So I went to the dealership a couple months ago to get an oil change and they did the "world class inspection," which indicated that my brakes are at 3mm and 4mm and that it's about time to change my pads. So I bought some Stoptechs online and took them to a very reputable auto shop to get them installed. I dropped off my car, went down the street for a beer, and received a phone call about an hour and a half later telling me to come back to the shop. I get there and they tell me that my brakes are still in phenomenal shape and that I should be able to get at minimum another 15-20K out of them. So they didn't charge me anything and said I can come back later.

My car currently has a little over 79K and I have never gotten brake service on my car. So who do I believe? The dealership has been pretty good to me over the years so I fully trusted them until this weekend. As I said before, the shop I took my car to has a great reputation and the guys there are awesome (even had a beer with them after they closed shop). Thoughts?

 

usually your brakes will squeal if they're ready to be replaced. Are you noticing a substantial loss in braking power and performance. Otherwise, since you bought the stoptechs, there's nothing wrong in doing an upgrade.

 

have a look yourself with a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_scale might wanna know the min thickness of the pads for reference

 

The BBK brakes are a bit more challenging to observe pad thickness than the regular single/dual piston (whatever infiniti uses in their standard caliper) arrangement.

Take a look inside yourself. If you have less than 1/4" of pad remaining or uneven wear, go ahead and replace them.

Different driving styles will results in more/less brake wear. I tend to brake very mildly, other people are binary drivers.. full throttle/full brake . My camaro had one brake job in 85K miles, only because I didn't like the stock pads.

 

At that point I would have just told him to finish replacing them.

 

Agreed. Already on the lift, wheels are off. Another 20 minutes and they'd have changed our pads.

New pads never hurt, and you never wanna drive your pads down to nothing.

 

Take your wheels off. Take your brake pads out. Measure them with a caliper or metric ruler. Determine how many mm of thickness is left. Make a decision of whether you want to replace them now or later.

OEM pads are equipped with an audible indicator that will cause them to make a loud annoying noise when they are low enough to need replacement.

 

This happened to me too. Brakes were squeaking even though I only had about 40-45K miles on my car but I have tracked it and driven pretty hard on many occasions so figured maybe they were bad. Went and bought new rotors and pads, took them to my mechanic who works for Infiniti only for him to tkll me the same thing that I had easily another 15K on them and they just needed to clean all the brake dust out to stop the sqealing. Went ahead and had him do the work since it was already taken apart and had bought the parts.

 

Dealership told me that I would need new front brakes by my next service. I'm halfway there and I'm beginning to feel vibrations when I'm braking. Nothing audible yet. I only have 44.5K miles. I already changed the rear pads at 35K miles. Guess original owner drives the heck out of the car.

 

I would believe the mechanic. I am at 50K and feel the brakes are low, squealing now and then and brake reservoir was low meaning the brake pistons were most likely extended.
Took it to the dealer not too long ago and was told I have another 3mm left so should be ok. Decided over Easter to check the pads myself and I can probably get another 10K out of them, not even close to being near the indicator squeal tabs. Too bad to I wanted to swap out for my Hawks I just received.

 

I have no audible indicators of my brakes running low (except when I brake in reverse, but that's a common problem that you're all aware of). They sound fine, they feel fine (no vibrations), and from what the mechanics tell me, they look fine. I think I'll swap them out in another 10K or so to be safe.

I actually was going to tell the shop to swap them out, but I didn't because the shop was past closing time by the time I got back and I couldn't be without my car that night. Plus I want to get some other work done as well, so I figure I'll come earlier next time and get it all done at once.

Funny thing is, the other day my VDC and slip lights came on while driving. Second time happening to me this month. There's a thread here about it, but there wasn't a consistent answer given. Reasons included low brake pads (which I find hard to believe), low brake fluid (seemed most likely), faulty VDC, and a couple others I can't remember. I bought brake fluid yesterday and put a little bit in this morning, even though the reservoir seemed to indicate it's exactly between the min and max tick marks. Haven't seen any lights come on so far...hopefully that solves it.