The wife had noticed a squealing in the brakes and I took it in to have it checked out. Was told it needed a front brake job. This is after about
20,000 miles. They told me on the Pontiac the life is about 15-20 thousand miles. Is this about right? Seems to me brake life is getting shorter and shorter these days. Damn, a brake job every year and a half?
The wife typically gets about 30K out of a set of brakes, I get about 60K out of a set. The wife drives quite a bit faster and closer to the person in front of her, so is on the brakes more than I am. But 20K seems rediculously short lived!
You ought to do a little more inquiring at your dealership. In Canada, there is sortave a hidden warranty on brakes. If the brakes wear out before the 60K klm warranty is up (which would translate into 36K miles for you) then we replace them under warranty. Not quite sure why GM is doing this, but it's no skin off the mechanics noses as the warranty time for doing a front brake job pays more then the menu priced customer pay brake job. So we are all quite happy about doing brakes under warranty times.
Ian
I agree with James. I'm at 42K and no problems yet. The worst we ever got was about 36K on my wife's '98 GP. 20K just doesn't sound right.
It may be the design of the brakes on the new GPs. I have an '06 with less than 600 miles on it. I've already wiped A LOT of brake dust off the wheels, but that could be a result of the break-in of the new pads. I'm anxious to see what the brake life is. I sold a 2000 S-10 to buy this car, put almost 20,000 miles on it and the brakes still had lots of meat on them, it had new pads when I got it.
There's the rub Paul. I doubt that they would put new brakes on at 28K miles because there would have been lots of pad and rotor left. 42K miles is right in the ballpark for replacement. I'm at 42K on mine right now and there's still some life in them, but I'm fairly easy on brakes with highway driving.
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