Question2004 Santa Fe - Dealer says rear brakes almost metal to metal - front brakes have about 40% left. This is the first service on any of the brakes.
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Followup To
Question -
Should the rear brakes and rotors be gone in the 1st 25,000 miles - what should it cost to replace them?
Answer -
I've seen brakes last 5,000 miles or 50,000 miles. It really depends on the driving situations and habits of the vehicle operator.
Have you needed to replace your front brake pads? If not, then you should be looking for a underlying reason for the rear pads to wear out. If you'll get back to me with your year and model, I may be able to give you some specific things to look into.
The rotors would be reusable unless they're rusting from underneath the braking surface or the brake pads wore out completely, damaging the rotors to where they cannot be resurfaced. At the dealer where I'm employed, it'd be (in very rough numbers) $200-250 for rear pads, $350-400 for replacing rear pads and resurfacing rotors, or $450-500 for replacing rear pads and rotors. But that'll be on the higher end of the spectrum. The prices represent full dealer pricing in one of the wealthier areas of the country. Call a few places in your locality and shop around. Prices vary greatly by repair facility and geographic area.
In regard to the brake pads, "gone" would indicate they're worn out, but rotors don't typically wear significantly, so I wouldn't expect the word "gone" to be used to describe them. The repair facility should be able to give you a specific reason why the rotors need to be serviced or replaced.
AnswerOn the Santa Fe, the parking brake mechanism is separate, so that won't be causing any issues. Here are the things I've seen:
1. Rear pad backing plates rusted and binding in caliper bracket. This typically only occurs on cars which aren't driven very much. Depending on when you took delivery of the Santa Fe, you might fall into this category. If you've had it about three years, that'd be about 8k a year. On the other hand, if you've only had it about two years, that's 12k a year, usually too much for those types of problems to set in. Replacing the pads solves the issue.
2. Caliper slide binding. If the repair facility does a good job with the pad replacement, they'll free and lubricate the slides when they do the job. It's considered part of normal maintenance to do this when replacing the pads.
3. Caliper piston binding. I've seen this rarely, but it has been known to happen. If this is the case (remember, that's not very likely), you should buck for the caliper repair and the new pads to be covered by warranty since the caliper issue (a warrantable problem) caused your pads to prematurely wear.
[begin rotor machining rant] Ask them why they're recommending the rotors to be serviced. If the pads aren't worn metal to metal, there should be no rotor damage. If there was no vibration when braking, I wouldn't expect any unevenness in the surface. So, unless the rotors are rusted or have ridges in the braking surface, I wouldn't see why they need to be resurfaced or replaced. Many places recommend resurfacing rotors as part of doing what they consider a *good* brake job. They use reasons like "to prevent vibration" or "to prevent brake squeal." Hyundai factory brakes squeal very rarely, even when replacing the pads and not resurfacing the rotors. And if you don't have any vibration beforehand, there shouldn't be any after replacing the pads, since the rotors are in exactly the same condition as before the brake work. I consider it a disservice to resurface rotors unless there's a reason to do it. Every time a rotor is resurfaced, that's one less time it can be resurfaced in the future when it may actually be needed. [/end rotor machining rant]
I'll say that there are professionals who I otherwise respect that disagree with my rotor machining philosophies, so you should view the above rant as my personal opinion and not as accepted industry philosophy.
