# Warning light: Brake pads worn



## USNA1999 (Apr 23, 2012)

The brake pads worn symbol has lit up in the intrument cluster on my wife's 2008 Touareg V8. The car has 33K. Per Tom Bush VW in Jacksonville, both pads and rotors must be replaced at a cost of $800. This is without even looking at it. 
Per Osteen VW also in JAX, I might not have to replace the rotors. They stated that what they have seen is that usually the rotors don't get replaced until the second visit to replace pads. 
Has anyone encounter this issue with the brakes on their Touaregs? Any recommendation on who can do the work at a better price here in JAX?


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## Yeti35 (May 17, 2006)

Replace pads and rotors. If you are mechanically inclined you can do it yourself for they are not very hard to do at all. I did front and rear on my 04 for $600 total. So your 800 quote for fronts is rediculous imo.


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## babeinsap (Sep 11, 2011)

I had the same message a few years back around 35K, all I replaced were the pads and sensors front and rear. I have had no problems. Now at 80k miles light was on again, this time i replaced pads, sensors, and rotors in the front. light went out. I still have rotors and pads for the rear but i'll wait for the warning message first.


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## vwincident (Jul 3, 2004)

I'll be doing brakes and rotors this weekend...original rotors 190K miles...this will be my second brake change, last changed 90K...still on my original battery!! knock on wood....this has been the best vehicle... 

http://www.automanuals.biz/volkswagen/touareg/43516.html


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## JohnKK (Aug 30, 2004)

*just do the pads*

While the trust fund student would do both rotors and pads, I would just do the pads. I'm on my original rotors at 71k mi. IMO the wear limit on rotors is overly conservative. If VW covered brakes in a maintenance warrantee, you can bet that rotors would not be changed with every pad change. As long as you're not getting brake pulsation from pad deposits on the rotors or warped rotors, you can get lots more miles out of them. Even if the rotor surface is not perfectly smooth, new pads will coform to the surface in a few miles and work fine. 

If you can jack up the car and remove a tire, changing the pads is less than 15 min extra per wheel. Changing rotors, while not complex, does require unbolting the calipers, and the bolts are tight and awkward to loosen. You will need a hefty breaker bar to crack them loose. 

Note that you will probably need new wear sensors...even for the ones that are not worn through. I have found it nearly impossible to extract the sensors from the old pads without breaking them. If the brake dust bothers you, I would also switch from OEM pads to aftermarket pads that claim low dust.


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## Black06GLI (Jun 23, 2010)

Original rotors could last to 2 sets of pads...though you could change all of the rotors and pads for the quoted dealer price if you source the rotors and pads yourself and have An Indy install them...club touareg has a lot of good info, I've been looking into this for my '08 recently. There are different axle codes for brake specs as well, so make sure you order the correct pads, rotors are the same size on V6 and 8 from '08 up on T2.

Also be careful on the pads aftermarket, you can go for longevity or performance, but I haven't heard of a pad that offers great performance without a decent amount of dust, obviously to get the "bite" your friction quotient has to be higher...

Look into Zimmerman rotors at the very least, you can get great prices on front and rear...they are also zinc coated so no rust, German TUV approved and many people claim better wear than OEM brakes...


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