Brakepad thickness (K11 micra)

Apr 06, 2006 12 Replies

Just had an MOT, and it noted that the front brake shoes were wearing a bit thin. From memory, when I was unsticking the caliper, their was maybe 8mm of material. The ones on ebay (only place I could find pictures) seem about 10mm, though pcictures are poor. I can't see a thickness limit in either the haynes manual, or the owners manual. Where might I go to find this?


IIRC there is a groove in the middle of the Micra pad. This is the wear limit. If there is no groove then see 2mm as an absolute minimum.

General rule of thumb for changing pads is to change them when they get to ~3mm.

a brake lining or pad less then 1.5 mm thick at any point is a failure, this is about the thickness of a 5p piece, bloody ridiculous if you ask me, i had a customer a few years back argue the toss as i failed his pads for excessive wear, in the end he changed them bought back the old ones and showed me they were 1.6mm. !!!

He was correct then hope you refunded, if it says 1.5mm it means 1.5mm not

1.5mm+.1mm !

Thought that was about it. Measuring the photo I took when it was off the car (20 miles ago), it looks to be ~8.5mm, in that the slot in the pads is down to 1/4 of their current depth. I assume it was simply the garage hoping that I'd say "Ok, put some new ones on".

your having a laugh, if he was happy with them being that low he should have left them in and asked for an appeal form, but by changing them i guess he was happy with them. i think the minimum thickness should be higher, as a mechanic there is no way i would let my wife drive her car with break pads that low. as a service item they would be deemed unservicable but quite acceptable for an mot !

reg wrote on Fri, 7 Apr 2006 18:18:38 +0100:

It's not really relevant what you think though (when discussing MOT standards). The law is the law...

your absolutely right Dave, but when you have to make a judgement on pad thickness as to whether they are a pass or fail without taking the wheels off is very hard.

reg wrote on Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:21:05 +0100:

Sure, I wouldn't like to try to judge thickness of a brakepad to within a tenth of a milimetre without being able to measure it. But that's what you're supposed to do :)

'Brake pads'

Not getting at you in particular, but it always makes me wonder how people can see something written down what must have been thousands of times and still spell it wrong.

Not as bad as the recent habit of confusing positive and negative statements.

Saying something *is* when the context shows the writer definitely meant it

*isn't* or *does* for *does not*.

Ah well.. carry on ;-)

lol no your right i didnt notice that typo :o)

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