the caliper will push the pad until it is worn, and the pin will remain the same distance from the rotor...I believe Looks like plenty of pad left.

 

i've only used the "hard stop" method to *de-glaze* ( new word? ) them to diminish/stop occasional squealing. it seems to work.

beyond that i just go easy on the brakes, never went thru any protocol to bed them EXCEPT avoiding any hard stops for the first 100 miles or so. i've never had an issue just slapping new pads on is all. piece of cake.

saw your pics after posting.. and agree will all re pad life. too soon.

 

The wear light will be on long before that protrusion contacts the rotor surface. In my Boxster just for grins I continued to drive the car after wear sensor came on. At first and for a long time -- nearly 2K miles -- I had a driving technique that under most circumstances avoided triggering the wear warning light.

I had planned on driving the car as long as I could just to see what would happen, probably backing plate contact with the rotor at some point. Since the rotors were also worn I figured I had "nothing" to lose.

But then it got to the point the wear light was coming on even with the car stationary right after engine start. Since the lght was a distraction and annoying -- and probably what Porsche intended -- I went ahead and did the brakes. As an aside, this probably saved me from the consequences of a stupid decision to continue driving the car long after the wear sensor warning light came on.

The most worn pads had the wear sensor worn about half away. The sensor diameter is about 3/16ths of an inch (0.187") and the most worn pads were down to about 3/32nds of an inch (0.93") of pad material left. The protrusion had still not made contact with the rotor.

 

Disc brakes are relatively easy to service. The old drum brakes were a real pain. Lots of hardware. It was doing these that I was taught to leave one side as a reference. I still do this when doing disc brakes out of habit.

In the past I've chamfered the pad some with a coarse file. I never sanded the pad surface though.

My brake bedding technique has me doing 3 -- one right after another -- hard brakes from speed to about half speed, say from 70mph to 35mph. (In most places one can get the car up to a much higher speed and not have to slow the car down to 35mph to still do a hard braking event.)

The idea is not only to get the pads and rotors mated to each other to maximize braking but to heat the pads so they outgas the more volatile compounds. This outgassing can reduce braking efficiency as the gas actually forms a layer between the pad and rotor.

Another risk is if one does an emergency braking and brings the car to a complete stop and the pads remain in contact with the rotors some pad material can remain on the rotor surface under the pad. This pad material won't retransfer back to the pad and won't abrade -- that is another round of bedding in the brakes will not remove it.

As a result the brakes can then pulse under application as the area where the pad material was left on the rotor has a different coefficient of friction.

(As an aside, even if the brakes are quite thoroughly bedded in, I found once -- this in my 2002 VW Golf TDi of all cars -- that a hard stop from speed on cold but rusty brakes (I had washed the car the day before but not driven it to dry the brakes and they had rusted up something fierce in the meantime) had the same effect on the brakes. Thereafter the brakes had a light pulsing feel to them when used lightly. I tried bedding in the brakes again to no avail. The only cure was to resurface the rotors or replace them. (Had I an air compressor and suitable air tools I might have tried manually sanding the surface of the rotors but since I didn't have the necessary tools/equipment I didn't. Since my braking technique seldom involves very light brake application I just ignored the occasonal pulsing and when I sold the car with 140K miles the pulsing was still there and the woman test driving the car because of her very light braking technique noticed it right away.)

I have found for stock factory pads/rotors 3 hard braking events one right after another is a good compromise. One can actually feel braking improve as he does this even though the brakes get hot.

I've tried more but the braking improvement falls off after the 3rd hard braking event and I was concerned about overheating the brakes/brake hardware and causing problems.

 

Thanks for all the help, glad to see brakes are still good. I think I just like finding excuses to work on the car.

Macster as always your posts are informative and easy to understand. Where do find the time?

 

years ago I was at Watkins Glen with my 951 and let the pads get too low. The amount of heat from having very thin pads caused my calipers to require rebuilding.

 

You and me both. I get bored and make up projects

 

Under normal driving, what will eventually happen is that the brake pad material will wear down all the way to the pad backing plates. Then when you hit the brakes you hear a grinding sound and the braking ability will be compromised. If you ignore that you will destroy your rotors. Also, molten metal bits will fly off the rotors/backing plates and stick to your wheels and ruin their finish.

Agree with others that from the pictures, these pads have quite a long time to go.

Dan

 

I'd say tons of street driving left on the pads....unless you have pads that create tons of dust.

 

Pads make a ton of dust and squeal all the time. After a thorough wash squeal is gone for a couple of days.

 

As others have said, those pads have a *ton* of wear left on them.

I don't wait for the brake wear indicator to fire. My rule of thumb is to replace the pads when the width of the material is equal to or less than the width of the backing plate.

As for the rotors, sometime before you need a brake job, go to harbor freight or Amazon and invest in a set of cheap micrometers like this:



It needs to be able to measure more than 1" like these sets.
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-piece...set-66512.html


You need to be able to clear the lip on the edge of the rotor, so do not get a caliper like this:



Good Luck!!!

 

for squeal.. ( at least with oem setup )

you should try a few hard stops it usually helps to eliminate the glazing or whatever is causing it. works for me.