Brake wear - brake life

[HotCookCpl]

Originally Posted by SmartDigger

Damp air could produce your rough sound. The rotors get a bit ruff ( rust) when they sit on a rainy day. if parked in a way one side gets more wet than another that could explain the diff. side to side. Do they sound this way after driving for a bit?

I do get a more pronounced squeal when they get wet, but I get a fainter squeal, sometimes, even when I've been driving for say 1/2 an hour on dry roads. I'm not overly concerned about this, but I'd like to do all I can to extend the life of the brakes (without putting too much additional wear on the rest of the car).

Thanks again.

[PassionforPassionCT]

I have just over 12 K miles and I am now hearing a faint squeaking noise while stopping. The car gets driven by 3 different people with 3 different driving habits, So I couldn't tell you exactly how the car is always driven, But I would think that 12k I way too soon for the pads to be gone.
I'm thinking I should take it in and have them take a look at it. The dust on these things have been horrible as well. Maybe an indication of too much braking.
Thoughts?

[mendo]

I got 26k and am changing mine to the red stuff so that there is less dust.

there is still plenty of pad, just want less dust.

[parts4smarts]

Originally Posted by HotCookCpl

My smart and I were at the dealer a few weeks ago for the 20K maintenance. When I was leaving the service manager said the brakes looked to be at about 50%. Does this seem about right or should I expect to be doing better?

With my old, manual transmission, Saturn it seemed the brakes would last me much longer (but I'm not sure exactly what the interval was). I have over 180K on the Saturn and I want to say I only replaced the brakes 2 or 3 times (I could be wrong though). I'm pretty sure my driving style is not excessive when it comes to breaking, but I don't have a clutch pedal any more either so I may not be coasting as much as I used to.

The brakes are squeaking a bit now from time to time and wonder if I may be doing something wrong or if these brake pads just wear faster.

Any thoughts?

Canadian smarties have had lots of experience/discussion about this very topic. Not to send you elsewhere, but several years worth of experience available on www.clubsmartcar.com , search under brakes, EBC brakes etc.
We have sold many a pair over the years, see here: ( EBC brakes - Club smart Car=) ,others also sell these low-dust , better-bite options
regards
harald

[SmartDigger]

Originally Posted by parts4smarts

Canadian smarties have had lots of experience/discussion about this very topic. Not to send you elsewhere, but several years worth of experience available on www.clubsmartcar.com , search under brakes, EBC brakes etc.
We have sold many a pair over the years, see here: ( EBC brakes - Club smart Car=) ,others also sell these low-dust , better-bite options
regards
harald

I see you do not stock the red. Any reason why? Do you not recomend the red ? And, How much are the green and red. USA?

[John_H]

The green and red are available in the US from scp-parts.com - people I trust.

[SmartDigger]

Originally Posted by John_H

The green and red are available in the US from scp-parts.com - people I trust.

Sweet site with good pricing

[Mike T]

If you live and drive the car in the rust belt, watch for pad delamination due to rust. Canadian cars (mine included and I don't live in the rust belt!) suffer extensively from this. In my case it led to 100,000 km pads becoming 84,000 km pads....the rust crept along the backing plate and detached the otherwise still useful inner pad from the metal. One way to know this has happened is to listen for squeaks when driving with the brakes off.

[parts4smarts]

Originally Posted by SmartDigger

I see you do not stock the red. Any reason why? Do you not recomend the red ? And, How much are the green and red. USA?

For the longest time, EBC pads for smarts were simply not available in North America . I am pretty sure I was the first to have them available in North America, starting in '06, but only Greenstuff were readily available till a relatively short time ago..
I now stock all 3, as well as turbogroove rotors.

the choice of which pad depends on what you are trying to do and some tradeoffs
Blackstuff provide better bite and longer wear
Greenstuff provide both the above plus less dust
Redstuff provide both the above, and way less dust, but are harder and may result in more rapid rotor wear,especially on OEM rotors.
EBC says this on the redstuff box:' for faster street use on higher horsepower cars' . The term street use is meant to say that it is not a race-track-only pad
So,if your primary concern is to reduce dust, go for redstuff, but be prepared to also spend more on rotors.
If you'd like less dust on your alloys at a more reasonable overall cost, try the greenstuff pads.


Pricing, in U$, per pair is as follows

Turbogroove rotors $ 210
Blackstuff $ 60
Greenstuff $ 75
Redstuff $ 109

10 percent off the above if ordering a set of pads and rotors at the same time

harald

[SmartDigger]

How much dust do the green stuff make compared to the black? Will you be adle to see it on the wheels?