[QUOTE=interviewatruins;5056092]my rear pads were a problem at 4k miles and 10k miles.
i bought the car brand new.
QUOTE]

Yeah I bought mine with 88 miles on it and the pads went out at 13k thats ridiculous

 

[QUOTE=They Call Me Godly;5061107]No! According to 08SSTCRD thats "normal" ...mine initially started grinding in the rear @ 3k, they went @ 4k...pads were replaced by dealer with Saab pads, and rotors turned. Rears went again @ 14k.....totally normal lol

 

You work on your own car. That does not mean you are a mechanic or technician. It looks to me like you do it as a hobby, which is cool but does not make you an expert by any means.

There is no better reason to believe your service manager than there is to believe you. The only people who can tell you the actual brake bias setup of the car are the engineers, and they are not here to speak on the subject. The bottom line is that almost all model vehicles equipped with 4 wheel disc brakes are designed so that the brakes wear as evenly as possible.

If the engineers set the car up so that the rear brakes only did 30% of the braking, you would be replacing the front brakes over twice as frequently as the rear brakes. Anyone who works in the industry will tell you that is simply not the case, and often these newer cars are blowing through rear brakes before even the front brakes are worn.

You just don't get it. If you keep the slide pins properly lubricated (check them at every oil change) you will not have any abnormal brake wear problems. Many vehicles do not come with backing plates any more, due to the fact that they trap in heat and moisture.

The caliper slide pins will not stick if you keep the properly lubricated. Everyone is so used to 100K mile tune ups and greased-for-life chassis parts that vehicle maintenance has become nothing more than oil and filter changes. It takes 5 minutes to grease the brake pins, stop acting like its some sort of major issue.

On most vehicles its not. With the ATE caliper design that these cars use, it is. I just lubricate the caliper slides at every oil change and its not an issue.

 

I understand lubing the slide pins isnt a big deal, but its not the responsibility of the owner to do it, yet its not something the dealers are doing if you bring them your car for service either. Therefore, its not getting done, and the brakes are wearing prematurely. Either way it falls back on them...

I still dont understand how if you are truely a tech you can actually believe rear brakes (or front for that matter) should be wearing at 3k miles. Even if we were lubing the slide pins at every oil change, our brakes are going bad before we even get to the first service.

I do work on my car as a hobby, but I also worked as a tech full time for 5 years before becoming a Paramedic and getting on the fire department. I worked for a reputable local shop, and actually ran a second local shop because the owner was diagnosed with leukemia and was in the hospital. Im not by any means saying Im a master tech, but I do know enough to understand that this brake issue.

 

Ok so now that we are done yelling at each other, what do you suggest be done about this? Im not a mechanic, live in an apartment where i cant physically work on my car myself, and my ebrake doesnt work and my rear breaks squeel and whine. Dealership? I really, really dont want to see the dealership.

 

You could take it to a local shop, but they will still have to get the rotors from the dealer, which will be expensive. At least you would save $20-$40 an hour on labor though.

 

My parking brake doesn't work. At all. I've put the cables back on the brackets and adjusted them so there's no loose slack. It'll pull up half way and feel like it should engage, but the car still rolls like it's not even on. Fml.

 

You might have a frozen rear caliper. Clean and grease the slides and you should be good.