Should I Replace Brake Pads and Discs at the Same Time?

Many components of your braking system experience wear due to friction and must be replaced every so often, most notably the pads and discs. One of the questions clients frequently ask of our Client Service team is:

"Do I need to replace both the brake pads and discs at the same time?"

Please watch the video below for some things to consider:

For more examples and info on disc wear, be sure to check our our blog post: "When Is It Time to Replace My Iron Brake Discs?" Once you determine if the old brake discs are free of terminal cracks, you can install new pads on them. However, you'll first want to prepare the disc and pad surfaces to mate up with each other. If you have pad material deposits on the old disc, which you will if you’ve been running them on the track, the key is to get that pad material removed from the friction faces before installing your new pads. Once both sides of the disc are clean, it's perfectly fine to install the new pads. You’ll want to run them in, and that’s called burnishing, which gets the two physical surfaces to mate up with each other.

You can find details on burnishing and pad management in the following videos: