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Hey,
I only drive recklessly on the twisty two-lane black tops where I turn
my 9-5 into the most fun roller coaster of all.
The rest of the time, I'm very gradual with everything. I've learned
that I need to acclerate quickly in my 9-5 because it is not very happy
if RPM dips below 2,000. Other than that, I maintain constant speed as
much as possible (not accelerating or decelerating), and change lanes
very gradually as well.
I'm only extrapolating the 100,000 mile figure because I've never had
to change brake pads on any of the cars I've owned. The last car I
owned (Saturn SC2) had better than 80% pad wear at 50,000 miles when
I traded it in on my 9-5. This is in stark contrast to what I did to the
family Honda Civic when I was in my teens. I would brake abruptly and
and speed right back up again. I went through pads every 10,000 miles
or so back then.
I dug up my old service records on the Saturn for you. At 30,000
mile service, pad wear was 90% for front and rear. At 40,000 mile
service, pad wear was 85% for front and rear. I guess it took the
first 5% a little longer than ususual to wear down.
Anyway, if that's extrapolated to 100,000 miles, I will have had
60% pad wear left, which is still pretty usable. So, I think that I
could have kept the original pads until 100,000 miles.
For the 9-5, if I do spirited driving up in Marin (my favorit spot
for auto-luge), I get a lot of the famous black brake dust on my rims.
However, after my recent 1,000 mile trip to Las Vegas, I had next to no
brake dust on my rims.
I'm hoping that the original pads will last me for at least 50,000
miles on my 9-5.
So, I will tell you more about my strategy. Don't get me wrong. I
don't drive exclusively in the right lane. On my trip to Vegas, I was
in a BMW killing mood and dusted a 530 going 120MPH. What I don't do
is kill the energy with the brakes.
If I want to slow down, I just ease off the gas pedal. So, my secret
which I'm not recommending is to not use the brakes if at all possible.
First, braking kills energy. By the way, on the trip to Vegas I got
33MPG. That's not bad for a full size sedan such as the 9-5. I let
free friction slow me down as much as possible. If everyone drove like
me, half the guys would be bored to death but traffic would be much better
(less congestion) because it is the shock waves of braking that slow
everybody down.
To do this properly (BTW, I have not had any accidents for ten
years now), one has to be very attentive. If one sees traffic slowing
down ahead, just ease off the gas well ahead of time and coast.
On the trip to Vegas, I had to use my brakes maybe ten times on the
highway mostly to avoid hitting slow moving jalopies (miatas, benzes).
So, not much to it. Let free friction kill the energy. That way you
will get excellent highway gas mileage and your original pads will last
100,000 miles.
As for city stop and go driving, that's somewhat more difficult to
explain. I lay off the gas just like on the highway, and when getting
close to stop-light, stop-sign or cross-walk, I apply ever so slight
pressure to the brakes. However, this last bit will be somewhat tough
to emulate. I've got a feather soft touch which makes me a good leader in
partner dancing and incidentally an excellent marksman with my 45.
There isn't much to it, Mr. Science. :-)
thanks
Jae
posted by 172.190.35...
, Fri, 29 Nov 2002 23:04:28
, Mon, 2 Dec 2002 13:57:47
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