Can you "feel" the thickness of a brake pad?
 

As in, a half worn pad would have more pedal travel and/or would feel like it takes more effort to stop..versus a brand new pad.

I am going to say no. You won't tell the difference between a 90% pad and a 45% pad by the feel of the peddle. You may be able to tell if a pad is 100% or 1% though. Mainly, peddle feel will change when the fluid degrades.

You cannot.

But can you feel the thiccness

I'd love to feel the thiccness

In all seriousness, the brakes self adjust for wear over time, by design.

Any wear from the brake pad is replaced by an equal amount of fluid.

The only way you know they were worn are the wear indicators or if they have no friction material left.

If you’re curious how much pad is left then just look at the pads.

I can feel when it gets to 0%.

Respectfully I disagree.

Absolutely!
You remove the pad from the caliper, close your eyes and feel. Preferably with your finger tips. This way one can judge quite accurately between how much pad material is remaining. The only thing to be careful of is if you drop the pad with your eyes closed someone might swap the pad from the car with a layer of fiber board glued to the backing plat . If this happens it feels like you have remaining pad but will be disastrous when it comes time to use the brakes.

Can you "feel" the thickness of a brake pad?
 

The OP’s post was a little vague but I read it as him asking if you could feel a difference in driving characteristics or pedal feel. Obviously you will be able to feel the thickness of a pad with it in your hand. Most people don’t even need to close their eyes to use their fingertips. Hahaha

What if, and this may sound crazy but, what if you left your eyes open and looked at the pad as you removed and felt it? Then there would be no risk of someone swapping the pad with a cheap replica as you judged its remaining service life.

Sure, this is a viable argument when attempting this during the day but this assumes you've paid the electricity bills and you have light in your garage when you're doing this at 3am. Because necropadophilia.

Yeah, watching porn with your eyes closed is kin of pointless.

That's absurd. Who has light in their garage?

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Attachment 169672

The light reflected off of that beer machine is more likely coming from a window just out of view.


I remain skeptical.

When roses are about to bloom new flowers it is imperative that they have good exposure to sun. If you are growing roses in your garage you need a bud light.

I am Spuds and I approve this thread.

Ah. I was unaware that I could grow roses in my garage. Now I may never leave.

@Captain Snooze well played sir, well played.

BTW, not sure if it's worth to use as "indicator" .. parking brake light can light up on dash when brake fluid level is low (normal fluid level with new pads -> wear to 2/3rds down -> brake fluid drops to min or below level -> indicator lights up, first from time to time, then, if nothing is done (like adding some brake fuel till normal level to compensate pads material thickness wear), is lit all the time).

I just swapped my stop tech street pads back to stockies mostly because of break dust. Just here to confirm the difference was due to design and not wear. First time with this stuff. Thanks guys.

Good to know thanks! Mine has been flashing, I stupidly assumed the light was indicative of ABS activating. Should I just go for a full flush at this point?

I just topped up till max level in tank again, which shut off parking brake light, and drove pads (almost) till end of them (of course, one will need to remove some excess fluid, after one changes pads to new ones, of full thickness).
But still, i wouldn't "rely" on this indicator to tell pad wear. Better check their state/wear properly (alongside other things/systems of car/their state & wear to inspect) at very least prior trackday. It's helpful if you keep some notes (eg. installed pads of type # at ##.##.#### date, drove # hours/days at # track).
And alongside extra tires, some oil bottle, drinks, basic toolset, air pressure gauge & pump, take to the track also hydraulic jack, needed wrenches, extra pad set, fluid bottle, if you wear down current ones too fast (or find out if you will be able to get them changed on site, if needed). Brake subsystem is about the most important in any car. Especially if it is abused at track loads.
As all pads are compromise of sort, so many change to track pads prior track day, and to street ones - after, to have best for purpose every time, instead of dealing of shortcomings of universal/hybrid pads. Pad change is good chance to inspect their state too (and to add extra notes during change on how much pads material in mm you wear down of specific pads on specific tracks on specific tires or car setup and for how long). Also you can note what fluid and when you flushed. And if/after what you boiled it up :).

Is the pedal squishy? How many miles?

Feels a tad bit, like 50 of the travel is air sometimes but I think I'm just used to the twitchiness of the street pads I tried. 85k miles

When was the last time you bled them? If its been more then 30k miles I would start there

Darn you caught on to the brake pad bandits again!

Was just thinking out loud.

Brakes need maintenance, I bleed my brakes and service my calpers before and after every track day.

If you don't go to the track I would bleed the brakes yearly, at a minimum, while your there pull off the calipers and clean them well with brake clean, check your seals, check your pistons and throw on a little anti seize on the pins

If you travel on wet or dirty roads pull your pads and clean, service your calipers more often.

I tend to be pretty thorough when it comes to servicing and maintaining my brakes.

A little maintenance doesn't take long and it will keep your stoppers in peak condition.

Not to be nitpicky, but you'd be better off using grease rather than anti seize. Anti seize is a great high temp lube, but a terrible high pressure lube. It squeezes out when two surfaces come together, unlike grease which leaves a film.

GUY!!!! CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK OFF TOPIC??!!??!

YOU'RE RUINING THE THREAD!!!!!

Your right, why would maintaining your brakes have any effect on brakes IRT feel and performance.

Forgive my ignorance.......

Off topic, not on. On topic is already answered and boring.


Now is the time when we dance on Sprockets.


https://i.gifer.com/Chty.gif

My view is the OP had a question, from that question it seems he may not be as experienced as you IRT brakes and their requirements to stay functioning, both in a performance aspect and safety.

Other members have put in some valid and good responses, others, not so much.

Not everyone in an expert or component in these matters, hell, I'm no expert, but, I've learned alot from experience and browsing forums.

The problem is when a post gets derailed before the OP's question has been answered it becomes just another useless thread without any real benifit.

Apart from bored people with nothing better to do than derail a thread without actually attempting to answer a question.

I feel sorry for some members when they post a question, which, in their mind is valid, and it gets derailed by bored people.

Sure there are questions which seem strange, but, if the replies are IRT to the question maybe the OP can learn something.


But carry on as you were, don't supply any relevant information, and continue to turn a post which could have some relevant information into another wasteland thread of post counts.

On topic: OP, valid question, no you cannot really tell pad thickness at the pedal, but, you can diagnose issues like bad fluid, siezed or poorly functioning calipers, warped discs.

If you want to check your pads pull the wheels and have a look, while your there check for cracks, thickness and wear IRT your discs.

There is a plethora of information IRT brakes, you just need to sort through the crap, brakes shoud be right up there with your periodical maintenance, get to know them well.

My personal opinion is I like anti-seize for its properties, I would never use grease for brakes.

Fair cop. We may get a little carried away from time to time. :D

Oh, just saw this. Strongly disagree here.

Anti-seize is NOT a lubricant. (well, not primarily) It is an anti-corrosive. If it was good for the guide pins then the manufacturer would use it there.

Stick with the manufacturer's recommendation. Three different compounds are specified for the caliper.

https://demos.starbase7.net/t3Portal...00CIF02EX.html

Fair comment, but I think the answer to the question has been well covered in the initial responses before it turned silly (and fun)...

Cheers for the link, I will need to look into this more it seems.

I've been using silver anti-seize for 30 years on the backing plates and pins .

I've never had a issue using anti-seize, street cars, track cars, bikes, but, that is along time to be doing it wrong.

More research is needed on my part, I'll do some googles on the OEM Brembo's and find out what I'm meant to be using on them.

Cheers