swaussie

For a week now my STI7 has had a very slight grinding noise coming from the frount brakes. I took it into the garage for its regular 10,000km oil change this morning and asked them to check the brakes over as I thought the pads needed changing. The car has done 34000km so they should be due.

They just rang to tell me both frount discs are fecked from heat and need replacing. I have never raced the car, sure some spirited driving from time to time but this is extreme. Should I expect to have to replace the discs when I replace the pads ??

ozzy

well your discs should last longer than one set of pads. I did 35K-miles on a set of UK MY99 discs. I was told they were bin material and yes, they were covered in cracks. I did get another 2K out of them though.

Do you take time to cool down your brakes after some hard use?

Stefan

swaussie

I never really thought about cooling brakes down, I always do a "warm down" after a spirited drive to cool the turbo and I guess this would give the brakes time to cool as well ?? 34,000 km is about 21000 miles so its not much of a life span.

ozzy

It really depends if the majority of your miles have been on the motorway or full of heavy braking. One thing not to do after using your brakes heavily is sit stationary with your foot on the brake. The heat builds up too quickly under the pad and will cause excess pad material to be transferred onto the discs. You'll start getting a vibration like the discs are warped.

Every brake disc can develop hairline cracks depending on the type of material used, how the handle heat and how they are looked after by the user.

Brake discs on cars, trucks, even mountain bikes can develop them.

I personally would think you'd need to change them that soon, so it's either poor discs or your use. I suppose if you believe you haven't used them harshly you could argue about getting them replaced under warranty.

Stefan