So my in-laws are building a new house and my father in-law doesn't have the time nor garage to change the brakes on his wife's 2001 BMW X5. So he asks me to do it. I say, sure. I guess the idiot light for "brake pad sensor" was on in the dash cluster.

So, I take the rotors off and head down to Checker. They say, "sorry can't machine 'em, they are thinner than the minimum spec on these rotors." I'm like wtf? these rotors have never even been turned before.

So come to find out, he had only bought the front set of pads. The rears were actually worse than the fronts, so off to Napa I go. He also forgot to buy the brake pad sensors. Dealership here I come. While i'm at the dealership, I ask the service desk if all X5's were built to need new rotors at every brake service interval. And he was like, "not just X5s, but all BMWs"... !!!!!!! That pisses me off. The rotors are about $160 each. i'm not buying that ----. So I just put the old ones back on. She'll be trading in that pile of crap for a G-Wagon in a few months anyway...

So does anyone know if most newer cars are like this, in that the rotors are never meant to be turned?

 

Nope, just Euro's! Gotta make that $ man, its their job to make close to 1000$ everytime you take your car into service. They figure if u can afford to drive the car, u can afford all the negative perks of owning the ----.. and its true about 99% can. So ---- it, chuck the rotors through a dealership window and be done with it