My repair order says to recheck the brakes in some number of thousand miles, but why?
This is a common confusion for people. The brake inspection recommendation is simply a conservative “minimum safe distance” we feel that your brakes will comfortably go before needing to be replaced. Most normal drivers will consume approximately 1mm of pad thickness on a front-wheel drive vehicle every 8000 miles or so; however, everyone wears brakes differently because of terrain, driving habits, transmission types, vehicle pad materials, etc. Therefore, we often recommend you recheck your brakes more frequently than you anticipate needing to replace them. This is more eloquently stated in our article about how an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
