| Front brake pads | £10-£150 |
| Pad clips/springs | £5-£20 |
| Copper grease | £3-£10 |
| New caliper | £50-£200 |
Front brake pads replacement is a straightforward job, and should take a home mechanic around an hour or so. A main dealer can charge you up to around £150 an hour's labour to fit new brake pads, so this is a job well worth doing yourself, with a Haynes Manual by your side.
Brake pads sit within the brake calipers and are pushed against the brake discs by pistons, which are in turn moved by brake fluid that is pressurised via the master cylinder.
Some cars have brake pad wear indicators, which activate a light on the dashboard when the pads have worn down to a set limit. If not, the only way of telling how worn a pad is is to examine the level in the brake fluid reservoir (which drops as the pad wears) or to take the wheel off and inspect the pad.
This task requires some experience, but uses basic tools, and will take up to an hour per wheel, depending on your model.
All modern cars have front disc brakes – the discs are actually quite hardy and can last a long time – up to 100,000 miles on small, light cars.
The front pads, however, are less hardy and generally last only a fraction of the time. There is no hard and fast number though, so instead read the following examples and see which best represents you.
If you drive a city car or supermini, such as a Vauxhall Corsa, Honda Jazz or Toyota Yaris or similar, the pads are going to last longer. The reason is simple – they’re controlling less weight. If you own a small car and rarely carry passengers, you could easily expect to get 50,000 miles from a set of pads, as long as they’re good quality. That said, 50k is the best-case scenario – the reality will be somewhere around 30,000 miles.
More metal, more weight, more load in the boot, more work for the pads. For average-sized family cars such as a Vauxhall Insignia or Nissan Qashqai, doing the average 12,000 miles per year, you can expect to get 20,000 to 25,000 miles out of a set of pads.
Bigger car, more mass and almost certainly greater than average annual mileage mean you might only get 18 months out of a set of pads, or about 20,000 miles with an Audi A8 or Mercedes S-Class.
Vans and pick-ups tend to be driven harder and with more weight on board, which means the brakes have to do a lot more work. As such, it’s not uncommon to go through a set of pads once a year, or every 10,000-15,000 miles.
These are just guides, of course. There are things you can do to prolong the life of your pads. Look at your driving – are you braking too early or perhaps dabbing them when you don’t need to? Are you driving around with a load of stuff in the boot? Travel light and change your driving habits and the pads will last longer.
Front brake pads should be examined whenever the car is serviced, and replaced when necessary. Your front pads may have a sensor that activates a dashboard warning light when the pad has worn down, but not all models have sensors, so take a look at the brake fluid level in the reservoir, which drops as the pads wear. Or jack up the car, remove a front wheel and examine the pads directly.
Always check the rest of the brake system when replacing the front brake pads – if the discs/rotors are in a poor condition consider replacing them. All cars are slightly different, so if it is time to change your front pads, use our before-you-begin checklist, and find your car for specific instructions.
Changing front brake pads: a guide
A car's front brake pads are critical components for its safe operation, and should be maintained correctly to avoid a potential disaster. If the front pads wear down completely you’ll not only be unable to stop the car in time but you’ll damage the discs, which will need to be replaced.
Each wheel has at least two pads and it’s important to change the pads on both front wheels at the same time, to ensure an even brake force. At the same time you should examine the discs and skim or replace them if needed.
Only basic tools are required to replace front brake pads, although you’ll also need a G-clamp or piston retraction tool and you’ll need to raise the car to work on one wheel at a time.