SRT brake life and Brembo life in general

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OVERKILL

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So, as most of you know, I've had reasonably high performance vehicles as my last two summer DD's. Prior to that, it was an H/C/I fox body, which have horrible brakes stock. This time around, the vehicle is used all year, which means for more mileage in the same period of time.

Now, the M5 needed brakes when I got it, and I put on aftermarket ones which were nowhere near the bite of OEM. I only put around 25,000Km on that vehicle when I had it, but those brakes seemed to hold up reasonably well. Of course these were not big multi-piston Brembos.

The Charger, I traded it with 12,000Km on it, so I have no idea how the brakes held up.

The Jeep is heavier than both of them and, since I drive it all year round, I now have just a biscuit over 30,000Km on it. Just had the dealer change out my wheels (they store them for $30.00) for my summers and I was advised that I need front brakes. The rears are still at around 75% pad life, but the inside fronts are down to like 4mm. The outer is a bit better, but not much. I was a bit shocked. The call the Service Manager made into Chrysler Corporate didn't work to ease my concerns, as the rep was surprised there was that much left at that mileage. Apparently, in Toronto stop-and-go, pad life is even lower.

Now, given the variance in wear between inner and outer, my dealer was able to get some goodwill on the brakes from Chrysler. They are covering the rotors, and I'm getting the pads at dealer cost. So I'm about $500 for the set. I have not checked online to see if there are less expensive aftermarket options, as I'm not really inclined to go that route based on my experience with the M5. I love the brakes on the Jeep and wouldn't change anything about them feel-wise.

So my question here is that for anybody else who has a vehicle with Brembo brakes, or ones that are functionally the same, like on a Porsche, what kind of pad life are you seeing and how much does your vehicle weigh? I know the weight of the Jeep is going to have an impact here, but I'm still surprised that I'm going to have to basically do pads and rotors on the front once a year with my driving style.
 
Sounds about right. Front brakes on my Q7 will go about 20k miles and the rears about 50k.

I plan on going to Hawk ceramics and cryo rotors.
 
No idea if this helps, and it's certainly not platform-specific, but...

I've done a fair bit of research on brakes recently, and apparently there are at least some high performance compounds that are known to wear faster at low temps. One example is the Porterfield R4-1. That compound bites harder than almost anything at almost any temp. Noise and rotor wear are not super mild, but far below that of a lot of race compounds. Dust is very high, but the dust isn't corrosive.

If that's indicative of the general trend, I can see how such a compound might make its way onto a vehicle like the GC SRT. It needs to work VERY well and feel good at ANY temp; small amounts of noise and increased rotor wear are tolerable, but they can't be too bad; corrosive dust would be a deal-breaker. Something has to give, and about the only thing about a pad that isn't covered by that description is its own wear rate.

There are rotors out there that apparently wear slower than most. Racing Brake is one example. At least with that brand, the tradeoffs are:

1. Very high price (>2x OE in my case)
2. Hideous NVH with some pad compounds (think jackhammer)

Not advising going that route; I tried it, and boy do I regret it. Just trying to illustrate how difficult these problems seem to be.

OE brakes on performance cars are good enough these days that if there's a severe flaw, there's probably a [censored] good reason for it. The fix for that flaw is almost always worse.
 
A Friend of mine had an 06 SRT Jeep. I think the stock brakes lasted somewhere between 10-15k miles. Boy did they haul that monster down though. Those were the 4 piston calipers, where I believe yours are 6? He experimented with various pads but found the stock brembos to have the best feel and overall performance BUT they wore out faster. The HAWK HPS pads held up a little longer but didn't feel as good.

The other issue he ran into was rotors warping. He didn't see this on the OE rotors (I assume brembo rotors?) but on other brands. Something to look out for.
 
Pad is down to 4mm, what did they come with new? Sounds like a tech trying to make a quick buck. Multi piston calipers use pads that are typically thinner new than single piston calipers. They may only have come with 6 or 8 mm new, so you may only be half worn.

The 1er (3300 lbs) comes with huge 6 pot calipers up front, have about 65k (5 years) on the car. Computer is showing that front brakes don't even require inspection till 140k km (it has pad wear sensors) and that includes several autox and track days.

Also, the speed you are braking at is much more important to pad wear than weight.
 
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You got good life out of them IMO. I had a 930 with the upgraded OE Brembo system and the rotors and pads were well done at 20K (Km) especially the inner pads on the front, rears were okay.
A friend of mine had a Diablo and only got 6-10 K out of the super expensive (about 5K USD at that time 1995) brake pads and rotors, so I guess we are both fortunate.

I mention this because when he fitted it with larger brakes 405mm 6 pot vs 355mm 4 pot up front (also Brembo) the component life doubled and more and had much improved braking, they even cost less than the parts from the dealer.

