do something.Rotor replacees, how much for a set up front? I'll probably be doing this myself if it doesn't involve anything too out of the ordinary to change the brakes out...

[scott_h]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »The Malibu I had before this, jesus - it would eat up a set of pads and rotors up front every 10K - and that was normal for those thingsI'm glad to hear I wasn't alone!!!I had a 98 Malibu for about 6 years, and I bet I put 4 or 5 sets of pads and rotors on that damn thing. I hear better reviews these days, but that thing had nothing but problems over the years, so I'll never buy another Malibu.I guess I did get over 160,000 miles out of it, but the damn thing was in the shop the day we traded it. I got a call saying she was having problems (AGAIN) on her way to work, and I said hell with it and called the Credit Union to check on financing. We signed the papers on the Vibe that night.

[Mavrik]

I'm sorry, you said Malibu and I nearly spit out my cup of water, coughing and laughing... Stay away from Impala also... those are real brake eaters. Had one in with a bad rotor pulsation at 8,000 km... to all the americans thats about 5000miles.

[ColonelPanic]

lol! Those cars were great, weren't they? Mine was a real gem. Sadly though, this lil' ol Vibe has beat that thing for the number of problems. That's scary. I'm thinking of going to the type of pads that I put on that Malibu that did a really great job... I had plenty of opportunity to try numerous types of pads, from the standard cheapo auto parts store variety, to oem, to super duper harder metal than the rotor metallic pads... The best I used on that car though by far were the Raybestos QuietStop ceramic pads... Anybody know if those are available for the Vibe and for how much? If I can get a set of those for this car, I'll do that in a heartbeat, good stuff - stopped good, no noise, and less brake dust too.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »Depends on driver and driving conditions...I've got 87K miles of mostly highway driving, and my brakes are still in fine shape. no sounds, slipping, vibration, etc. still grab fine. Haven't looked at the rotors recently, some scoring, but not bad.