For a car in storage in a tropical environment, do brake pads deteriorate over time due to humidity? If so then what about the shelf life of brake pads at the auto parts store?
Or is it only when having been parked in standing water that the pads start to deteriorate? If one merely drives thru puddles, the heat of having driven drives the water off?
For long-term storage, one wants to give the engine exercise once a month, else it will gum up or something, I hear. Brakes pads need exercise too?
Brake pads don't deteriorate over time (that is in our lifetimes).. I'd say if installed on a car, they will be fine indefinately. I agree with the other poster that the rotors will be much more prone to rusting, chances are if they're stored for a long time, the rotors will have surface rust but nothing as bad as being subject to direct rain causing a new coat of water each time it rains.
I would not exercise the engine once a month, I believe it would cause more problems than not considering the engine will just be cold started once a month leaving water vapor and what not in the engine and not allow it to evaporate from the oil. If your car has been put into long term storage, you should change the oil and disconnect the battery and not mess with it until it's been taken out of storage. You can also squirt a little bit of engine oil or tranny fluid into each cylinder. Depending on how long you're storing the car, you may want to lift the car off it's suspension.
If your car has been parked in standing water, high enough to reach the brake pads, you will have much more problems than just worrying about replacing the brake pads.
-Bruce
Yes, for sure if the pads are glued on to the metal backing plates like 'most' aftermarket ones.
If they are riveted on, then they still can and will swell some in high humidity and will likely wear out fast once used again.
I put low mileage on both of my Jeeps and had one sitting for a year doing a frame up rebuild. I live in the great lakes basin with really high humidity normal. 80% plus is normal here...
The one down for a rebuild had 3 out of 4 pads with over 80% wear left, just plain fall off after 5 miles in the neighborhood to try it out.
Our Cherokee had over 60% wear left and the glue failed on them too, just after we bought it. After 3 years and still about 80% left one of the replacements fell off too. So now I have 3 new pads sitting in a box...
I now look for riveted pads...
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'sDan Jacobs>
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