127k miles out of FRONT brake pads?!?!
 

Last week the front brakes in my wife's Jetta started making some noise and I knew the pads hadn't been changed......EVER. At about 65,000 miles one of the rear pads disintegrated and I changed those and at that time I checked the front pads, which had nearly 3/4" of meat left on the pad. So I didn't worry about them until they started making noise a few days ago. I kept procrasinating as to when I was going to change them, but finally Sunday night they started grinding so I HAD to change them right away. So I took the afternoon off of work, got the pads, and swapped them out. The inside driver's side pad was the one grinding, the other three pads had probably 1/8" left on them.............after 127,000 miles......and they were the ORIGINAL pads the car came with new. Talk about some life!!! :thumbsup:

Lots of highway miles? I've only seen that kind of pad life on a couple cars used by sales reps.

that should tell you one of a few things, either your wife is drives lots of highway miles, consciously tries not to use her brakes, the proportioning valve for the brake system is malfunctioing, or she simply doesn't. stop. evar. I'd take a drive in her car and see if it has the braking power it should.

It's believable that they lasted that long. One of my coworkers (who refuses to accept that anything American, not just cars, made since the '70s is anything but crap, and says that only BMW and Mercedes are worth buying,) has a '91 jetta and complained that the factory clutch only lasted 175k miles. We all called him an idiot.

His defense for the argument was that "My borther-in-law has a BMW that has the original clutch and has 225k miles." He's also a compulsive liar and has stated that "Volkswagen is German for 'Ford' " and that "VW was great at first but it went downhill when Hitler died and the Jews took over." He also told me that I don' tknow how to drive because I had to replace carbon-metallic brake pads after 30k miles and the front pads on his Stratus lasted 125k.

The moral of the story is that VW's factory-installed friction material lasts for a long time, and Bill is a Nazi/idiot/compulsive liar.

The car has seen a fair mix of highway and town miles. Though it is "her" car, it is the car we usually take when we go places together, so I drive it maybe 30-40% of the time. The braking power is great and it stops fine. The brake pads are the "meatiest" pads I've ever seen on any car. The actual pad itself has to be 1" thick or more, it's unreal.


We bought this car when it was 9 months old with 16,000 miles on it, it's been very mechanically sound. :) I continue to be impressed by the engineering every time I have to do some type of routine maintenance on it. Seeing those pads makes me wonder why more manufacturers can't design theirs that way...........maybe because a good share of profits come from selling parts down the road. :o

When I worked at the Chevy dealer we used to see virtually no pad wear on any of the '98-01 4x4 Blazers. They were about the only things on a Blazer that lasted any length of time at all. The highest mileage one I saw was at 75k miles and the truck still had about 70 percent of the pad left. I think they are ceramic compound pads, and they just last forever. Plus they dont squeak or leave any dust. Good stuff.

These dust only slightly less than what I would call "normal", but they are very quiet.

The replacements available included two aftermarket pads and two that were supposed to be produced "to OEM spec". I went with the latter, even if they were about $15 more. I figured if I get half the life out of them that I got out of these, I'll be golden. :D

My 2002 GMC Savana van (full size 1ton cargo van) has 285,000 miles on it and the only brake parts I have replaced are the rear brake shoes.. And I only replaced them because I blew an axle seal and they got oil saturated on one side. They had about 40% left.

My front pads feel like they've got lots of material left, in my uneducated opinion 50+ %.

You've had it for the whole time and know it's never had the front pads changed? :eek: That is insane!! :D

I have a hard time believing a VW with factory pads at 125,000+ miles. Most are gone in under 50k. VW uses a soft rotor and a relatively aggressive pad compound, and while it makes for good stopping, they don't last long. Unless you've had that car since new, I'd bet that the pads have been replaced somewhere along the lines, and even to get 60k out of them is VERY impressive.

Me, I'm usually good for 35k miles on my Oldsmobile.

From what I've read it sounds like he knew what he was talking about and that they were the factory ones.

That's just amazing, then. Hard to believe, but if so, that is impressive. For ANY car, much less a VW.

I've got a '97 Jetta with 98,000 miles and I just got the whole sha-bang put in. It barely had any pad left and the rotors were all ate up.

127k miles is incredibly awesome.

Oh, and mine dust like a mofo. :rolleyes:

I bought the car with 16k miles on it and have had it ever since. The pads still had the original Audi/VW markings on them (since Audi and VW share many parts). I am quite certain they were the originals. ;)

That is impressive. More than I would ever expect. Standard tranny?

Actually no.......it's the four-speed automatic. The only "non-maintenance" work it's ever had done to it is replacing one of the ignition coil packs too..........otherwise it's been a dead-solid car.

Damn, I mean you can prolong the life of those pads using regular downshifting in a standard. Haha, Congrats on having such a solid car. I know a few jetta owners that would kill for that kind of reliability in their car, lol.

Yessir, I bought it new in July '02 and put almost every mile on it myself. It's not due to retire until May '07 and it should have 400,000 miles on it by then, plus or minus a little bit, and hopefully it'll still have the original front pads :D

I can believe that. 1ton brake components are hardy. If it's used at all casually the things just go and go. The unloaded ride might be a little rough but they're definitely worth the difference in price from a 3/4ton for durability of drivetrain, suspension and brakes.

I can believe the pads lasting as long as they have too, especially in that vehicle... What I am having a hard time understanding is why the rear shoes are wearing at a faster rate than the front pads. Are the front brakes working correctly?

Personally, I change my break pads way too often, i have a lifetime warranty on pads at autozone, so every two oil changes, i switch em out. It pisses my anti-maintenance father off, but i figure, what's 20 minutes and 99 cents for the lube.

i drive a hyundai and alot of people complain about their oem brakes failing at 20,000 miles or so. my brakes are around 53k miles and showing no signs of wear. im pretty good at anticipating traffic, so i almost never have to get on the brakes hard. i can still lock up the tires, so the brakes are obviously in acceptable condition. (and i've taken the pads off to check them)