Do you wait until the ridge is totally gone before replacement? I figure in the grand scheme pads are still relatively cheap, so I replaced mine whimsically when putting the snow tires on. I actually only got 30k out of these, and they are OE pads and rotors. The rotors look like junk after a mere 30k. If these were BMW (zinc coated) or GM (FNC process), they would look almost like new. Not sure why Toyota doesn't do that with factory rotors. The more I look at the old parts, the more I think maybe they are only 1/2 worn...

edit p.s. parts have gone up--I just looked up the Lexus brake sensor and it's $119.40 list. I remember it being $80 or so list in 2016. $7 on rock is better for aftermarket lol







You can see the worn sensor being reused. I actually did not have one for the front (have the rear / Raybestos). Look at how rusted the vanes got in only 2 years, again Toyota OE, as were the Sumitomo pads.

 

That rear pad looks obviously better than the fronts. I would have let it go for a while.

That's why the sensor is there..

 

Think you are right, if I were running a shop, I'd be fired (fleet mgr), that's wasted material. I figured I had the wheels off anyway.

One thing I notice now--when you put new pads on, they are scraping (if you want to call it that) in the center of the rotor. there is rust forming at the edges outside and inside this AM already (it's been raining).

My wife's car is GM. So the rotors are white-gray out of the boxes (do not clean them as there is no oil, they were baked with nitrogen during the FNC process and that forms a permanent rust resistant coating). As the new pads wear away that white gray coating, it's only in the centers, maybe 1/3 of the area. But as time goes on, maybe 150-200 miles, all the white gray is gone edge to edge. I have done tens of brake jobs in my life maybe 50, and I honestly never noticed that until July 2018. So the implication is the brand new Akebono to old Lexus OE rotors is the same, centers being worn, edges not yet since pads are identically sized).

I will let these go further, this time, because next time around I may do all OE including new rotors, so no harm if I got to the end and have the parts on hand. Changing pads only is not very ideal, but I totally get it's not practical to toss rotors at 30-60k like one would on a German car, it's cost....and this is not a performance car that does high speed repeated stops...

btw here is how my rears look. I truly despise that rust stripe. I see that on Hyundais as well. Not sure why engineers did that, but the pads in the back are really small....



again sensor was reused (as were the caliper bolts sorry it was because I busted the parking brake shoes and wasn't sure if it would work so I didn't want to waste new bolts only to take them off to fix the shoes)

ugly rust strip showing unswept part of disc

 

If you are so worried about the rust why don't you remove the rotor, clean it, and then paint it with high temp paint?
Even if the pad swept the entire rotor surface the braking force change would not be noticable. Most braking systems are designed this way. The inner surface (closest to the hub) is the slowest moving part of the rotor and has the least amount of leverage. This is why many "big brake kits" only include larger diameter rotors and use the original caliper. The farther away from the hub the more leverage the system has and therefore more braking force.

 

"even if" is likely how the Asian car mfgs look at it. As mentioned, same on Hyundai, and here's an Infiniti. Don't see that with German cars. I'm not worried about the rust, I didn't design it. Merely pointing it out, it's a shortcoming.

Look at that nice clean hat, but stripe of shame on the rotor face

 

What Infiniti product did you pick up? Something to replace the Maxima?

 

No that was someone else's, I'm a "brake peeper" now, always looking at peoples' rotors when they're not around, in malls, churches, work, I'll probably get busted one day....