Hi
I went to a festival two weeks ago. I had to drive over dirt, and later in the day it rained. I had to leave through some mud. The squeaking seemed to start within days of that. I think it's the front left wheel well, but it could have been the other wheel wells, too. I sprayed the wheel wells as best I could with a hose, and got some car washes that spray the underbody. I dont know if that made a difference. I thought something got in between the rotor and dust shield, but looking closer it seems to be the brake pad.
The first three pictures I attached are of the front left pad and brake wear indicator. The metal appears to be rubbing against the rotor, signaling to replace the pad.
The fourth picture is the front right pad, which is not quite worn enough to rub and squeal.
So it looks like I need to replace the front pads? I guess it's just a bizarre coincidence that the mud situation happened around the same time that the FL brake started squealing because of low remaining brake pad material. I'd appreciate if someone can confirm this, as these are my original OEM pads and I havent been hands on with brakes much in my life.

 

Time for brake pads. Just snag a set of good ones from like Rallysportdirect Hawk makes good ones and Carbotech has a great street pad as well. You should be able to tackle this yourself just research the steps.

 

How many miles have you driven on them?

 

I got 43.5K out of the stock front pads. I'm not sure how much further the rears will go.
I'm signed up for a performance driving school (track day) on 9/25 & again on 10/9. I'm not sure if I can get new pads, installed, and bedded in to my comfort level by 10/9. Ugh, I think I'll have to cancel both days. I dont feel comfortable going with my worn stock pads, plus they'll be squealing from the brake wear indicator.

I'm leaning towards going OEM/Ferodo DS2500 again. I'm willing to use a higher brake dust pad that occasionally squeals in the winter. I dont want to lose performance, and I'm not quite at the level where I want dedicated track pads yet- next spring I'll look into that.

The rotor is quite smooth and even, but there is a minimal sharp edge at the very end of the rotor. Would you guys bother trying to resurface the rotor?

 

Whoa. I don't think the stock pads are supposed to last that long. I just got my stock pads replaced with DS2500's this past weekend. My buddy said the fronts were completely done from normal commuting. Rears still have a little under half. Stocks were on for 27k miles, I would've honestly changed them sooner.

Are you talking about the lip on the edge of the rotor? From what I read, it's normal but you should measure it so double check. General consensus is it'll still be fine after the first pad change, but you ran your's for 43k miles so measure it. If it's good, just clean up the rotor. If not, you can try resurfacing but the thinner your rotor the more prone it is to warping. New rotors would be the safe option.

I would also check your rears ASAP based on what mine's look like. I'm no professional on cars (quite the opposite really, everything I know is from searching), but 43k seems a bit much for the stock pads.

 

I used to think the same think read life, especially high performance pads on a sports car. Since I bought my Evo, I've ready opinions all across the board. I read a post where a guy changed his OEM pads at 55k. I'd assume it's mostly based on driving habits, the percentage of miles on the highway, things like that. I've driven mostly highway miles on my Evo.

I would really like to avoid resurfacing the rotor. The rotors are in excellent shape, so I definitely wont be buying new ones. I'll probably just gently sandpaper them, put new pads on, and see how it goes.
My rear pads still have some life, maybe 5-10k miles.