Quote:
Originally Posted by AlloyPony
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the reason I became suspicious is because at the end of last year's car show/cruise season, I was starting to hear a very faint noise from the front end. The noise was only detectible with the radio off and while slowing down from 20 MPH to a stop. So I decided that since it was time to put the car in the barn for winter, I'd look into it when spring rolled around.
Well, here we are and I pulled the front brakes apart and the rotors were slightly warped. Not bad, but just slightly warped. The pads were at about 30%. The wheel bearing on the passenger side had just a small hint of clicking noise in it when I spun it by hand. Had to really try and listen to detect it. There was also a bit of "rough" feel in the bearing while spinning it.
So, it seemed that my bearings and brakes would have lasted one more season if I had really needed them to, but as a preventative measure for safety I went ahead and replaced everything. The noise is now completely gone.
Side note: One thing that really annoys me about Cobra/Mach 1 cars is that the rotors are huge 13" rotors, but the brake pads are so small that 30% of the rotor surface is never used. What a terrible and wasteful design.
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The lack of pad coverage closer to the hub is not that big of a deal as most of the effective brake torque takes place at the perimeter. So the diameter of the rotor makes more difference than the pad coverage. So it's actually a pretty good design as the long pad that covers a lot of the perimeter is more effective than a pad that is shorter but covers the rotor closer to the hub.