[Gilgorm]

FYI for Canadian owners.

For those of you who may need new rear brakes, I just had them done yesterday.
The following is directly from the BMW bill in Canadian $.

Parts:
2 Brake Rotor, Light 2X$160.78=$321.56
Repair Kit, Brake $126.88
Brake Pad Wear Sens $33.06
Roloc Disc
Brake Pad Paste
Inner Hex Bolt
Brake Cleaner
Total parts $499.83

Labour: Rate is $164 but math doesn't add up.
1.8 units $251.00

Total(pretax) $750.83

Car at 35,100 km. Front brakes had "lots of meat left" so not needed.

I hope this is of interest.

[cdmulders]

Thanks for the info. I have about 71k kms on mine and have not had either front or rear brakes / rotors replaced. Do you know what caused you to have to replace the rear brakes / rotors with just 35k kms on the car? I figured the fronts would go before the rear too. Curious.

Cheers.

[Gilgorm]

The car was in for a warranty checkup etc. The rears had between 2 & 4mm left on the pads which could have lasted 5-6000km. I have difficulty getting to the dealer (time issues) so just decided to have them done. I also may trade the car in September and thought that the need for brakes would be deducted from my trade-in value (times 2). If I don't trade, then I'm good to go.

Despite the low mileage I would guesstimate that 85% of the driving is in heavy traffic constant stop and go conditions in downtown Toronto. The car lives outside and does get some rust buildup on the rotors although you would think that would affect both sets.

I too asked about the rears going first. I was told by a trusted source that the F10 brakes are set up to apply rears before the front to prevent front-end diving.

I am also a long slow braker i.e. I apply brakes early.

While I don't think it matters, I also use Auto Hold all the time.

BTW, from an extensive list of cars, I have never had rears before the fronts.

One last thing, my right rear bearing and hub had to be replaced under warranty at the same time. The bolts were seized and had to be burned off. I don't see any connection to the brakes but a mechanic may disagree.

CD--Are your miles more highway? Brakes last longer if they aren't being used. LOL.

[cdmulders]

More and more curious. It makes sense that the rear brakes are applied before the fronts to stop diving and/or improve stability. The same theory holds for when pulling a heavy trailer - it makes more sense to have the trailer brakes start working first. Nevertheless, I still think that the fronts do the majority of work and should wear more.

I drove my 535xi for three years in Ottawa before moving to Belgium last summer. I'd say overall that my mileage was about 60/40 city/highway. I almost never use the Auto-Hold feature, and my daily commute only involved mild stop&go in the afternoon whereby I did not have to brake that much. In fact, when I had my brakes inspected in the summer of 2015, the service advisor was surprised how 'healthy' my brakes were, and at that time I had 55k kms.

Now, I have pulsing in the front wheels when I brake at highway speeds so I suspect I need new rotors for the front. A quick check online shows me that a new set of front OEM rotors/pads is around $550 USD. My car goes to the dealer next week to get the news on what my brakes will cost me. I was already advised that both rotors and pads are not covered under our bumper-to-bumper warranty so we'll see what price my local Belgian BMW comes up with for price, and if it is much higher for parts than what I think I can get on-line, then I'll probably take my car to an independent shop and buy the parts on-line for them to install, even though my car is still under warranty for another five months or so.

Cheers.

[Bbb34]

Mine's manual, so perhaps a bit easier on brakes, and purchased CPO at 30K km.

Replaced rear ones first, around 55K km if I remember correctly (just shy of 4 year old at the time, harsh winters don't help I'm sure, but no way of telling what previous owner's driving habits were). I think cost was around $600+tax for rotors, pads and labor. Replaced front ones around 75K km just shy of 5 year old, rotors, pads and labor were around $850 +tax (though I think I got some sort of discount on these, can't recall the details). All done at BMW dealership. Usually rear ones will go first, not quite 2/1 rate, but they will go before front.

[Gilgorm]

Bbb34
I'm positive my driving environment has resulted in what may appear to be premature brake wear. You should see my gas mileage. City mileage is very low.

I swear my wife thinks I'm speeding when those rare times occur when I can get up to the speed limit in the city. Between the heavy traffic, stop lights, stop signs and now the decrepit condition of the roads, in addition to potholes, I'm starting to think a horse and buggy may be my next ride.

[Errowen]

Something's wrong here. Unless there's a mechanical problem, or you're the type who rides with left foot resting on the brake , I'd have said it is impossible to wear out rear brakes before fronts on the F10. The rear sensors, maybe.

[Bbb34]

Originally Posted by Errowen

Something's wrong here. Unless there's a mechanical problem, or you're the type who rides with left foot resting on the brake , I'd have said it is impossible to wear out rear brakes before fronts on the F10. The rear sensors, maybe.

Sorry, but I completely disagree with that, rears will always go first, did for me every time on German and Japanese car I owned, everybody I know replaces rears first.

There are several reasons for this, brake bias as someone mentioned avoiding car dive, hand brake usage and autohold feature used, as well (and I'm not 100% certain on this, something I read while ago, so don't trust me fully) stability control "silently" applying these in situations where limits are pushed. Haven't checked on this car, but on some, they are smaller than front too.

I don't think there's anything wrong with rear brakes going first, just that his rear ones went a bit earlier than usual.

[Bbb34]

Originally Posted by Gilgorm

Bbb34
I'm positive my driving environment has resulted in what may appear to be premature brake wear. You should see my gas mileage. City mileage is very low.

I swear my wife thinks I'm speeding when those rare times occur when I can get up to the speed limit in the city. Between the heavy traffic, stop lights, stop signs and now the decrepit condition of the roads, in addition to potholes, I'm starting to think a horse and buggy may be my next ride.

Ha ha, I love visiting and feel that this is simply a fantastic city that often doesn't get the credit it deserves, but do not enjoy driving (read "being stuck") there.

[cdmulders]

I just got my car back from my local Belgian dealer for brake service. As I'd said in a previous post on this thread, I was getting some pulsing in the front brakes and still had all original brakes and rotors. Today, the dealer replaced (with my authorization) all brake pads and rotors. It cost 1240 Euros before tax, which XE tells me is about 1790 CAD. From previous posts on this thread, this seems to be within the ballpark for Canadian prices at the dealership. As it turns out, I really needed new brakes, even though the car monitor was saying otherwise. They feel much, much better now.

Cheers.

[Errowen]

I've been doing some reading since my previous post. In the past, fronts wore out faster than rears, but that has changed recently. What has caused the change -- rears wearing out before fronts -- is the combination of electronic brake pressure proportioning, ABS and AWD.
Before my little bit of research, I thought that ABS prevented skids by momentarily releasing brake pressure just before a wheel locks up. It appears, however, that, if a wheel starts to skid during braking, the ABS applies power to the wheel, overcoming the brake friction. This dramatically increases pad wear.