E46 Fanatics Forum banner

Rotors and Pads done in a year?

3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  sunsetcoast 
#1 ·
I bought zimmerman rotors and textar pads and they are both done and its only been a year. Looking through the forum this seems to be normal for the pads but everyone loves zimmerman rotors. Their have been a couple of posts I have found that says they are soft but only a few. Is this normal? Is there a harder rotor that will last longer and give equal performance? Balo, Brembo?

Thanks
 
#6 ·
How long your pads will last will depend not only on your driving style, but environment too. If you do mostly city/in town driving, you'll be using the brakes more than you think. I have 204K on my Honda and still have to replace the rear pads due to mostly freeway driving.
 
#7 ·
Not nearly enough information.

How many miles in a year? If 3,000 then you have a problem, if 30,000 then nothing is wrong.
If you rest your foot on the brake pedal as you drive, then stop. This pisses everybody off and it wears your brakes down in a year's time.
If you drive in heavy stop-n-go traffic, and use the brakes a lot, then nothing is wrong. If you follow closely and constantly use the brakes, instead of maintain a following distance of 3 or 4 seconds and use the space to coast, then you will use the brakes much faster.

Just because you are replacing brakes does not mean ANYTHING. You have to look at how you drive to know if something more needs to be done.

I have brakes on my car for several years now, but I only drive it about 4,000 miles and mostly have a highway profile. And I drive with a 3 second separation between me and the car ahead, so when the car in front of the car in front of me hits the brakes, I can merely lift off of the gas and coast until I catch up, and by then they are usually off the brake and back on the gas, I have not even touched the brake pedal while everybody in front is doing nose-dives as they seek to avoid slamming into each other.

Obviously, your mileage may vary. But the point is, you can't merely say, I put brakes on a year ago and they are toast, what's wrong? What's wrong might be you. What's wrong might be perfectly normal from a mechanical perspective, the only thing to fix is what you are doing. Nobody knows if this is true or not, except you.

So, how many miles in the year? Do you drive in a heavy braking environment? Do you drive in a manner that creates a heavy braking environment?
 
#8 · (Edited)
Like I said, I am not a heavy braker in any manner you stated.Could not give you definitive mileage but I would have to guess 20k. The pads are understandable. My real concern is the rotors. New rotors after one set of pads in my conditions seems odd. I'm just wondering if this is normal and if there is any other brands out there that would last longer/same performance.
 
#10 ·
Another factor that is sometimes overlooked is that driving in the mountains wears brakes faster than where it is nice and flat.

While rotors aren't a huge expense, I'd ask to have the thickness and runout measured. If they are within spec, there is no reason not to reuse, especially if they aren't scored.

On older vehicles it was common for rotors to have the extra thickness that allows for turning. That is not the case for "newer" cars. In my town, I know of only 2 shops that still turn rotors. And the cost of turning a pair is almost the cost of purchasing a new one. Add to that the additional complication of taking the rotors to be turned (and waiting for them).

Between these two factors, it is easy to understand why it is standard operating procedure at many shops to replace the rotors whenever pads are done.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top