The next time they go consider a Brembo big brake kit for the front Brambo, wilwood, AP, etc may make one to direct no mod fit.
 
I had an 04 STI for a year and they wore quicker then I expected abut felt you pay to play and get performance vehicle. Yours is just heavy too especially the larger wheels and potentially motor. Subaru reluctantly/thankfully covered them off at 24k since bumper to bumper covered them.
 
I would imagine that this is perfectly normal. This is a high performance vehicle and a very heavy one at that, the brake pad composition reflects the performance aspect at the expense of longevity.

I don't believe this has anything to do with the brakes being Brembo branded. A friend of mine has an Acura TL with the front Brembo brakes and his were in very good shape after about 40k kilometers and since he bought it used he has no idea at what mileage they were changed.

I believe this is an application specific topic. I highly doubt that the brake pad composition is the same or even similar across Brembo applications. This makes it hard to compare things.
 
My Genesis Coupe has Brembos and I use EBC Yellow stuff pads. I am easy on brakes but I have been waiting for the last two years for the EBCs to be worn down enough to change. Maybe this year. I already have some new pads.

Currently have almost 70k miles on them. Still on OE rotors too at 90k miles.
 
Brembo USA didn't list any brake pads for the M35 in my sig. But I'm going with Brembo front rotors (regular since slotted or drilled are not available) and Bosch Quiet Cast pads.

But this is a daily driver so I'm not expecting high performance. I just want better service than I got from the WBR brand pads that my Florida indie shop installed. They suck.
 
I once encountered an Acura with multi piston Brembos. Although I don't remember how much life he got out of them, I do remember that the service writer was able to buy Autozone Duralast brake pads for far less money, and Duralast seems to work well wherever they are used.
 
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
I would imagine that this is perfectly normal. This is a high performance vehicle and a very heavy one at that, the brake pad composition reflects the performance aspect at the expense of longevity.

I don't believe this has anything to do with the brakes being Brembo branded. A friend of mine has an Acura TL with the front Brembo brakes and his were in very good shape after about 40k kilometers and since he bought it used he has no idea at what mileage they were changed.

I believe this is an application specific topic. I highly doubt that the brake pad composition is the same or even similar across Brembo applications. This makes it hard to compare things.


Your and Trav's post, as well as a couple above seem to confirm my suspicions that this is simply par for the course. It wasn't the tech who told me about the pad wear level (to answer a question above) it was the Service Manager, who is a buddy of mine. That's why he made the call to Chrysler in hopes he could get them goodwilled, as he thought the wear rate seemed high. Apparently it isn't, and given what I'm reading here, that seems to support it, that paying to play in stopping this behemoth (and yes, I use the brakes as intended, the thing sheds speed incredibly well so you can drive it accordingly) is truly par for the course.

Sort of what I expected, but figured I'd ask you guys just to confirm.

Thanks!
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Hyundai used Brembo rotors and pads OE but they cut down the front pads for some reason. Must have been wary of giving Hyundai owners too good of brakes.

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I'm thinking Brembo gave the Hyundai pads more of a chamfer for NVH reasons - seeing how the Genesis Coupe is going against the BMW 3 Series/Mercedes C-Class/Lexus IS/Audi A4, while the Genesis Sedan is squared off against the LS/S-Class.

I wonder if Brembo chamfers the pads Lexus IS/GS/RC F, LS Sport/F Sport and the new LC500 to meet very high brake NVH specs.
 
Crazy how different vehicles and driving styles affect brake pad life.

My 04' VW had 177k miles (285k kilometers) on the original front pads, at least 2/3 of the pad were left.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Crazy how different vehicles and driving styles affect brake pad life.

My 04' VW had 177k miles (285k kilometers) on the original front pads, at least 2/3 of the pad were left.


I drive pretty hard and run sticky summer rubber, but our Expedition brakes lasted well, and it was heavy. So I think a lot of it has to do with compound selection and intended application. Your '04 VW didn't have big Brembo brakes, nor was that setup designed around track use with compounds selected for that. I've had generally, pretty good pad life out of vehicles that weren't setup like this one, but this one stops, far, FAR better than any of them, so that's the tradeoff.
 
I've been debating between a new Giulia (4 piston Brembo's) and a Daytona 392 (6 piston Brembo's). What I've found on the Daytona is that the first pad change is usually being done between 10-20k miles.

Seems to be par for the course on the SRT lineup.

To answer your earlier question about aftermarket, yes you can go aftermarket for a considerable saving. I just looked this up on Rock Auto and the savings is substantial. A front OE Daytona 392 rotor is going for $200
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Yikes!
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I've never paid for a brake job but I guess I am now! I'm not even sure how I'd go about compressing 6 pistons back into a caliper. I doubt using the old pad and a c-clamp is gonna work!
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