A couple of Brake questions

Good Morning.

I have a couple of questions regarding my brakes. First is how long to brakes normally last? I installed these brakes about two years ago and I am already hearing grinding when I am in my truck and sqeaking when I am out. Before that, I had bought my truck in 2004ish and had never replaced the brakes before then so the brakes have been only replaced once. I don't ride me truck hard, normal stop and go and majority of it is on the freeway. That leads to the next question. I have been parking in my driveway for the last two years and my driveway in on somewhat of an incline, 25-35 degrees. Anyway, can your brakes go bad faster if parked on an incline, all the time? I have been parking there for the last 2 and a half years.

Any thoughts and comments would be greatly appreicated.

 

There is a thread just above this one where a guy just hit 103k miles and is just now replacing his pads.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/92239-i-need-brakes.html

If you got cheap pads 2 yrs ago, they will wear out faster too.

I wouldn't see how parking on a driveway incline would wear your breaks out.

 

E-Brake is only for your rears and I wouldnt say it would be detrimental to pad longevity. 75% of your braking force is the front brakes when stopping. I'd replace your pads if they are howling, could destroy your rotors and have a much bigger expense to replace. Could just be brake dust also. My Evo used to screetch from the aftermarket pads because they were HP pads.

 

I change my brake pads about every 20k miles, I'm 60k miles now and just put on my third set (OEM). Sounds like you'll have to skim your rotors also.

 

WOW 20k miles take your foot off the brake pedal GEEZ. I went ahead and replaced the original pads at 65k miles and they probably had another 10k in them.

 

^^ I live in the mountains and work in the city so if I'm not braking for a sharp corner I'm braking cause of city traffic.

 

Asgard raises a very valid point...it depends on how you use them. If you live in San Fransisco I wouldn't be surprised to see them go to core every 20K. On the other hand, if you live in one of the plains states and you only use your brakes at the state borders, 60K would be easy.

 

I live in the foothills of the North GA mountains and drive some pretty curvy & hilly roads to/from work. The guy who owned my truck before me lived in the North GA mountains (blue ridge) and almost always had some load in the bed since he was a home builder. He never did the brakes when he owned it, I bought it from him at 42k miles.

On my last car I did the brakes at 120k miles then did them again at 210k miles. Never had to replace the rear drums.

I know the fact I drive a manual trans and downshift that extends the life a little bit. But I also tend to drive pretty fast.

Maybe i'm just light on my brakes...

I had a roomate that would go through brakes pretty quick but he was also one of those people that SLAMS on the brakes at the very last second to stop. The kind of person that makes you press the floorboard and hold onto the armrest when you are riding as a passenger because you don't think they're gonna stop. My boss does the same thing, Just had a brake job done at 16k miles on his jeep.

 

The type of transmission has a lot to do with it cause I have a manual Integra w/ 102k miles on it and I've only changed the brakes once. The Integra handles so much better though so a lot of the corners I don't even have to brake.