A few days ago, I replace my 2003 Escalade front rotors and pads, 97500 miles. My Escalade is just a daily driver and I wanted to do more or less a standard brake job. I used NAPA Ultra Premium rotors ($128 pair) and Wagner ThermoQuiet Ceramic pads ($52 4 pads). An independant shop mechanic had told me "don't bother turning the factory rotors, throw them away". I'm not so sure that was good advice. I'm also the first to acknowledge that there are dozens of good or much better than factory rotors available, but I don't think the factory brakes performed so badly.
My original rotors with 97500 miles showed only about 6/1000th wear. New rotor thickness is 1.142" and I mic'd mine at 1.1365"-1.1375". That's not very much for almost 100,000 miles. Rotor casting marks were Bosch GM 2L06 and rotors and caliper brackets had never been off.
Brake pads which were GM pads were only about half worn at most but they may have been replaced, not sure? New brake pad thickness ranges from just over 1/2 inch to .640" depending on brand. My inboard pads measured .250"-.270" and outboard pads measured .300"-.340" depending on where measured. I purchased this Escalade with 42,000 miles and the original owner didn't indicate any brake work - factory pads would probably last well past 42K miles. However, even harder to believe that the original front pads went 97,500 miles and are only 1/2 worn??? Even if the front pads were replaced just before I bought it, I still put over 55,000 miles on them and pads are only about half worn?? Rear pads are another story but not too bad. I had a dealer replace rear pads at about 54,000 miles (pads were about gone) using GM dealer supplied DuraStop pads, and rotors were turned. I checked the rears while doing the front brakes and the rear pads are nearly completely worn. Still not terrible since they lasted 43,000 mile so far. I'll replace the rears with the same Wagner pads next week. It seems to me that the brake bias at least on my Escalade is heavier for the rear brakes which kind of makes sense to combat excessive nose dive?
My original rotors with 97500 miles showed only about 6/1000th wear. New rotor thickness is 1.142" and I mic'd mine at 1.1365"-1.1375". That's not very much for almost 100,000 miles. Rotor casting marks were Bosch GM 2L06 and rotors and caliper brackets had never been off.
Brake pads which were GM pads were only about half worn at most but they may have been replaced, not sure? New brake pad thickness ranges from just over 1/2 inch to .640" depending on brand. My inboard pads measured .250"-.270" and outboard pads measured .300"-.340" depending on where measured. I purchased this Escalade with 42,000 miles and the original owner didn't indicate any brake work - factory pads would probably last well past 42K miles. However, even harder to believe that the original front pads went 97,500 miles and are only 1/2 worn??? Even if the front pads were replaced just before I bought it, I still put over 55,000 miles on them and pads are only about half worn?? Rear pads are another story but not too bad. I had a dealer replace rear pads at about 54,000 miles (pads were about gone) using GM dealer supplied DuraStop pads, and rotors were turned. I checked the rears while doing the front brakes and the rear pads are nearly completely worn. Still not terrible since they lasted 43,000 mile so far. I'll replace the rears with the same Wagner pads next week. It seems to me that the brake bias at least on my Escalade is heavier for the rear brakes which kind of makes sense to combat excessive nose dive?
