What is the life expectancy of the brakes on a 1999 Lexus LS400 under normal or average driving conditions?
I bought the car in 2002 with 21,000 miles on it. At 48,000, the service department at the dealership said the front brakes were at 2mm and replaced them. The rear brakes were still at 5mm.
What is the "mm" reading of new brakes?
Depending on how you brake, driving conditions, vehicle payload, etc,. probably around 40,000 miles.
mm = millimeters of lining thickness. 2 mm is the minimum safe pad thickness.
Asking for an '"mm" reading' sounds equally strange for us Europeans as an '"inch" reading' would sound to you. It is customary to talk about thickness, and, for Lexus brake pads, the value is naturally expressed in mm units.
For a 1994 Lexus LS 400, standard brake pad thickness is 11 mm for front brakes, and 10 mm for rear brakes. Minimum recommended by the manual is 1 mm, but 2 mm is probably a slightly better idea, since some rumors claim that brake pads may shatter if they get too thin. Consider 1 mm as the absolute minimum where you should have changed the pads yesterday.
Also, you do not want to burn the brake pad wear detection circuit, since it is an unnecessary cost to replace that, too. In other words, if you wait for the warning light to appear, you have waited somewhat too long.
I worded that poorly. I meant to ask what the thickness (in mm) is of new brake pads? That is, if they took a reading right after installing new pads, what would they get? 10mm? 15mm? ???
Sorry, I worded the question poorly. I actually knew that "mm" meant millimeter.
It's a 1999, but probably the same values, right?
Is there someplace online where you looked that up?
Kinda like the tourist on a bus who asked a local where to get off for Elm Street. The reply was, just watch where me and get off one stop before I do.
My guess is that you can give or take 1 mm. The maximum thickness depends on the material physics of the break pads. I assume that much thicker pads would have problems with either heat transfer or physical durability, or both.
No. I looked from the repair manuals, which I only have for the 1994 model.
New brake pads are generally in the vicinity of 10 or 11 mm thick.
It is not the pads or lining material that transfer heat - it is the rotors and/or drums that dissipate heat.
The limitation to pad thickness is the design of the caliper and wheel. Thicker pads mean that the caliper has to have a greater range of movement, which means that the caliper's physical size is larger, which makes it harder to fit on the suspension and adds unsprung weight, which affects handling and ride.
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