Lifetime Brakes

Ignoring his agents wishes,"Dan Larson" flung open the hotel room door and announced to the gathering crowd:

not only that but lifetime brake plans usually cost about three or four times as much as a normal brake job and (usually) doesn't include rotor turning or replacement. Figure that you need new pads around every 40k-50k and you won't get your initial investment back until you've put nearly 200k miles on your car.

You're not getting any deal. The shop is making out like a bandit. They're betting you'll sell the car before the warranty period expires and you'll either forget or the warranty won't be transferable to the new owner.

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

-Unknown

Remove "die spammers" to email

Ignoring his agents wishes,"B. Newman" flung open the hotel room door and announced to the gathering crowd:

if you're only getting 20k out of your pads, you need to get things checked out. I'm in the DC area and traffic here is *worse* than Pittsburgh (I've driven both), and get double that in brake life.

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

-Unknown

Remove "die spammers" to email

Ah-so, glasshoppah...... all roads and conditions are not created equal. During monsoon season, the mud on our roads will eat the back brakes off a SuperDuty long before the book says it's time to service the caliper pins. Driving style, traffic flow and patterns, load carried, quality of the lining material - these all add to the vagaries regarding brake life, as well.

Issuing a blanket statement regarding so many areas of vehicle maintenance can be folly...

-- Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

From Richard:

I feel real lucky or something. Our '99xls has 49K with the same pads and my SuperCrew has almost 80K on the same (original) pads. Of course I almost NEVER stop and the explorer probably will change since the sixteen year old son has now "acquired" it for his own. BTW the pads still have a lot of life left.

/Richard

flung

Maybe B. Newman might have been asking about "Lifetime" pads & shoes from parts stores. From what I have found at our AutoZone & other retailers, none of the brake manufacturers offer the lifetime warrantees like they used to. I got a set of Raybestos Carbon Metallics a couple years ago that were truly guaranteed for life. When I went to get another set for our other car the parts guy told me they no longer guarantee them for life against normal wear, only against manufacturers defects. Another words, if it cracks in half I get new pads, if it just wears out I buy new ones.

Larry

It's not the traffic...it's the hills.

Ignoring his agents wishes,"B. Newman" flung open the hotel room door and announced to the gathering crowd:

hmmm..excellent point. Maybe I should open up a brake repair business in San Francisco! ;-)

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

-Unknown

Remove "die spammers" to email

The whole idea of offering free brake pads for life is repeat business! Auto repair specialists ( Like Midas here in the east) offer free brake pads and mufflers for the life of your car so that when the cheap inferior parts they use wear out in half the time of a quality part - they can charge you for all of the other stuff that really makes money for them. Most of them will invariably tell you that your rotors are warped and can't be turned on the lathe. " If something looks too good to be true - it usually is!"

flung

I would highly recommend against lifetime brakes for a reason not yet stated in all the replies. Brake pads capable of lasting for a very long time, maybe longer than the rest of the car, do exist. Their only problem is than instead of the pads wearing out, the rotors wear out. And rotors are far more expensive, and generally harder to replace than brake pads. Stick with normal composit pads.

Alan Geist asgeist at dont spam me dot ichips dot intel dot com dot delete the obvious

I posted a reply earlier on this subject. The answer is the lifetime brake pads are usually cheap junk so that they can get you back in sooner and ........ well you get the idea.

Earlier post:

The whole idea of offering free brake pads for life is repeat business! Auto repair specialists ( Like Midas here in the east) offer free brake pads and mufflers for the life of your car so that when the cheap inferior parts they use wear out in half the time of a quality part - they can charge you for all of the other stuff that really makes money for them. Most of them will invariably tell you that your rotors are warped and can't be turned on the lathe. " If something looks too good to be true - it usually is!"

Sy Cohen

Old wives tale.. lifetime pads don't eat rotors !

They don't care about them lasting "forever" ... They are just glad that they got you to spend what 3 or 4 regular brake jobs would cost, and you'll likely sell the vehicle before GETTING 3 or 4 sets of brakes.

Also, they look forward to you coming back for your "free" replacement brakes, so they can sell you another $500.00 worth of shocks, struts, mufflers, bushings, or brake parts that are not covered in the warranty.