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      11-21-2015, 06:20 AM   #1
Graham B
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Excessive brake pad wear

My X3 was returned to the dealer to adjust the adaptive headlamps, which were blinding oncoming traffic (see separate thread).

While there they noted the tyre and brake pad wear. They recorded 17% wear on the front pads and 25% on the rear pads. This is after just 2,600 miles!! I do not drive particularly fast and certainly do not brake heavily, tending to reduce speed prior to needing to stop.

Is this amount of wear normal?
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      11-21-2015, 01:53 PM   #2
Tjalle
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I have noted "excessive" brake dust on rear wheels - if anything - more so than on front wheels. I also tend to brake gently.

My reading is that BMW has set up the brakes in that way to "compensate" for hard braking, when front brakes will be heavily utilised.

A "normal" driver would then wear out pads about equally front/rear.

I don`t see a problem with that. It could have been a problem without ABS/ESP, with rear wheel lockup= instability.
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      11-23-2015, 10:58 AM   #3
epiphone3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham B View Post
My X3 was returned to the dealer to adjust the adaptive headlamps, which were blinding oncoming traffic (see separate thread).

While there they noted the tyre and brake pad wear. They recorded 17% wear on the front pads and 25% on the rear pads. This is after just 2,600 miles!! I do not drive particularly fast and certainly do not brake heavily, tending to reduce speed prior to needing to stop.

Is this amount of wear normal?
No. Either they are measuring wrong (most likely) or there is an issue.
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      11-26-2015, 03:38 AM   #4
Graham B
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I have now had an answer from the dealer regarding the wear. They tell me the brake pads when new are 12mm thick. After 2635 miles, mine measured 11mm at the front and 10mm at the rear. These were calculated on the computer as being 17% and 25.5% worn and printed on the Visual Health Check Sheet. They are clearly wrong.

I still think 2mm wear at the rear, after 2635 miles in 2 months from new, seems high, but I wonder if they were correctly measured.
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      11-26-2015, 05:07 AM   #5
HighlandPete
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham B View Post
I have now had an answer from the dealer regarding the wear. They tell me the brake pads when new are 12mm thick. After 2635 miles, mine measured 11mm at the front and 10mm at the rear. These were calculated on the computer as being 17% and 25.5% worn and printed on the Visual Health Check Sheet. They are clearly wrong.

I still think 2mm wear at the rear, after 2635 miles in 2 months from new, seems high, but I wonder if they were correctly measured.
What I'd now do is simply see how the wear develops over time. You may find it doesn't wear at the same rate as is initially indicated. I'm not too sure the garage are correct on the pad thickness. Not checked the X3 figures, but typically we have thicker pads on the front than rear, across most models. So in reality you may have different ratios of rear wear than indicated.

My own car indicated wear was rapid on the rear brakes, but had to be recalibrated/reset on the CBS, as clearly there was much more pad left than the CBS was predicting. CBS had got down to 7,000 miles for the rear pads, but assessing pad thickness (9mm) vs. mileage driven (25,000), garage reset to 36,000 miles.

It is not uncommon for the rear brakes to wear faster than the front, DSC and evidence of at least an initial rear bias, contributes to this wear pattern. My own car wears this way, light braking makes it worse, as most of the braking on my F11 is on the rear at light loads. Heavier braking changes the bias to the front.

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      11-27-2015, 12:08 PM   #6
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+1

Minute adjustments by stability / acceleration control programs will also contribute to brake pad wear. You'll see more wear at the rear if you go through winter climates.
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