I think his explanation is B/S, next time they tell you that you need pads or rotors and pads. Go to an independent or Midas etc and ask their opinion. In my experience 88k miles on a 2017 I have done pads and rotors all around once. They replace me be with ceramic pads that the factory calls for.

 

IMO it depends on your driving style. My rear pads/rotors were replaced at 70k, and front are at 130k. Aftermarket pads are excellent, but you need to make sure you get pad material that works with the new rotors.

FWIW, I've also had horrible experiences with Midas.

 

Yeah, a lot will depend on driving; city driving will see a lot more brake activity than highway.

At my oil change the other day (23,400 miles), the inspection report had the rear brakes as 'yellow' - not in immediate need of service but probably will be needed by the next time. When the next service interval comes up I'll try to remember to get a competing quote before blindly letting the dealer do it. Fronts are still 'green'.

Back in the '90s I had a Mazda MX-3 that went 89K miles on the original brakes. Mazda had put 12.5" discs on a 2300 pound car so there was huge stopping power and a large area to spread wear over.

 

In hindsight, I should have asked to see the pads. Most of the vehicle miles come from a 20 mile round trip commute which can include a lot of braking in traffic. Even with that, only getting 30,000 miles on the pads still seemed low. We had also done a 6 year prepaid service on the vehicle which is over now, so the work and advice was all coming from the dealer. Looking back, the prepaid service wasn't bad and wasn't great. I don't think I'd do it again. Moving forward, I can now shop before good service and reasonable prices.

 

I had replaced my rear brakes at 15000. First I went to my regular dealer for a recall in 2018 when they told me I needed brakes I didn’t believe them since the car was less than 2 year old with about 12-14k miles on it. I told them not to worry about. I took it to another dealer 50 miles away for my next service appointment, they basically said the same that rears need replacement.

Now it could be possible that I had 3-4K life left on the brakes, since I don’t drive more than 75-100 miles a week they assumed it need them right away, I don’t know?

All I know is that driving same short routes every day puts a lot more strain on all maintenance items. For example I am
Noticing the front tires are balding from outside and I only have 19k miles on it. It is 3 years now.

I am making same 1-2 mile round trip to drop kids to school everyday or take it to a customer site mostly local driving 22 miles away once every week.

 

coop64, you can always wait until the break pad wear-indicator starts squealing. That will give you more time to finalize your decision and ensure you're not getting screwed into replacing pads/rotors early.

15k is too early, the dealership needs to check the caliper pins/etc... to make sure something is aligned.

 

@yeller, thanks. Will keep that in mind next time. I bit the bullet and got them replace back then. Given the autonomous braking I didn’t want the system to ruin rotors. I was disappointed as well. I always scared going in for service ?

 

Completely understand. We have the same backup system.

BTW, did the dealership replace or resurface your rotors? Or just install new pads?

 

Here is one for you my wife's 14 QX 60 had the rears go at 20.000 klms so I told them to put rear brakes on it under warranty no they wanted $482.00 not covered . The line they gave me was Nissan puts a soft pad on infiniti for a luxury stop well I almost fell over laughing my guts out since then it has had 6 complete sets of pads and rotors front and back from the most expensive to the cheapest in 98.000 klms which is around 60,000 miles doesn't matter quality .New tail gate at 30,000klms big rust spot, transmission rebuilt twice sending unit in gas tank headliner fell out about 5 times but the latest one is the motor in tilt steering is gone for the 3rd time now they want $2500 to replace it after doing it twice under warranty the sad thing is when it works which is not often it drives beautiful. There is more to this piece of s..t but don't want to bore you .