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Black Magic Brake Lifetime?

fallacist

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Durango
How many miles have you all gotten on your black magic pads and "premium" centric rotors that came packaged with them?

I put less than 20K miles (under 2 years), and my pads are due to be replaced, and visual inspection (not measured) of the rotors and sizable lip suggests they may not be able to be turned, or turned more than once.

Due to the overwhelming positive reviews of the products, it seemed to me that the rotors should last more than 2 years/20K miles/1 turning?

Are these normal numbers, or should I have clearly gotten more life out of everything? 95% of the miles were on 31"s.
 
Have you contacted Black Magic? he will be able to tell you what you should be expecting out of your specific setup.

It seems like you should have gotten a bit more life out of them, but these aren't 60k mile brakes. they are designed to work, and work well. a side effect of that may be a shorter life than some.

the rotors should last quite a while.

I have been running the black magic pads and centric premium rotors on my 16" brake kit for a little over 4 years now with very little wear.
 
July will be four years. 27K miles and everything looks fine. I've used the Centric rotors with other pads and they seem to be wearing the same.
 
On the petty cash road race car, Matt gets a full season or more out of the pads.

Other brands last one race or less. One question there, is that behavior because he has to spend less time standing on them, though?
 
Performance brakes might not last as long as the cheaper ones, but they will stop better. To me 20K of hard use makes sense if you were pushing it hard . Even under normal use 20K seems good to me. I do my pads and rotors almost every year, and no more than 2 years anyway .

Do you have stuck calipers or where the calipers new?
 
My XJ's Vanco brakes came with EBC Yellow pads, incredible pads when hot, but totally sucked when cold.
Blaine suggested switching to his recently introduced Black Magic pads and I have found them to be the best pads overall I have every used, hot or cold.
The pads now have 25,000 miles on them, using Centric premium rotors, and still have half the pad left.
For the superior braking they provide, I wouldn't be too upset if they wore out quicker.
They provide confidence when starting down a steep, several thousand foot downgrade or when driving at freeway speeds.
 
Race usage it makes sense that a good high-temp pad would last longer as the bonding agent isn't melting & turning the pad to grease.
20K on a high performance pad & rotor sounds reasonable to me. On European cars you replace rotors with the pads just as a matter of course - it's that way from the factory. If you get better than 20K on high end friction, count your blessings.
 
Thanks for the responses- I don't really have a basis of comparison with brakes.

I'll contact David. The calipers are stock. The jeep is a daily driver, but also sees a ton of elevation change as I live at 6500' of elevation at the foothills of multiple 10000' passes. I probably go through brakes quicker than the average user.

Rear drums and pads are recently replaced, and that may of had something to do with it.
 
You left that out. Constantly hitting mountain passes will do it. Id chalk it up to normal use and call it good
 
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