Ok so I am just about to hit 36,000. and my brake wear light indicator comes on. It comes on every time I hit to brake. So i figured its about time to change. My friend and BMW junkie is going to help me change my pads, and possibly paint my calipers. He is practiclly insisting we change the rotors, or have them milled down to spec when we change pads. He says its useless to change pads without rotors being milled down. Do i really need to? Any thing i need to be aware of when change brakes myself?

 

Listen to your friend, at least have the rotors turned (milled) to insure the new pads have a smooth even surface to seat on.
Things to be aware of:
Keep everything clean, don't get greasy fingerprints on the new pads or the rotor surfaces. Use Anti-Squeal compound on the rear of the pads. Break in the new pads....do a search, there is a thread that details the steps in the break in process. Use Rotex Gold brake pads....you'll thank me later !

 

Do i have to worry about brake wear senors? The light ont he dash comes on when i press the brake. Do i have to replace them?

 

If your brake light is coming on you shouldn't waste any time getting this done. I disagree about the Rotex Gold and strongly belive Posi-Quiet Ceramic pads are better. I recently upgraded my brakes to Mercedes Cailpers and was suprised to see my Ceramic pads showed no wear at about 20K miles and they have virtually zero dust. It is nice when your car needs to be washed way before your wheels do! I also installed the pads at 40K miles without touching the rotors. The rotors had a little uneven grooves at the time, but when I took them off at about 60K miles the rotors were perfectly smooth and were still within the minimum thickness. Ceramic pads are the easiest on rotors and seem to last forever. I have heard others have to replace their Rotex Gold after 20k miles. The only issue I have ever had with the ceramic pads is if I park it with wet rotors and rust forms, the pads will give one loud squeal as a back out my driveway as the rust is wiped off by the pad. This only lasts about 1 second until the rotor is clean. This only happened about 3-4 times in the past couple of years.

 

Except for the MB caliper upgrade, I could have written this word-for-word!

I swear, good or bad that the Posi-Quiet pad polish the rotors to a mirror finisf, but I stop on a dime with change. The "SCREEEEECH" backing out of the driveway will wake the dead-but they ARE dead, right?