Question re: brake pad wear

Question re: brake pad wear

Author
Discussion

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Hi,

I'm after some advice - I had both sets of brake pads changed on my DBS about 2 months ago, and since then I have done just under 12,000km of mainly (95%) motorway driving. The roads here are pretty clear, so not a lot of stop/start traffic.

Today, I got the warning light on the dash stating that the rear pads were low, so my question would be, should I expect to get through a set of new pads in this sort of mileage, under these sorts of driving conditions? I know that wear will be affected by how hard I drive it, and needless to say, I try to put it through its paces whenever I can, but I'm certainly not track driving, or anything near it!

I appreciate any help or advice!

Thanks,

Scott.

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
@Mikey - Yep, the DBS has track mode, so I'll try using that more often, as it's also a lot more fun! I'll just have to remember to be a bit more careful when taking corners wink

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
@Bogey - I live in the Dubai, so it's dry and warm most of the time, so I rarely get the traction control kicking in... no track days, but I do drive it quite hard, but nothing out of the ordinary I don't think... I was expecting 20k miles, too, so I'm hoping it may be a faulty sensor wire or something...

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
@Nick - I had the CCM disks changed on the front recently, and they didn't suggest getting the rear ones done at the same time, so I can only assume that this means they're still OK... the car has done 65,000km so again, I wouldn't expect to be able to ruin a set of carbon ceramic disks in this mileage!

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Ahh, OK - that's interesting, as I've just had the car serviced, not two weeks ago! I've messaged them to ask if the rear pads were low or anywhere near it when they serviced it, so I'm just waiting for them to reply...

Fingers crossed that's what it is, at 1k a set, I definitely don't want to be replacing them every two months!!!

Scott.

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
quotequote all
Hi John,

The front disks had been damaged - think it was caused by the use chemicals when cleaning, which is a big no-no for CCM's apparently.

Scott.

Scottsanders

Original Poster:

89 posts

115 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
quotequote all
So, I've had the pads inspected by the dealer, and they have confirmed that both sets of pads need to be replaced, so it's not just the back set!

How the hell do you rip through a complete set of pads in less than 11,000km ?!?!

As previously stated, I do drive it pretty hard, but it's 95%+ motorway driving, so even with aggressive driving, I'd expect at least 20,000km out of a set of pads! To prove a point, I drove it to work today and just used the paddles, so used the engine to brake more than the actual brakes, and I hardly had to touch the brakes until I got off the motorway! This is very typical of the type of traffic that I usually drive in, so I refuse to believe that this is driving style that has worn them out so quickly!

One thing they did say was, AM recently changed the type of pad to a softer pad to deal with the constant squealing that a lot of DBS owners report with the CCM's, but even they said that it shouldn't shave more than a couple of thousand km's off the life of the pad.

To put it in perspective, when I got the car, it had 39,000km on the clock, and I got just shy of 20,000km out of the already worn pads that were on the car when I got it. I then get less than 11,000km out of the replacement set! This cannot be right!

Does anybody else have any experience of these new softer pads that AM are now fitting? If so, how much did you see the life go down by?

If I've got to change all the pads every 10,000km, I'm not going to be driving it for much longer!!! Shame, as I love the car in every other way!

Scott.