Brake pad life???

[SoCal Rebell]

I have a 2000 RT with 9,500 moderate sometimes heavy miles. At what milage should I start to consider new brake pads? Will I get the little squeal like on many passanger cars before they go bad? How can I check them, whats the rule of thumb for wear? Thanks.

Motorless Ron (but not for long)

 

[Ulysses]

Mileage doesn't really apply here. It's all about how hard you are on the brakes. On other cars, the little squeal is usually caused by 1) a metal indicator which is part of the brake assembly 2) Metal studs used to attach the pads to the pad backing. I'm not sure, but I think the Viper has neither. You are going to have to visually inspect the pads is my assumption.

 

[bad viper]

My first set lasted 45,000 miles on my GTS no track time,a bunch
of dragstrip time. Someone said "you must not drive your car fast
or hard" my response was " I definitely do, I just hate to slow down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I went through 3 new sets of Porterfields and two CRACKED rotors at Road America in 2 days. Your mileage may vary...

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I went through 3 new sets of Porterfields and two CRACKED rotors at Road America in 2 days. Your mileage may vary...

 

[GTS Dean]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SoCal Rebell:
I have a 2000 RT with 9,500 moderate sometimes heavy miles. At what milage should I start to consider new brake pads? Will I get the little squeal like on many passanger cars before they go bad? How can I check them, whats the rule of thumb for wear? Thanks.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unless you've changed them yourself many times before and know when to say when from just a casual glance thru the wheel spokes, the only way to check the pads is to LOOK at them with the wheels off.

Check the following links to see when enough is enough. The inset rotor is brand new with only pad bedding mileage. The outer rotor came off my car after Road America. Paul's looked worse than that! The "pads" photo shows what happens when you cook the resin out of the stock pads (top) and they de-bond. The bottom pad (on edge) is a race-type pad that went 95% of useful life. THAT is when to change pads for sure!
http://members.aol.com/gtsdean/photos/rotors http://members.aol.com/gtsdean/photos/pads

They are Megapixel images so I didn't post them here. Sorry, I forgot to include the *.JPG file extension on the name. Open with IE or a viewer.