It's going to be somewhat dependent on your driving habits, obviously, but on my 86 300E I'm also getting only about 15k mi. out of the front pads.

The brake wear indicators are only on the front pads. Because of weight transfer the rears experience very little wear. I wouldn't be surprised if you got 60k mi. or more on them before having to replace them.


I was thinking that it might be that the old original caliper seals had gotten hard with age and weren't retracting the pads completely from the rotor, but if you've got new calipers and still getting that mileage it might just be that the pads have a very soft composition. I've bought pads direct from the dealer as well as Textar, Jurid and Pagid from aftermarket suppliers with pretty much the same results.

I noticed that now FastLane has a set of Pro-ACT Ceramic pads, complete with backing shims for about $86.00. You might do a search and see what users think of them and what kind of mileage they seem to be getting.

When I finish my current suspension upgrade (Sportline kit) I'm planning to try the Porterfield R4-S pads. I've used them on a pevious car and was very impressed with them. Great braking, no fade, very low dust, no noise and I got about 32k mi. out of the front pads, with pretty hard driving. They're quite pricey at about $120/set for the fronts, but people who have used them seem very enthusiastic about them.

Gary