I have about 40K miles on my 2015 GX brake pad. How do I check brake pad thickness w/o taking off wheel?

My wife told me she heard short squeaking metal noise in local driving once or twice last week. It happened to me as well infrequently, it is not happening each time when brake is applied for sure, and there is no other sign of brake wear (like steering wheel vibration etc), and rotors look as shiny as it should be.

I took a front brake pad picture yesterday, it looks like there is still 5mm left (11mm brand new?), the photo has a good focus, but with a lot of reflection from rotor surface, it is hard for to tell. You can see photo attached below. Let me know your insights,.

I also measured rear brake with a Q tip (after removing cotton), it looks like i have 5mm left there too (but i am not 100% sure). Given power is distributed 60/40 on GX by default, I figure rear brake pads would take more wear than front?

Anyway, I am ordering OEM pads, but I would like to learn how to check these things w/o taking wheels off. Thank you!

 

The picture appears to show plenty of pad left.
If the brakes are making noise it can likely be resolved by cleaning off the brake dust and lubing the backside of the pad plate where it interfaces with the piston.

 

Sometimes you can't get a good read without taking your wheel off. The picture you are showing though seems to show plenty of life left, probably around 50% left.

But FWIW, I replaced my rear pads before my front pads, which is unusual. And it was right around 45k miles. So make sure your rears aren't the ones squeaking. Mine were hitting the wear indicators, I ended up doing all 4 myself, got the OEM parts from Bell Lexus. You usually don't need to do the rear rotors (just the pads) unless you feel pulsation in the pedal when you brake.

 

Thanks nuclearn8 and BradTank for the advice!

 

they appear good. maybe need some grease on the backside of the pad (what the pad part is mounted to) or where it (the same mount metal frame part) rubs the parts where it touches then moves.

Squeaks there can sometimes be noticed more when just starting the drive.

 

Replaced old EBC rotors and pads on all 4 corners with new ones for continuity since I was very happy with the 1st set.