I noticed the rear brake rotors on my son's 2003 P5 looked a bit scored. Pull one wheel off to check closer and sure enough, the outer section of the rotor had fairly deep grooves on the outer surface. I didn't feel anything on the inner surface. Off comes the other wheel and it's the same (although the grooves were not as deep).

Now, while we bought this 5 years ago, my son has only added about 23K since then and the brakes were replaced just before we bought it. Much of the 23K was driving between Phoenix area and LA area while he lived in AZ. Overall braking was fine and there was no abnormal noise coming from the brakes.

So I replaced the rear rotors and pads (I didn't forget the anti-rattle clips), The driver side rotor needed a bit of persuasion to remove from the hub. The rest was pretty straightforward (no rust in AZ or SoCal).

After a few cycles, got the parking brake adjusted. Job done. Now some will think, "why didn't he just turn the rotors and reuse them?" Generally, when changing brakes, if there's any damage or excessive wear on drums or rotors, I just replace them too so everything is new.

Now for a closer look at the old parts. You can see the scoring on the outer half of the rotor's surface. Driver's side was pretty deep. Passenger side was better but would still catch on my nail as I swept across.

The pads still have plenty of material but, there are cracks in the pad material. The pads on the left are the outers. It's hard to see in the pics (sorry!) but you can see the grooving and if you look hard enough, you may see the radial cracks starting around the center of the pad to the outer edge.

Driver side rotor


Passenger Side Rotor


Brake pads (outer on left, driver side on top)


Closeup of driver side outer pad.


Closeup of rotor section (driver side, outer).



Closeup of Passenger side rotor.



Since he's moved back to SoCal, he'll be likely driving fewer miles, so these brakes should last a while.

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