360 stock brake questions

1) Yes.
2) Check minimum thickness, lateral runout, and visual inspection for stress cracks.
3) Only change what you need to change.
4) Yes, but only if rotor still above minimum thickness after resurfacing.

 

1) Does anyone know if there is a sensor that lights up when the pads need to be replaced?

Yes, and after the sensor lights up, it has to be replaced, too. The sensor is a wire on a threaded probe. When the wire gets ground off by contact with the rotor, the wire brakes and the signal is sent.

2) How do you know if the brakes need to be replaced?

Take off the wheels and look at the back side of the pads. This will give yo an indication of their current thickness. While in there, look at the rotor for anything other than smooth surface and just a bit of rotational ridging.

3) Can you just change pads or do the rotors have to be replaced at the same time?

I get 5 pad changes for a set of rotor change.

4) Can the rotors be resurfaced?

If above minimum thickness. If the rotor gets too thin, and you use the brakes hard, you will get a juddering feel on the brake pedal.

 

This sounds like a tax on the lazy.

Is it really that hard to visually inspect one's pads periodically?

 

You get both a warning for pad wear and brake fluid level. If the fluid is a bit low and you were stopping real hard, the fluid may have sloshed to the front of the reservoir and kick the level light on for a moment.

It's possible that the pads and/or fluid were over heated and you were getting slight brake fade during the stop. depending on how often you're pushing the car, the rotors/pads might be glazed. Are you getting brake squeal?

The rotors do have a minimum allowed thickness. A lot of shops don't like to turn drilled rotors because it's hard on the carbide tooling. Keep in mind that on a street car, putting fresh pads on old rotors can cause excessive brake squeal.

In some cases the rotors have been heat cycled enough the even machining them won't make the squeal go away. I've also seen cases where the "grooving" on the drilled rotors is deep enough that it affects the pads ability to make full contact with the surface, also reducing effectiveness.

The guys talking about using multiple sets of pads on a single set of rotors are doing a lot of track days and are using purpose pad compounds. The performance and noise expectations are different than guys that do 90-100% street driving.

Final opinion is based on visual inspection, I would recommend a fresh set of rotors and pads along with a fluid flush. If you're finding yourself enjoy fast road driving frequently, slightly upgraded pads and fluid would be a good idea.

 

Drive safe

 

Pads, True OEM pads have a wear sensor but almost all non-OEM DO NOT have wear sensors. It is easy to do a visual inspection.