Brake pad wear limits

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yep. EBA.

God, I hope not. Ever tried driving a car with too much rear brake bias? TERRIFYING. Give me one with no rear brakes *any* day.

My old Mehari had been put on a 2cv chassis, but without the brake limiter that's normally on Mehara. Which meant far too much rear brake.

One day a truck looked like he wasn't going to stop while I was hooning it a bit hard round a wet roundabout. Rear brakes locked, the back came round, and I'm looking out the side window at a rather surprised artic driver...

That could have made for an interesting claim form - "He looked like he was going to pull out, so I reversed into the side of his truck"

The message from Conor contains these words:

Perhaps he's joined the Italian Army and has been reversing a lot.

Sorry, I want manufacturers data.

Tell me what the make, model and year is.

Oh yuss. Fitted front discs to my MG ZA. Very soon after the first spin added a pressure limiting valve from an Austin 1100...

Then if so I would suggest that there is something seriously wrong with it!

I now know that MG/Rover do indeed include the backing plate when specifying minimum pad thickness. That means that I have used 2mm of rear brake pad in two years and have five years of wear to go before they need replacing!

Uno-Hoo!

LOL I've gone through 2.5 sets of front pads in 2 years and still on a set of rears from before i bought the car which were 3/4 depth then.

The message from "Coyoteboy" contains these words:

What sort of mileage do you clock up? I can get a set of front pads to last 20k miles at least.

I replaced the fronts on my Rover 75 at 22,650 - and that was before they were worn down to the limit and despite the fact that the car is a diesel automatic, and I use it to tow a caravan. An awful lot depends upon driving style however - boy racers who never anticipate the need to reduce speed and hence employ last minute heavy braking will always go through pads a lot faster than a more skilful driver!

Uno-Hoo!

Skilful? In one sense. On the other hand, boy racers who have done stupid things with a car will know what to do - and what precisely *not* to do - when a car starts to skid on a wet road.

The message from "DervMan" contains these words:

Oh, I've done silly things and learned a lot from 'em - but I don't do them all the time.

That's also what track days are for.... :)

You think? Why are insurance premiums so high for that age group then?

You're jumping to a conclusion. It's the ones that survive (to enjoy lower premiums) that know what to do and not do.

They don't.

They do.

Same here - At 80k I fitted my 3rd pair of front discs (40k/pair) and my 5th pair of pads (20k/pair). I'm still on the original rear drums and shoes....

The message from "DervMan" contains these words:

The one that wiped himself out near us recently wasn't young. Mid thirties, two kids, unrestricted attitude to how to behave on public roads.

So why do people above their age group still have accidents in the wet?

Do you know for certain that these people were not boy racers?