Clarification: Because I was feeling a 'shudder' of sorts when braking from high speeds when slowing down on exit ramps, I wanted the brakes checked. Speaking to my technician after he drove the car, pulled the wheels and inspected the brake system, he found that the front pads, while needing a good cleaning, were just under 5/32 and the rotors required machining/turning due to relatively minor unevenness. New pads start at 12/32, and PA law requires replacement at 2/32. So although I still had considerable pad life left, probably enough to make to 50K miles or so, I chose to replace them while the rotor work was being done. While I am very gentle on my cars, I do live in the city, with lots of stop-and-go driving (which drives me crazy!). For comparison, my previous Lexus LS400 required front pad replacement at 55K miles (the service manager told me he never saw any customer get that many miles out of their original pads), while my Mercedes-Benz 500SL before that required front pad replacement at just under 30K miles. I personally have never heard of anyone getting 100+K miles out of front brake pads. That would be amazing!
