Consumer Reports - yikes

Lucky you. I am in the DFW area. I'm one of the unfortunate ones who must face ever increasing traffic congestion where brake pads do not come close to lasting 100k miles.

Reply to
robrjt
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I did indeed get 175,000 miles of driving out of the original set of front brake pads on my 1985 Toyota Rear Wheel Drive GTS Sport Coupe Corolla. The dealership was impressed as well. I lived in the city at the time, Seattle, but many of the miles were driven on the interstate between western Montana, where I had a farm, and Seattle. But plenty of the miles were in the city too. I am on the third set of pads now, and they are pretty new. The aftermarket pads I put on for the second set didn't last as long as the originals.

Anticipation, in a word, would be the secret to not wearing out your brakes or many other components. Watch for slowdowns appearing ahead, and if you see one coming, be it a stop sign, a red light, or traffic congestion, take your foot off the accelerator immediately and down shift to use the engine compression to slow down. I am on the third clutch now on the car at 262,000 miles, so perhaps I wear out clutch plates faster than some, but I enjoy driving that car with its 5 speed manual transmission and limited slip differential and rear wheel drive with plenty of manual shifting.

The second clutch was poorly installed and I had to replace it soon after it was put in. I replaced the transmission with a used one with

88,000 miles on it this spring and the clutch and pressure plate were in very good condition with lots of wear left in the plate.

Paul Fretheim

Reply to
heav

I do the same thing, engine braking, coasting, etc. I find that I rarely have to use the brake. This is particularly true in the MB, I think because of the way the transmission slows the car down when the throttle returns to idle. My other car, GM, doesn't slow down nearly as well.

Reply to
LWG

Using engine braking must increase gas consumption. Does the savings in brake replacement jobs make up for the increased gas cost? Any ideas?

mcbrue cheaply under the bridge down by the river in the trailer

Reply to
mcbrue

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