text: Brera: Excessive brake pad wear? | Alfa Romeo Forum
  I bought my Brera as an ex-demonstrator with around 9,500 miles on it. It now has around 13,500 on it.
  Yesterday, the brake pad warning light and message flashed up, but I must admit I assumed that it was erroneous and intended to visit the dealer to get it checked out.
  This evening, however, I have checked the front pads visually and they ARE worn out!
  The question here is whether this is excessive. The car has not been tracked in my ownership, and despite being a heavy and relatively quick car, not even reaching 14,000 miles on a set of pads seems unusual to me.
  Sounds excessive to me, are you hard on brakes? I'm sure I will get 30k out of mine.
  are the pads all worn to the same extent? I work for another marque, which is currently replacing pads on a recall because of fast and uneven wear. So far I've encountered 1 pad that was obviously bad, and had worn away in less than 5000 miles (on the rear axle aswell).
  These pads were supplied by TRW, but I don't know if any other marques suffer drom the same **** up...
  Sometimes I like to brake late, but generally I am driving this car so gently due to the fuel consumption
  Normally I am really reluctant to quibble on items like this; I'd just let a dealer take my cash to replace them.
  This time, however, it just seems a bit odd: we drive my wife's Golf Mk.5 VERY hard, all the time, and the pads are OK even after 40,000 miles on the original set. I know the Golf is lighter, but not that much lighter....
  Thanks for this; it does appear that the front offside (and outside on the caliper) pad is more worn than the others, but I'd need to get the wheels off to check properly.
  I think I'm going to fight this one.
  Before my 159 i had a toyota verso T180 from new and on its second service just under 20k they replaced the pads and discs on warranty as they were worn out / scored (good job i was just under 20k apparently in re regard to my warranty), so even with supposed marques that never go wrong there are issues, i suppose it can be bad batches from the supplier? Do pads come with a minimum expected life though?
  Yep, I think it might be a bad batch, and / or a sticking caliper. Thinking about it, even if I had driven it hard, the car was a demonstrator and therefore the first 9,000 miles of its life must have been really tough (I expected a degree of thrashing would happen) to trash the pads.
  I am going to try and take it in tomorrow and see what's going on.
  Normally I'm pretty hard on my brakes but so far I've got 20,000 from mine and they still look OK.
  Could have been a Cloverleaf track car I suppose
  I'll check my Ti but as others have said, that does seem excessive:wow:
  Discussion Starter • #10 • Sep 22, 2008 (Edited)
  Well, it not only needs new front pads, but disks as well.
  I can only speculate as to what it's been used for prior to my ownership.
  Great. Not only do I spend most of my time staring at the fuel guage if I presume to so much as brush the throttle, but now I can't really expect to brake too much or risk replacing the brakes in fewer miles than are given between the service intervals.
  I am really, really gutted about this. Naturally, and so, so conveniently, its excluded from warranty*.
  (*I know why "wear" items are excluded in "normal" circumstances, but wear like this seems crazy).
  Discussion Starter • #11 • Sep 22, 2008 (Edited)
  It's caveat emptor of course, but of the things I thought to check, the brakes were not one of them on a 9,500 mile car bought direct from a main dealer and used exclusively by them prior to me purchasing it.
  (By the way, not having a go at you SR, just feeling more than a bit peeved just now).
  Well having done the Cloverleaf day at Oulton I'd certainly be looking more closely at any 'ex-demo' cars I bought in the future. The poor GT that Jamie Pickford was driving can't have that much life left in it though to be fair he didn't appear to use the brakes that much :wow:
  My Spider 2.4 is now over 20k miles with daily spirited driving in the Alps and no sign of worn pads yet so suggest it's an issue. I'd be inclined to challange the dealer and ARUK on whether their x point checklist was followed before the car was delivered and why the pads weren't changed if worn.
  Agreed - I think I'll invest the RAC vehicle check fee to avoid this kind of thing. I will certainly be fighting this as it's just not acceptable on this kind of mileage.
  It was a good day, but its made a point very clear to me in that you always have to careful buying a used Alfa but more so now, as the Cloverleaf Club cars WILL end up on dealer forecourts in the future.
  It was a good day, but its made a point very clear to me in that your always had to careful buying a used Alfa but more so now, as the Cloverleaf Club cars WILL end up on dealer forecourts in the future.
  Is there any way of checking this guys?
  Search the forum for someone who attended last year and has pics or have a look on the Cloverleaf site and see if you can spot your car.
  To be honest, I think this has just broken my faith in the car. Not only do I spend most of my time staring at the fuel guage if I presume to so much as brush the throttle, but now I can't really expect to brake too much or risk replacing the brakes in fewer miles than are given between the service intervals.
  Yes...does seem quite excessive....my oil burners done over 18k and just serviced....No obvious wear to either pads or discs.
  I would investigate previous use , as you say, and make your intentions clear to the dealer ...give em a chance to respond...they SHOULD want your business in the future.
  Wouldn't work, as the registration plates were always covered.
  Don't think any of them had plates on (but may be wrong) - at least he'd get to see if one of the Breras was his colour with his wheels
  Thanks Kevski - I was on a rant last night )) but absolutely you are right, I will be pushing this one as it's so few miles a) overall, and b) in my ownership that disks and pads cannot be seen as acceptable.
  I like the dealer, and their team, but with an (outstandingly good) FIAT dealer much closer to home, and an inconvenient trek to the Alfa dealer, I need a good relationship with them for it to work.