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50k miles - front brakes like new, rears still have 60% life?

MilehighRam

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.
 

J-Cooz

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Just had my tires off the other day and my brakes have a ton of life left. I do 95% highway driving and drive pretty easy.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
 

Rebelguy2020

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.
The 5th gen Ram has increased the rotor dimensions by a good margin, and it comes down to when the rotors are larger it makes it easier to stop the vehicle, you can no longer fit 17” rims, my Rebel has the minimum of 18” rims and the front rotors are so close to the callipers, when I installed my 18” winter wheels, the balance weights on the inner part of the front rims got pulled off by the callipers, the weight had to be moved to the inner edge of the rim between the tire and rim.
 

bigdodge

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.
brake material has come a long way
people are getting 100K on a set of pads
 

Idahoktm

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.

I'm not surprised at all. I got 80k out of the front pads on my Tundra. I expect the same or better with the big Ram brakes. I am surprised at the honesty of your brake shop. A lot of those brake shops would have told you that your calipers and master cylinder needed to be rebuilt on top of a new set of front and rear pads.
 

MilehighRam

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I'm not surprised at all. I got 80k out of the front pads on my Tundra. I expect the same or better with the big Ram brakes. I am surprised at the honesty of your brake shop. A lot of those brake shops would have told you that your calipers and master cylinder needed to be rebuilt on top of a new set of front and rear pads.
I was surprised too. they have a 4.7 rating on google; i made sure to add my own 5 start review for honesty. Ill definitely go back to them for future maintenance work.
 

go-ram

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.
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It is true that regenerative braking does help increase brake material life, but as others here have said, the largest factor is Ram upgrading the rotor size, etc. in order to be able to get the higher towing & payload ratings they want.
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Ram's eTorque is a fairly mild hybrid system, so it doesn't do a huge amount of regenerative braking, but it does help a bit. As a point of comparison, my Prius with 180,000+ miles is still on the factory brakes, all the way around. My Toyota dealer checks the pads every oil change, still 7 mm on all four front pads (rears are drums).
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SpeedyV

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Ive been hearing some slight squealing when i apply the brakes lately. figured at 50k the pads needed to be replaced so I dropped it off at Brakes Plus for them to switch em out. Ultimately, they said the fronts were almost new (14mm) and the rears had about 60% life left (inner/outers were 7mm & 10mm but dont remember which was which).

I found it strange that i could put 50k on my truck and have the pads in such good condition; is the regenerative braking working that well? As for the slight squealing, it might be a glazing issue; im told to get up to speed and brake hard to heat them up.
My last truck (‘03 Sierra) was still on its original brakes at 160K+…but those trucks were kind of known for that at the time. If every “wear item” was that durable, suppliers would go out of business!

On my Ram, I still have a light squeal in warm weather slowing from 45-20, even after having a TSB done years ago. I can work around it with light or hard braking, so It hasn’t been an issue often enough for me to take it back to the dealership.
 

MilehighRam

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My last truck (‘03 Sierra) was still on its original brakes at 160K+…but those trucks were kind of known for that at the time. If every “wear item” was that durable, suppliers would go out of business!

On my Ram, I still have a light squeal in warm weather slowing from 45-20, even after having a TSB done years ago. I can work around it with light or hard braking, so It hasn’t been an issue often enough for me to take it back to the dealership.
Thats exactly what i have going on.
 

Pertzbro

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15' Ram. 90K miles. Easily have 65%+ left. First 2 years lived in Denver with stupid traffic. I do use gears to slow on mountain passes. I will likely never touch the brakes in the entire time I own the truck.
 

MilehighRam

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15' Ram. 90K miles. Easily have 65%+ left. First 2 years lived in Denver with stupid traffic. I do use gears to slow on mountain passes. I will likely never touch the brakes in the entire time I own the truck.
I'm in Denver as well; i25 commute.
 

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