how long before replacing brakes ?

[Black_griffin6]

It depends on how you drive and your use of the brakes.

Obviously more rough and repeated use of the brakes will cause them to wear faster.

[RedRide]

Originally Posted by Black_griffin6

It depends on how you drive and your use of the brakes.

Obviously more rough and repeated use of the brakes will cause them to wear faster.

Black_griffin is correct of course.

I will add that it is not nessarily how often you use the brakes that wear them quicker but, how you uses them.

If you frequently wait until the last second to apply the brakes and then apply hard pressure on the pedal, you will ware brakes out fast.

What you have to do is gently apply the brakes sooner to gradually come to a stop without the need to apply heavy pedal pressure.
Granted, this is not alway possible but, should be practiced as often as possible. It will make them last much longer.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by RedRide

What you have to do is gently apply the brakes sooner to gradually come to a stop without the need to apply heavy pedal pressure.Granted, this is not alway possible but, should be practiced as often as possible. It will make them last much longer.

This ^^^^^. I also think having a manual transmission helps re making the most of this. I hear the old 'brakes are less expensive than an engine', but I'm getting many miles out of both and I don't rev the engine very high when downshifting during this scenario.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Black_griffin6

It depends on how you drive and your use of the brakes.

Obviously more rough and repeated use of the brakes will cause them to wear faster.

This ^^^^^. My brakes were only 20% worn at 207k+ miles. Trini's brakes lasted 400k miles. Some people wear out their brakes in under 100k miles. IMO, a manual transmission, combined with certain driving habits helps. It also usually helps if you live in a flat area vs. an area with many hills (Houston vs. San Francisco, for example )