T5 Soft discs

[BrianJ]

Thanks for the repsonses everyone, and to Transporter, no the warnings has not come on, and what he was saying is that there is 2mm left before the sensor is reached, in fact there is probably about 10mm of material left!

My response to them was that I will run them for another 15,000km and decide at the next service interval, as the sensor is in the pad it will be replaced if it wears. From what I hear I may be able to get a lot out of them yet, and also I don't think the lip on the disc is anywhere near 1mm yet, so I will wait a while yet.

Brian

[Transporter]

in fact there is probably about 10mm of material left!

Brian

Good enough for another 50,000km than, you must be very gentle on brakes.

[brad]

If you don't totally trust your service person it may be worth finding out what the original specs are and the wear limits and doing a bit of measuring yourself. It isn't unkown for some places to be very "conservative" and suggest replacement of brake parts when it isn't really required yet.

It gets a bit hard to "do the right thing" sometimes. Generally, most customers don't want to make a special trip back to get there brakes done between services, so they get them done early. It doesn't help that there used to be some tech advice out there that considered that pads should be replaced once the friction material was less than the thickness of the backing plate. That was the policy at BMW in the '80s as they were one of the first mfrs to go onto variable/long services & you weren't seeing the cars every 3-6 months like other marques.

Brake usage between customers varies enormously. I've seen identical brake setups where driver1 goes through 4 sets of pads for 1 set on driver 2s car so it becomes a bit of a guessing game as to how many kilometres they might get out of the pads. Telling someone a definitive measurement such as 75% worn or have 3mm left out of 10mm invariably gets the reply "How many kilometres is that?" and you have to make a guesstimate again. If you tell them 10,000km & they go metal-metal at 9,000km then you are the worst bastard in the world - never mind the fact theat they neglected to tell you that they have just bought a caravan and have been doing a trip every weekend.

[Transporter]

Yeah, that's why a good mechanic will take the history of the car, driver's age, driving habits and environment onto the consideration and from that he will be able to tell how many km's is remaining on the brake pads.
In BraienJ's case the mechanic didn't check the brakes properly.

[gslrallysport]

I have done 60,000km in my kombi beach and told today by service person that the front brake pads have only 2mm left, and the discs are worn down and cannot be machined as they would be too close to tolerance. This entails a replacement of brake pads and discs at a meer cost of $AU1000, and I assume the back ones would soon follow.

This could keep you broke just in brake replacement alone.

Anyone else have any ideas on this situation.

Brian

Brian,

For an OEM spec (or even slightly better), we'd recommend an RDA rotor and Remsa pad (which includes your wear sensor) combo.

Prices for the T5 with 16" wheels as follows:
Front rotors $109 each
Rear rotors $109 each
Front Remsa pads $135
Rear Remsa pads $109

Remsa is the largest manufacturer of pads in Europe, and are rated at 650 degrees, whilst being a very street friendly pad, and come OEM in alot of performance European cars.

Regards,
Greg

[brad]

Yeah, that's why a good mechanic will take the history of the car, driver's age, driving habits and environment onto the consideration and from that he will be able to tell how many km's is remaining on the brake pads.
In BraienJ's case the mechanic didn't check the brakes properly.

Sometimes it works - sometimes not. According to my swmbo, I'm a hard driver & she isn't - but she goes through brakes twice as quick as I do. If you tell her she's hard on brakes she will outright deny it.

I followed a guy for the length of the M5 the other day - he was doing 120kmh with his foot on the brake for the whole 25km I was behind him. I bet he says he isn't hard on the brakes either.

[gslrallysport]

Use the Bendix DB1404 GCT in the future

How did you get DB1404 for a T5? Unless I've got the wrong pads for the T5, they're very different to a DB1404, similar shape, but the lugs are different, and I've got the T5 pads listed as a 1 wire sensor, whereas DB1404 is a 2 wire?

[Transporter]

How did you get DB1404 for a T5? Unless I've got the wrong pads for the T5, they're very different to a DB1404, similar shape, but the lugs are different, and I've got the T5 pads listed as a 1 wire sensor, whereas DB1404 is a 2 wire?

On my 128kW T5 I have 2 wire sensors. I'll be in touch with you for the front pads, I don't want to get Bendix GCT, what I'd like to get is the brake pads that will not cover my rims with black dust. I'll post you exact shape of the pad.

[GUV]

How did you get DB1404 for a T5? Unless I've got the wrong pads for the T5, they're very different to a DB1404, similar shape, but the lugs are different, and I've got the T5 pads listed as a 1 wire sensor, whereas DB1404 is a 2 wire?

Hi Greg, The Bendix have a different sensor connector but apart from that they couldn't be too much different as they have been on my van for the last 20,000 km's with no problems, they have also been fitted to two other vans before mine that I know with no problems either.
I cleaned all the black crap off my front calipers when the Bendix pads were fitted & they are still as clean as they were that day.
I didn't re-connect the sensor as I couldn't see how it could be any more accurate of an indication than removing the wheels and checking during routine servicing of the vehicle, and as others have found they have been able to get many more km's out of their pads after the low pad warning has alerted them.
I am interested in your rear pads for the T5 if they don't leave rotor dust all over the wheels, will I need to replace the rear rotors as well as the pads to stop this happening?

Grant.

[Transporter]

Hi Greg, The Bendix have a different sensor connector but apart from that they couldn't be too much different as they have been on my van for the last 20,000 km's with no problems, they have also been fitted to two other vans before mine that I know with no problems either.
I cleaned all the black crap off my front calipers when the Bendix pads were fitted & they are still as clean as they were that day.
I didn't re-connect the sensor as I couldn't see how it could be any more accurate of an indication than removing the wheels and checking during routine servicing of the vehicle, and as others have found they have been able to get many more km's out of their pads after the low pad warning has alerted them.
I am interested in your rear pads for the T5 if they don't leave rotor dust all over the wheels, will I need to replace the rear rotors as well as the pads to stop this happening?

Grant.

Hi Grant,
How much load do you carry in your van and do you drive in heavy traffic or mainly highways? I might give the Bendix pads go. After 20,000km how many mm do you have remaining on your pads?