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I recently received the latest copy of PB and it’s got a feature on brakes.

There were a few “facts” that surprised me – both surrounding the service life of braking systems. Anyway, the general point was that OE brake systems don’t have a particularly long service life and:

• 1) with a set of callipers it’s the bores that tend to wear quickest rather than the pistons (guess when you look at the materials used that shouldn’t be a surprise …. although you might like to think they would line or plate the bores so that they would last and you could service them by changing pistons and seals …..
  2) an OE master cylinder has a service life of about 4yrs before it needs replacing.

Now I’m not entirely convinced about all of this. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of people having to change callipers and master cylinders after just a few years because they’ve worn out.
Also, looking at the Falco service schedule doesn’t give much clue. It does tell you to "check, adjust and if necessary, replace" your braking system every year but whereas it tells you how to change pads, fluid and discs – and measure wear of discs and pads, the manual tells you nothing about assessing wear on master cylinder and callipers – let alone suggesting that an eye should be kept on them.
……. so I’m not convinced ……


That said, it does make you wonder about buying second hand replacement callipers and master cylinders …. how much of their service life is used up and how much are they really worth?

Thoughts?

I guess mebbe the tolerances depend on how close to the limit you regularly use them, although I have never found them lacking in an emergency on my classics which may even have the originals.

My eight year old front brakes are absolutely fine with original disks, uprated pads and regular cleaning. The HH pads are still a bit too sudden for me, have to remember just to use one or two fingers. (Carefully!).
As for the rear brake, I think Aprilia must have built them up from 40 year old parts!
Never got mine to work in any way decent, so gave up ages ago.

same old, if it's not broke do'nt fix it,in 4 yrs i've not noticed any difference and i'm still on original pads.if you hav'nt got a leak then there's no wear.

surely

I suppose if you're expecting as-new 100% levels of performance, you'll need to do as PB says. For most of us, I doubt if we could tell the difference between 95-98% efficiency and 100%. I would say that 4 years is an entirely arbitrary figure - usage patterns vary so widely.

As fastasfcuk says, if it's not leaking it's still working...

I'm with Fastas, if the system isn't leaking surely it is working to the optimum efficiency.
The brake fluid must be causing a cushion between the caliper and the piston, the wear should be on the seal.