Canes78

I was wondering about brake usage from street use on my car. How long should a set of brakes last if no track days are involved? Is there a recommended pad for daily use? Thanks for any advice.
Regards,
Randy

Randyc151

Tell us more about the car?? PCCB or steel? Generalities: PCCB rotors with no track use will last 100,000 miles or more. Use the factory TTS pads - they work great and are easy on the rotors. If you have steel, the dealer will tell you to change the rotors every time you replace the pads, but that's total BS!!! If they don't have cracks stretching from the drilled holes to the outer or inner edges, or connected between drill holes...and they don't have a hint of vibration/shudder under braking...you can replace just pads and keep on moving. If there are cracks, (and it's unlikely they will be cracked with street use) then probably every third set of pads is a good rule of thumb, so that's a very long time. For pads, on the street, either PCCB or steel rotor pads should last 20,000 miles or more if you drive like a reasonable person. That's not great compared to a modest sedan, but it's not terrible either.

Canes78

Steel. Some track days during the average year but not regularly tracked. Great information, thanks.
RAndy

neil.schneider

Thanks for the info Randy,

Other than going to the dealer, is there a way to tell if the pads need to be replaced with the PCCBs? Will the car let me know? I am the third owner and the car has 49k miles. I don’t have any issues with the brakes. I don’t track the car. Brakes don’t make any noise. My understanding is that the previous owner did a lot of cross country trips which I am assuming had long runs and did not use the brakes very much.

Any thoughts?

Tia

Randyc151

It is equipped with wear sensors, which should give you a very early warning. Also, you can get a brake pad measuring gauge, which is a cheap and simple tool to just reach in and measure the pad thickness. Finally, you can do an easy visual inspection of the rotors - just put a flashlight beam on the brake pad inside the caliper where it meets the rotor. You will see the pad and the metal backing plate it's attached to. If the pad is thicker than the backing plate, you should be OK until the warning sensor comes on soon thereafter. If the pad is thinner than the plate, get the pads replaced ASAP.

neil.schneider

Thanks Randy.

I just checked and they look a little bit thicker than the plate. I will wait until the sensor tells me to change them. They are quiet now. My last 911 had PCCB also but they were squeaky. I would bet if I replace the pads they will start to be noisy.