Premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14
Only 2 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When premature brake pad or rotor wear gets reported
There are 2 reports of premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 7,250 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $300–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Front disc rotors warped as a result of riding through water during storm. Care was being used due to conditions so speed and braking effort was low. Rotor warping caused heavy pulsing during braking reducing directional stability and increasing stopping distance. Odometer only read 8000 miles. Rotors are being replaced by dealer under warranty but kawasaki has not acknowledged this is an issue. Research of web forums for this motorcycle revealed this is a recurring issue with kawasaki concours 14 with multiple replacements of rotors being reported by several individuals. Suspected cause is brake rotor material having insufficient heat resistance and rotor size for weight of bike. *tr
I own a 2008 kawasaki concours 14 motorcycle. I have twice reported a malfunction of the front brakes to the dealer, and have called kawasaki motors corp in irvine, ca to no avail. I reported at the 8 thousand mile service that when the front brake is applied the motorcycle vibrates and shudders. The dealer declared this "normal" due to the "ratcheting" of the floating caliper/rotor assembly. I again reported the condition at the 12 thousand mile service, only now the condition has worsened from vibration to the front brake "grabbing" at all speeds and if the brakes are applied heavily between 45 to 60 MPH the motorcycle vibrates and shudders very badly. The front brake grabs so badly that at slow speeds during a light application, when the brake "grabs", it actually compresses the front forks, causing the front end to "dip". An accident waiting to happen. The kawasaki dealer has stated that this is normal, and can't confirm or validate my complaint. When kawasaki motors corporation was contacted, the customer service representative stated (after I asked him to contact the servicing dealer to provide technical help) "if I contact…
Also reported on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Fuel pump failure
Loss of braking
Headlight failure or clouding
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 2 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 2 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does premature brake pad or rotor wear happen on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?
2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed