Just rotated the tires and checked the brakes and once again, it looks like they are fine. I have new pads and shoes to compare and it looks like no more than about 15% of the material is gone. The brakes work fine. The rotors have a small ridge on them but the drums have so little wear that you can hardly notice a ridge. The van has 80K miles on it and these are the original parts. My feeling is that it makes no sense to change them if there is no more wear than this. Can anyone suggest why I should do otherwise? Is it typical for these brake parts to last this long? I bought replacements assuming that they would long be worn out and check them when rotating the tires every 7500 miles, but I can 't see a reason to change them.
Leonard