When I had the pre inspection done on my car they said the pad life was at 60%. When I called to check on cost of replacing the pads from the dealer. I was told to wait and replace rotors and pads together. Rotors are not worn ,warped or anything wrong. Any advice on this ??

 

How many miles have you done? Ideally it is best to do it together if you are running steel brakes. Your rotors will have undulations in them which the current pads will have worn too. If you fit new pads (with a perfectly flat surface) you won't get 100% pad contact.

 

If your rotors are within thickness spec [it's embossed on the side of them] then you can have your rotors turned on a lathe to even the surface out. It's a simple and inexpensive process. You never just replace the pads alone as the two surfaces will not mate up. Unless the pads are extremely aggressive, the rotors should last at least two pads.

Regardless, replacing a pad with 60% life is a waste of money.

John H

 

I got 40K out of my factory reds, my rotors were toasted with my pads. On most other cars, you might expect to get more life out of the rotors. I wouldn't be surprised if your rotors don't substantially out-live your pads. Have the rotors measured and see if they can be resurfaced, but expect to replace them with the pads.

 

You can change pads without changing rotors. Rotors should be changed if they are warped, spydering or if they are worn and out of spec. Turning or resurfacing a rotor on a Porsche or any other German sports can is not a good idea as they only last a short time before giving up once again - a complete waste of money. I will soon install my third set (originals + 2 changes) of oem pads on this car and will change the oem rotors for the first time when I do. I'm at 18,000 miles with considerable track time. Best,

 

I just had my rotors machined and new pads fitted on my 996t only to have them squeal alot now.