Brake Pad Noise And Excessive Wear

[toole]

We have a 2001 Lexus ES300. At about 37,000 miles the fron brakes started to make terribel noises. It sounded like we had rocks or foreign debris dragging on the rotors but only when you stepped on the brakes.

We took the car to the dealer and they inspected the brakes but could not find anythin wrong. They reported that the front and rear brakes both had about 70% wear left. I have such little confidence in the local dealer here in Boise that I took the car home and pulled each wheel myself. I came to the same conclusion that we just had a bad set of pads that growled something terrible.

My wife had the car back in today for an oil change and tire rotation. The dealer now reports only 10% remaining on the front and still 70% on the rear.

So the front has apprently gone from 70% wear left to only 10% wear left all in the course of about 8,000 miles and making loud growling noises the whole time.

Of course they now want $300 for a front break job.

Looking for some opiions and advice.

I think Lexus ows me a set of brake pads and maybe a brake job.

What do you all think?

Thanks,

Randy

[backwoods lex]

Are they oem pads? When I purchased "brand X" pads form auto zone, I had nothing but problems. The brakes constantly squeeled and they didn't last long at all. I spent the extra $20 per axle and bought pads from toyota. Major improvement.

[toole]

Are they oem pads? When I purchased "brand X" pads form auto zone, I had nothing but problems. The brakes constantly squeeled and they didn't last long at all. I spent the extra $20 per axle and bought pads from toyota. Major improvement.

The pads are OEM

They don't sqeal. The growl and scrape like their are rocks or somehting in them. They have been inspected twice. Both by the dealer and by me. No foreign materila present. Just crappy brakes.

[steviej]

You would expect closer to 50k from the front pads. I know I got about 50k miles on my front OEM pads and 75k miles on my rear. I could have pushed them another 5-10k miles but I had the time to change them out so I did.

What kind of braking do you or any other driver in the car do? Quick hard applications will dramtically shorten a brake pad's life expectancy.

steviej