2017 Mirage front brake job: some interesting observations (2017 pad retrofit doable)

[Cobrajet]

So a buddy and coworker of mine bought an Infrared 2017 Mirage ES CVT this past summer. He loves it. A couple weeks ago he asked me about a noise he was getting from the right front wheel. I asked him how many miles he had on it now and he said, "About 35,000."

I immediately suspected he was due for a set of front brake pads, as mine had only lasted about that long before they were down to the squealer clips. I did a quickie inspection of the pad depth through the holes in the wheels, and it seemed as though he had plenty of pad left. The noise really bothered him.

I recommended that he take the car to Mitsubishi and have them figure out what it was, but he told me that he would like to have me replace the front brake pads anyway. He had to order them in at the dealership as NOBODY who sells Mitsu parts online seemed to show them.

When I removed the front brake pads, I was able to confirm what I had already told him. The brake pads were not only fine, but had about 40%-50% of the friction material left. He uses his car for delivery, as I do, and is not easy on his brakes. Unlike my car, his car is his daily driver (mine is just for work). Mitsubishi definitely made some improvements here!



The new pads, with new part number, had friction material that was visually different than the older OEM pads. It was lighter...a tannish color instead of a dark gray. But I noticed one other thing as well: the '17 pads have the same dimensions as the '14-'15 pads.





Yep. I have an extra set of Raybestos pads for my '15, and the dimensions of the pads are EXACTLY the same. So it may be possible to use the better '17 pads on your '14-'15 Mirage, should you choose to do so.

That noise he was hearing? Turns out it was the tires. He rotated them and it went away. Oh, well...he won't need to worry about his front brakes until he hits about 90k!