ecaman77

Looking good.

johnand

Finally after 5 1/2 years, and 105K+ miles, I managed to wear out the FACTORY front pads:



Mileage when message popped up:



I had the front wheels off this last weekend to rotate the tires side to side, and check the brakes. I also threw a micrometer on the rotors and they were worn to 26.035mm and 26.010mm and the minimum is 26mm, so that is perfect wear to replace the rotors every pad change.

I have new factory rotors and new Carbotech pads waiting to go on. I was going to go with the Akebono Euro Ceramic, but decided to go with Carbotech, as I used them on my Sentra and Jeep with great results, and I have a buddy that works for them. I had already bought the Akebono's, so I have a set for sale if anyone is interested.

I have actually been looking forward to wearing them out, as I want to get rid of the horrible brake dusting of the factory pads.

So, look for a post and write-up when I replace them shortly.

mskembo

I'll PM you about the pads when I getback to my office. As always the car looks amazing!

TruTaing

Ridiculous! 105k miles on OEM pads? You definitely have better 'driving habits' than I do!

LILBENZ230

Interesting that the 07 simply says "Brake wear" while my 05 instructs me to a workshop. And yes the life you got from them was amazing. By 100,000 miles my car had gone through two sets of rotors and three sets of pads.

johnand

I contribute the long life to 2 simple things:

1)My commutes are 90+% highway mileage with little to no traffic congestion. Though, the last few months we changed our hours and am driving in rush hour traffic, so LOT'S of stop and go. I noticed the wear increasing at a much higher rate recently.

2)The 7G is very good at downshifting on it's own to provide very good engine braking. Because of that I use the brakes very little in normal driving. I also use the manual touch shift to downshift a lot.

I regularly push the car, so it is not from driving like a little old lady.

SeaCoupe

Dear Gawd, 96 degrees in Washington state?!

Ed

johnand

Are you kidding? No, it is 73 degrees now at 1:30pm. Was really about 66 degrees when I took that picture. I had just turned on and started the car, so the temperature sensor hadn't stabilized yet. It was sitting in the sun.

LILBENZ230

Are you back to daily driving it instead of the Tig?

nlpamg

105k miles on OEM pads? AMAZING.

johnand

I have been the last couple of months, as the weather has been good. Plan to drive it during the summer, and the Tig during the winter.

Not that is matters much as the paint is all rock chipped anyway

Probably continue to drive it through September, then set it up in the garage for the winter and do the brakes, transmission service, differential service, and possible suspension refresh. Get it ready for spring.

johnand

Yep, and at this rate it will probably be 1/4 of a million miles before I replace the rear pads

LILBENZ230

Suspension refresh already? I know my car could use new dampers..

tommy

OK, it's broken in now, time to start with the serious mods.

LILBENZ230

Then it will just be broken.

tommy

I give up.

johnand

I think the dampers are shot, as I get some bounce when coming to a quick stop, and they just have become flacid The roads here are horrible and really hard on dampers.

Plus, I get some occasional popping in the front end while turning and transitioning driveways, which I think is swaybar endlinks or thrust bearings in the struts.

johnand

Broken?!?! Nothing is broken

nlpamg

I changed my shocks and struts at 90k miles. Boy, did that make a difference.

LILBENZ230

Was that all you replaced? I just replaced the caster and camber bushes.. I hate to re-do all of that so quickly. I thought I'd need to replace both upper and lower control arms, strut mounts, front struts and rear shocks at minimum. My car's dampers are definitely bad. I'm a good distance ahead of you guys in mileage, but the roads here are not too bad.

johnand

So I am in Michigan on business and I get a call last night from my wife, that when she was stopped at a light, the transmission jerked, and when she pulled away from the light, the transmission wouldn't shift up. So, I assume it went into limp mode. Told her to pull into the next parking lot, and turn the car off and restart and see what happens. She did, and made it home w/o issue.

So, I am pretty sure when I scan the car with DAS I will get the dreaded speed sensor error. Time for a conductor plate replacement. Problem is, I was told last time at the dealer that I needed to replace the valve body assembly to the newer one to fix the conductor plate issue. Was quote around $2K.

The weird thing is, I just did the 3rd transmission service about 300 miles ago.

Glyn M Ruck

Let's hope it was just a brain fart!!

johnand

If the was the 1st time it did that and not the second, I could believe it was a brain fart, but not so convinced now. We'll see.

johnand

So, after driving around with "Brake Wear" on the MFD for another 5K miles, I figured, I should finally take care of that.

I added a little bling to the brake job, and here is a teaser pic:



The picture doesn't do it justice, but that is a color matched Diamond Black Metallic caliper.

More pics and details to come when the job is finished.

tommy

Nice little update. Makes me wonder how long you'd drive with the CEL on.