How long do SUV breaks last?

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Brake pad technology has advanced a lot thru the years. I replaced the brakes on our 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 4x4 at 91k miles and I think they still had another 10-15k miles left. I been replacing Tahoe/Yukon brakes with an average of 60-80k miles. My Cadillac CTS needs brakes every 50k miles or so. I think the average car/truck can easily go 50k miles+ on brakes. Just did a 2012 Cadillac XTS brakes with 53k miles and still had enough pad left for atleast 70k miles.
 
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37,000 + with life still there is pretty good IMO.
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Moving to the hills, curves and mountains from a flatlander state, I really seen differences for mpg brakes and tire wear.
Consider vehicle weight as an issue too. Our SUV might be around 4300# so it seems if the brake pads/rotors hardware were apples to apples, as my 3200# car with lighter wheels and tires, that would seem to play a major role as well. Our Mazda is just under 30,000 mi with oem brakes still. I gave the orig tires the boot just recently.

Front rotors and pads went fast on a 22,000 mile early 2000's Ford Focus. I was told the car mfg's were cutting corners on cost and weight for EPA figures so things were a bit under sized or thin. True or not, it had the intended effect. Great mpg at the cost brake jobs / parts about 30% more often than might be the 'norm'.

I'm not cheap per se but mindful and my driving is usually smooth and undramatic which nets decent mileage and does little to stress or heat up the brakes. I'll usually pump them a bit early on so I'm not rushing to the light or as a hard stop.
As many said, driving style and habits play factor too.
 
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Originally Posted by Chesterr
Another spelling Nazi here on the breaks...I would rather be mechanical than spell right so joke is on me


Does your car have leather interiors?
Have you ever listed a car for sell?
 
Originally Posted by JC1
Originally Posted by dogememe
Every car, driver, use case, and location will be different.


They could last another 20K. If you are doing the brake job yourself, maybe keep the existing stuff for another 10K then do the brakes at that time unless 20K will come quickly.

What brand of pads and rotors are they?

No way to predict, depends on too many factors. Might as well look into your crystal ball.
 
I had a 2005 Honda Pilot from 98K to 214K miles, so my experience might be relevant to you.

The original owner had the dealer resurface the original rotors at 96K and new pads, and a plad slap for the rear keeping the original rotors at 97K. On-vehicle resurface is the Honda Factory Service Manual recommended way of dealing with brake shudder. The FSM (I have it) also gives a procedure for a pad slap, so re-using rotors is expected on Hondas, at least for the first brake service. I have only the dealer records, to there may have been other work done, but it is possible that was all that was done for the first 100K miles.

At 159K I put on cheap pads (Wearever Gold) and quality rotors (NAPA Premium) on the rear. (NAPA's "Ultra Premium" coated rotors were not available at that time).

At 172 K I put on the front NAPA Ultra-Premium (coated) rotors and Adaptive One pads. These were still in very good shape with zero shudder when I sold the Pilot at 214K.

At 210K I found the rear pins had washed out of grease and replaced them. I also noticed the pins were different and not in the same positions. I may have swapped them at 159K or I may have carefully repeated a previous assembly error.

At 214K I replaced the rear brakes with more than 1/2 pad material remaining, because they had worn at an odd angle while the pins were stuck. If I had found the error earlier the 159K brake job would have lasted much longer. I used Raybestos RPT rotors (Element3 were not available yet) and Element3 pads, and then sold the vehicle. I found the RPT rotors easily met runout specs. I would use them again.
 
My wife's 2017 Explorer just had the factory rear pads replaced at 48,475 miles. They were totally worn down, got them before they damaged the rotors. The front pads still have life left in them. We live in NJ so it's a lot of braking and the wife is a late and hard on the brakes
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. The brakes on this Explorer are huge compared to the brakes on our 2005 Explorer. The 2005 would also wear out the rear brakes before the front brakes, usually we got ~28,000 miles for the rear brakes and usually needed rotors also.

Whimsey
 
Too many variable to give a good answer. How you drive and your driving route plays a big part. On my Montero Sport I got 95,000 miles on the factory breaks. I generally get around 60k or so on my vehicles. On one car I got 130,000 on the factory brakes. That's from mostly highway driving.

With newer crossovers, some use the brakes for other purposes like traction and stability control. My guess is I won't see the life like I did before.
 
Originally Posted by Lubener
Originally Posted by JC1
Originally Posted by dogememe
Every car, driver, use case, and location will be different.


They could last another 20K. If you are doing the brake job yourself, maybe keep the existing stuff for another 10K then do the brakes at that time unless 20K will come quickly.

What brand of pads and rotors are they?

No way to predict, depends on too many factors. Might as well look into your crystal ball.


Totally agree.

For my climate and usage, 2-3yrs and 36K miles is about max for pads and rotors of any grade and rears tend to go first. (rotors, not drums).
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
With newer crossovers, some use the brakes for other purposes like traction and stability control. My guess is I won't see the life like I did before.


A good point I forgot to mention. Pilots (and many other vehicles) use the rear brakes for stability and traction control, so they tend to go sooner then the fronts, or at least sooner than one would expect. Many owners on the Piloteers forum have mentioned they have to replace rear pads more often.
 
I didn't touch the Escape brakes till over 90k, we got it at 36k though so don't know if it had been done prior. The Escape has weak brakes so I bleed them every couple years and relube the sliders.
 
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