Well, yesterday I was planning to spend most of the day relaxing as it was one of my few days I had free. I decided that I needed to do some work on our vehicles as I had 3 that needed work. Then I could relax after that. I should have just forgotten about relaxing as that didn't happen in fact I didn't even get to work on the 3rd vehicle. Basically all of them needed easy stuff. Our oldest Honda needed brake pads, the Dodge needed a oil change and tire rotation and I thought it might need brake pads, and the Chevy needed an oil change.

So just normal routine stuff for the most part. I got the brakes done on the Honda no big deal. Then I moved onto the Dodge. I changed the oil and filter and then went on to rotate the tires. When I pulled the wheel off I saw the brake pads needed changing. I had a set of Hawk ones in the house waiting for this.

Turns out the pad on the passenger side had worn completely down and hit the rotor some. So I went ahead and got rotors and replaced them. When I went to push the piston in on the caliper on the passenger side I notice the seal is busted and brake fluid is leaking out. So then I had to get a caliper and put on it which lead to me having to bleed the brakes. Oh, well at least I got it all done. This was another expensive round of repairs. Not really the trucks fault though I guess.

I just had to vent a little.

BTW how long do you guys get out of front brake pads. I think this is the longest I've run a set and it was 25k miles or so and one was worn down to the metal. Seems like they could have put squeeler tabs on these brake pads. It seems like on average I usually change them about every 20k miles. This just seems ridiculous when other vehicles seem to get 60-80k out of brake pads. I shouldn't have to replace them 2 times for every time I change the tires.

I really just need to get this thing sold.

 

My 87 D 100 is on the third set of pads at 170,000 miles.
Probably about time to look at them.

 

Every time you rotate the tires you should adjust the rear brakes, this way the front pads wont wear out as quick. And the slide pins on the calipers should be checked and greased at the same time.

 

back when i had the auto zone duralast brake pads i was cliffhanging em every other oil change but they had a lifetime warranty so i was getting them for free and i had gotten to where i could change a side in about 5 mins but i finally switched pads and two oil changes later they still look new so they are much better

 

I keep the rear shoes adjusted properly however, I don't remove and grease the slide pins every time I rotate the tires. I rotate the tires every 3k miles so isn't that a little often to grease the slide pins?

 

Why are you rotating the tires every 3000 miles? I don't know what kind of pads you're using or how you drive, but 20k is way too low to be replacing them so often. Buy better pads.

 

Because when I didn't they wore out very quickly. So I started rotating them every oil change and they really seem to be lasting a lot longer. I've gotten almost double the mileage out of them as I got before and they still have a lot of tread left. They seem to really wear unevenly if you don't keep them rotated.

I agree 20k miles is way too low. I've tried several different sets. The first set was Raybestos just regular ones. The second set was OEM pads from the dealer, and the third set was Raybestos Premium pads. The ones that were $100 at Fisher Auto Parts. The set I just put on yesterday were Hawk pads so I will see how they do.

 

I rotate the tires, adjust rear brakes, change oil, and check/grease the caliper slides every 5000 miles. My crappy Goodyear Wranglers last a lot longer, and I can't remember the last time I had to replace the front pads.

And just keep in mind, the harder pads are going to destroy the rotors quicker.

 

Why not? What could it possibly harm? I rotate every 5-6k or so.

There's no good reason not to, it helps keep the tires wearing evenly. Especially when you have 5 full sized tires and you rotate the spare into the mix.

 

Almost every tire manufacturer recommends rotating every 5000 miles. If you're doing it sooner because of tire wear issues then you are probably ignoring some other problem that is the cause, like worn suspension components or misalignment or even frame damage or a bent axle. Rotating the tires so frequently is just masking the problem. Something else is going on to cause the tires to wear so prematurely.