Guaranteed Lifetime Brake Pads

A couple of years ago (2005) I started hearing a lot of squeaking when I would hit the brakes in the Civic. I decided it was the brake pads. My friend Jude convinced me I could change the pads (I'd never done it before). Turns out there are only pads on the front of the Civic, so a set of lifetime pads was only $20. I could have saved a few dollars, but figured why not if they're going to last forever.

In retrospect, buying the lifetime pads was the right call, but not because they lasted forever. It was the right call because when I replaced them again last week AutoZone refunded my purchase of the new ones - that's the guaranteed part.

Two things learned here:
1. Changing brake pads isn't really hard to do. If you only do it every 3-4 years you have to relearn it, so it takes twice as long as it should, but it's fairly easy.
2. Clearly anyone who would market a "lifetime" brake pad hasn't seen me drive. Truth be told I drive the Civic harder than I do the TA most of the time - then again the TA is barely even awake doing things the Civic can't do wide open.

Speaking of the TA, I noticed a vibration when I drove it yesterday. I think my tire pressures must be down a little from the cold or something, clearly it's a balance issue and I'm just hoping pressure will clear it up. It's not a major issue in that it is only barely noticeable at highway speeds (but gets worse from there). If we were to move to Germany I'd definitely have to get that sorted out in a hurry.