Third set of brake pads this season and it's only June

I keep seeing folks run their pads until the metal backing plate is scraping the rotor. Last week a guy comes in with that exact screech, and when I pulled the wheel his pads were down to maybe 1mm. He said they still 'worked fine' but that rotor was scored so bad it felt like sandpaper. I get that pads cost money, but a new rotor runs $40 plus labor, so it's not saving anything. Why do people wait until the squeal turns into a grind? Has anyone else had to talk a customer out of riding on bare metal?

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mitchell.lee14d ago

Used to fight this battle all the time at the shop I worked at. Best thing that worked was showing them the actual cost breakdown right there on the counter. Write down pads at $25 and rotor at $40, then show them the scored rotor and say you're looking at $65 plus labor either way if you wait. Once they see it in plain numbers, most people get it pretty quick. Also started doing free brake checks whenever someone came in for an oil change, so they could see the wear before it got dangerous. One guy finally replaced his pads after I showed him the backing plate was literally starting to dig into the caliper bracket. He thought I was trying to upsell him, but then his buddy's car seized up on the highway from the same thing, so he came back and thanked me.