DBS ceramic brakes, life expectancy?

[martinvantage]

Before I take the DBS plunge I have heard one or to comments about the additional costs of brake checks and heaven help us replacement of said ceramics. Anyone have a view about how long they should last on a non tracked car and what the servicing replacement costs might be?
Feedback from early model owners would be realy helpful.
Thanks

[sadlerj]

Simon George who contributes in the Fast Fleet in Evo Mag has just replaced his at 12,000 miles costing £9366, but his gets lots of track work and he mentions that the inner pad had warn more than outer pad thus stripping the silicone coating on the disks thus ensuring he had to do disks and pads...gulp!

Edited to add "according to what he has written in this months mag"

Edited by sadlerj on Wednesday 27th January 17:43

[whoami]

By weird co-incidence I just asked that question of my dealer regarding my own DBS.

The answer I got was somewhat different!

[silverspeed]

And the answer was?

[rick-derby-]

[quote=whoami]By weird co-incidence I just asked that question of my dealer regarding my own DBS.

The answer I got was somewhat different![/quote

if I remember correctly about £3000.00 different

[martinvantage]

Pricey... Rick in your experience would it be reasonable to expect a set of pads to ast 20,000 miles , at least for a non tecked car?
I hear also that every other service the discs have to be removed and weighed.
All this is very helpful in understanding things better,

[whoami]

martinvantage said:

Pricey... Rick in your experience would it be reasonable to expect a set of pads to ast 20,000 miles , at least for a non tecked car?
I hear also that every other service the discs have to be removed and weighed.
All this is very helpful in understanding things better,

I have been told, in writing, 30-40K miles for pads

[Speedraser]

If I recall correctly, Simon George considered his situation self-inflicted because the pad-wear warning light had come on, he looked at the (outer) pads through the wheels, and they looked ok. Of course, he couldn't see the inner pads...

[jack of diamonds]

In theory the discs should last the life of most of these cars when used on road, just remember to never use alloy wheel cleaner as it ruins them.

[whoami]

sadlerj said:

Simon George who contributes in the Fast Fleet in Evo Mag has just replaced his at 12,000 miles costing £9366, but his gets lots of track work and he mentions that the inner pad had warn more than outer pad thus stripping the silicone coating on the disks thus ensuring he had to do disks and pads...gulp!

Edited to add "according to what he has written in this months mag"

Edited by sadlerj on Wednesday 27th January 17:43

That's incorrect and pretty misleading.

By his own admission, it was largely his own fault.

[simonspider]

As I said in the write up it was my fault - the pad warning light came on but the pads on the outside looked ok for another couple of thousand miles. The inner ones I didnt check and they ruined the ceramic discs. I put a new set of pads on the ceramics before I realised they were ruined and the pads lasted about 2000 miles as they had turned abrasive, hence the need for a new set.
However normally the pads wear almost identical to the LP640 (both cars a similar weight) so they will do about 5/6 track days and 4/5000 road miles inbetween. Not bad for a big car.

Incidentally had Evo's Roger Green out in the DBS the other day at Bedford Autodrome, he took the LP640 round to try and set a new lap time in the wet,followed by the DBS. The DBS trounced the LP640 by a few seconds - according to Roger it puts the power down in a far more balanced way than the LP whose power band is well over 5000rpm (not much use on a wet track).

I have never been a great fan of Aston's I have to admit - but since I bought the DBS for 6th Gear I adore it. Fabulous machine

[polar8]

I've gone from a DBS back into a V8 Vantage - and the biggest thing I miss are the brakes - they were absolutely awesome! Don;t miss the squeaking though - but that probably had something to do with using wheel cleaner and powerjets (without being told otherwise).

[martinvantage]

squeeking brakes? Must be a viral condition with AM. Only just got rid of it in my V8. Thanks for the tip about wheel cleaner.