[mhenry7]

Originally Posted by witeagle

Brakes are very easy to do, BMW or not. It takes more time to replace get the car lifted and the tires off then it does to pull the caliper and swap out the pads!

The only thing I am very curios to know is if you replace your pads, does the car automatically re-adjust the values in the iDrive system.

I definately agree with this. I spent a lot more time getting my car on the jack stands than I did on the brakes. Entirely because I don't have the right jack and I did stupid things like jacking it up before loosening the lugs. I couldn't believe how easy it was to change the brakes and I did rotors as well. I'm a 47 year old IT guy with marginal mechanical skills. I warned my mechanic before I started that it may get towed in tomorrow, but it went fine. I was mostly worried I wouldn't be able to remove a bolt, but everything came off fine and it was the first change on a 67K car. And best of all, now I have ceramic pads and no brake dust! Can't wait for rears to go out so I can swap them.

[Ahmed Sadek]

Originally Posted by wannabe

I bought my car used and it says I don't need to service the front brake pads for 50,000 miles. This can't be right. I thought there were sensors on the brake pads, could they be broken?

Also, it says the rear brake pads need to be replaced soon, but the carfax I got from the dealer says they were replaced about 9000 miles ago.

Is it possible that when they replaced the pads, they cleared the service indicator for the wrong ones? Even still 50,000 miles seems like an error.

Wel , the rear pads wear faster for bimmers (rear wheel drive) ,concerning the break pad sensor on bmws its for emergency warning when the pad is fully worn out ; it does not measure thickness of the pads , the milage remaining you notice on the service computer is a calculated 'predicted value' by the bmw condition based service computer it aquires data from DSC & ABS system to monitor your driving braking style & thus predicting the remaining milage but i confirm you its amazingly perfect, can't be wrong

[Denny347]

I agree the rears wear faster than the front. I figured that out by the shear volume of brake dust that accumulates on the rear wheels and not on the front. Wow.

[Xander]

I am pretty sure the rear wears quicker because the DTC uses them to keep things in check.

[Supra98]

i have 71k on my brakes. Says i have 9k left on the rear and 12k left on the front. Almost all my miles are on the highway.

[HawgToth330]

Originally Posted by wannabe

Also, I looked through the carfax again and it shows that the rear brake pads have been replaced twice. No mention of the front pads, but it shows brakes checked several times.

Man, one of my buddies sold his Nissan 350Z a few months ago. He wrecked the vehicle, so to see if it was shown on car-fax he looked it up. Car-fax did not show the car as wrecked. I don't have much familiarity with car-fax, but with the sounds of it I don't think I would necessarily trust it. Although a wrecked car is different from brake pad replacement, I would probably just take a look at them (its not hard) and judge yourself.

[witeagle]

Originally Posted by HawgToth330

Man, one of my buddies sold his Nissan 350Z a few months ago. He wrecked the vehicle, so to see if it was shown on car-fax he looked it up. Car-fax did not show the car as wrecked. I don't have much familiarity with car-fax, but with the sounds of it I don't think I would necessarily trust it. Although a wrecked car is different from brake pad replacement, I would probably just take a look at them (its not hard) and judge yourself.

Carfax is only as good as the data they collect or what gets reported to them.

For example, if you bring your car to a body-shop for any reason (crash, chipped paint etc) and there is no police report or insurance claim, if the body shop doesn't report anything to Carfax, it will never make the report.

[jmaville]

I just bought a pre-owned 335xi sedan and the records I got with the car from the Dealership who originally leased the car and then sold it to me....my rears where replaced at 23k miles and the fronts at 28K miles.... I have less than 43k on the car and I still have the BMW factory warranty.... no rotor replacements and the fronts say 17k in the computer and rears 15k in the computer....I'm going to brake hard until August or 50k and see if I can at least get a set of rotors.....for free

[witeagle]

Originally Posted by jmaville

I just bought a pre-owned 335xi sedan and the records I got with the car from the Dealership who originally leased the car and then sold it to me....my rears where replaced at 23k miles and the fronts at 28K miles.... I have less than 43k on the car and I still have the BMW factory warranty.... no rotor replacements and the fronts say 17k in the computer and rears 15k in the computer....I'm going to brake hard until August or 50k and see if I can at least get a set of rotors.....for free

you are gonna get lucky enough to have them wear out at 51,000 miles in September!

[jmaville]

yeah my brother happens to have 3 BMW's and has a wholesale BMW parts account and a 4 post lift in his garage so I'll be doing all my own work after my warranty runs out...

[CALWATERBOY]

Originally Posted by wannabe

I bought my car used and it says I don't need to service the front brake pads for 50,000 miles. This can't be right. I thought there were sensors on the brake pads, could they be broken?

Also, it says the rear brake pads need to be replaced soon, but the carfax I got from the dealer says they were replaced about 9000 miles ago.

Is it possible that when they replaced the pads, they cleared the service indicator for the wrong ones? Even still 50,000 miles seems like an error.

It is BMW's vile e-diff, the looking-good-on-paper-but-miserable-substitute-for-a-limited-slip-differential 'solution.