you should get 30,000 or so out of the brake pads before they need changing unless you drive the car hard with a lot of hard braking; the rotors never need to be changed unless you have driven the car so far beyond the brake pad wear point that the pad is gone at some point; and the metal backing on the pad is now scraping the rotor; take your tire off and inspect it visually; see how much pad is left; if the pad was worn down to the rotors, you would generally here a horrible metal grinding sound when you applied the brakes
Brake pad wear is very dependent on the vehicle, driver, and type of driving. I’ve gotten 30,000 miles, I’ve gotten 90,000 miles, just depends.
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texases is correct. On this weeks rerun of Cartalk this was discussed. An MB employee was asking about short lived brake pads, in San Francisco they were seeing worn out pad at less than 10,000 miles.
Several months back we had a person on this site that had his brakes done at approximately 30,000 miles and getting ready for a new set at 60,000 miles, I have the identical truck as his and on the original brakes at 55,000 miles.
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I suspect your issue is with the rear brakes, and I suspect the issue is was caused by a stuck caliper pin. On Nissan and Infiniti models that use floating calipers, the only way to get full life out of your pads (ie even wear both sides) is to have a brake service where they take everything apart and then relube and reassemble every year. Or, you can do it yourself. Still its a service most people never really have done.
Should be done on the front brakes as well. Brake pad ears can also get stuck leading to uneven wear. Good luck with the repair. You could get good prices for the parts somewhere like RockAuto and save big time compared the dealer parts. Any mechanic will be able to replace the pads and rotors. If getting a brake fluid change make sure you or the mechanic knows the specific bleed sequence for your model, and to use the proper DOT fluid…
Well mine were 5 on the front and 6 on the back. They were wanting to charge me 618 for pads and rotor work…
WOW! Thanks so much. Will do!
As @jtsanders said, you can go to 2.5 mm, so you have thousands of miles to go. How many miles are on the current pads?
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Misfire …
For all new pads and rotors including labor, I would take that … see if they’ll throw in lifetime pads.
Best response I’ve seen. If it’s alignment/ball joint related you’ll see it in tire wear or pulling left or right or wandering (not good) when driving. If it pulses/vibrates when you lightly step on the brakes, it’s rotors or drums (old school). You can surface them a couple times before they get too thin and then you have to replace them (heavy use, say towing, just replace the rotors, they’re “cheap” and will quickly warp after the first turning under heavy towing). Screeching/squealing is the sound telling you to replace pads; grinding means you went to far into squealing and now you need new rotors too. Tire issues are usually under inflation or balancing, proper inflation being fairly easy to figure out with a gauge (also increases mileage of tires), balancing is usually a hopping or steering wheel vibration that changes or goes away at different speeds. I have the tires that are rotated onto the front, which are every 5K miles, balanced and/or checked. My .02.
First off, thanks for the compliment.
I’ve found that most modern rotors are either too thin, or the pad is too aggressive to leave enough thickness to machine more than once at the very least. Many can’t survive one set of pads let alone 2 or 3. The cost of turning rotors these days is close to the cost of new parts and takes less time in the service if you can even FIND a shop that still has a machine!
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Yes, I would concur, and I run a truck so I just change them out before I warp them on a road trip downhill after resurfacing … there’s actually a few shops that have a machine that allows the rotors to be surfaced without removal, so labor is cheap and parts are few, but as you stated, just change them out … Proper maintenance, installing quality parts and not taking the cheapest fix alternative is a good way to stay off the side of the road (and thus pay the cost in towing exceeding that cost between the new OME part and the one from China) in my experience …
If you trust the mechanic, follow his advice. If not, get a new mechanic.
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Thanks you guys! Great advice I’m scheduled tomorrow with a great independent shop 
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You guys are the best! Thanks!
You’re welcome. When do the cookies arrive? 
Don’t worry, the web site installs them automatically 
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Lol. Slaving away in the kitchen baking a batch for you now!
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Yes they do 