05RedZ71Sub

I recently took aver a lease on a 2013 Suburban LT with 34,000 miles on it. The prior owner replaced the tires at 28k miles which I thought was pretty early. He said the originals were totally shot. I noticed the brake fluid was down near minimum so I checked the brakes and the rears were almost done and the fronts had 1-2 mm left. Picked up Duralast Gold Cmax pads for front and back and replaced all the pads and hardware this weekend. Rotors were fine so I left them alone. Job went smoothly.

Is that early to need brakes on this truck? My last 2 Suburbans would usually get 50-55k on rears and a little more on the fronts. Seems to me that the prior owner drove this truck hard. The lease buyout price in a year is pretty good so I plan to buy the truck outright at the end of the lease although I have plenty of time to decide that.

By the way the Cmax pads feel and brake very nicely. No noise.

intheburbs

I'd say it's more the driver than the truck. That being said, I've always felt the half-ton Burbs are "underbraked." The 7200-lb GVWR brake system just doesn't seem to work as well compared to the 8600-lb brakes in the 2500s. My '01 had a habit of eating brakes, but my '08 2500 is doing much better.

I drove my '09 Impala hard, and it needed new tires at 30k. OEM tires suck. Period.

Rednucleus

our 93 and 05 have been good on brakes - bet it was the operator. Maybe he went down the road resting his left foot on the brake?

05RedZ71Sub

I'd say that's probably right. He probably didn't do much highway driving and was always in a hurry

tech2

not surprising....when I worked at Nissan the tires for lower end cars would be on the wear bars before the warranty mileage was expired. Seems to be the way for all compact cars for all brands.

Rednucleus

Tech2 - an old nissan guy! My dd is an 85 200sx, wifey bought it new back in the day and it just keeps on going!

73shark

My OEM tires had to be replaced at 34,000 miles. My wife's Sequoia tires are half gone at 7,500 miles. Apparently new car tires are crap.

tech2

wow. did the tires have any signs of irregular wear? Reason I ask is...every 2.5L 06 Altima had improper alignment settings right out of the factory. the customers first signs were tire noise at around the 7000 miles. by that time it was to late; the tires were wrecked. Good lube guys caught onto this early so the car was sent for alignment before it was to late.

73shark

Both vehicles had the alignment checked and were close to being in spec and were adjusted until they were in spec. The wear on both vehicles was very uniform except for the outer edge on the front tires which seems to feather a little bit on all the four wheel drive vehicles I have owned. Both dealerships said that type of wear is normal on four wheel drive.

tech2

the feather edge sawtooth pattern is toe wear. the largest tire wear alignment angle. With that pattern worn into the tires they growl at road speed; like a bad wheel bearing. It is not normal for any vehicle. Since your alignment, Your new tires don't have it i'll bet.