bbirdwell

To estimate remaining life of your brake pads:

-Measure pad thickness (there are tools for this)
-Subtract 3 mm from that number
-Front pads multiply remaining number by 4000. That's the number of kilometers before your pads should be down to the 3 mm minimum thickness. Divide that number by 1.61 if you work in miles.
-Rear pads multiply remaining number by 6000. Divide by 1.61 and you have the approximate remaining miles before minimum pad thickness.

Example:
Front pads - (10mm measured) - (3mm minimum) = 7mm
(7mm * 4000) / 1.61 = approximately 17,000 miles remaining life.

Your mileage may vary depending upon your driving style. Still, a nice rule-of-thumb.

Plutoe

Although it is a great math exercise for the grand kids, MB provides break ware sensors that alert you to the need to change pads!!

bbirdwell

A fact of which I am aware. I, however, prefer to budget my expenses for the car several months out and have replacement parts on hand so I can perform the service when I desire, and not when I must.

Too many long weekends and late nights repairing broken cars with parts purchased using my grocery money back when I was poor. That's why I emphasize anyone owning one of these cars has to stay on top of the maintenance and be looking 10,000 miles down the road....