W204 Brake Pads
Here are two pictures of my current brake pads. Do you think they need to be replaced? Thanks!
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When inspecting them, you are trying to ascertain the amount of brake media left on the backing plate. In your case, you have plenty... 6-8mm range. Looking at the outer pads can be done through the wheel of course, but if you want to inspect them with the car on the ground, just get one of those telescoping mirrors from an auto parts store to see the inside pad. Once a month or so, you should set the PSI in all your tires, and check fluid levels. Adding a brake pad inspection adds 5 minutes to the process and can save you the “what?" moment when the brake message in the dash pops up.
Last edited by pgsurface; Nov 2, 2019 at 01:48 PM.
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When inspecting them, you are trying to ascertain the amount of brake media left on the backing plate. In your case, you have plenty... 6-8mm range. Looking at the outer pads can be done through the wheel of course, but if you want to inspect them with the car on the ground, just get one of those telescoping mirrors from an auto parts store to see the inside pad. Once a month or so, you should set the PSI in all your tires, and check fluid levels. Adding a brake pad inspection adds 5 minutes to the process and can save you the “what?" moment when the brake message in the dash pops up.
OK another related question. I assume in the picture below, the inner layer would be the "actual" remaining pad, right? How come that it looks like there are three layers in the picture, when a new pad normally looks like there are only two layers? Thanks!
Why it looks like there are three layers? Is the inner layer the actual remaining pad?
Plenty left, wont need pads for a while, when you change them do it yourself, there are plenty of u tube videos, just dont take any notice of the ones that make you grease the back of the pads
From them you will see how thick a new pad is, then you can determine how much you have left each time.
Stealerships will tell you they need changing at 40% wear when you can take them to 80% no problem depending on rotor lip.
I used to work for a service center, we had to put the wear of each pad down as a %, this is so the manager could sell the customer a brake job at whatever he decided to be a low limit for the day, also dependant on how busy we were.
By the look of your rotors they may need to be changed at the next brake job as the have a wear lip on them, worth measuring the thickness though to see if they can be machined.
Last edited by prktkljokr; Nov 2, 2019 at 09:51 PM.









