Do rear brakes wear out faster-all brake gurus come in
 

My car's rear pads lasted 57K mi, but the 2nd set purchased through Dave B (OEM) barely 13-15K. Not that my driving has drastically changed to all-city, but one would expect OEM pads to last longer.

Should I have my mechanic bleed the brakes? I noticed that after spirited driving, rear wheels are much hotter than front. Rear calipers seem to be OK. Is there a way to prolog the life of the next set?

i go through 2-3 sets of front pads before i need to replace the rears.

I figure smthg is wrong but what.

Sometime people refer doing a brake jobs as changing pads, this is wrong. When you do a brake jobs you do not only change the pad you need to clean the caliper assembley and and lubricate with ultra disc lube. When you dont do that once or twice a year the caliper ceased and the pads are constently in contact with the disk and fad out quickly.

AA

actually i know i'm not the only one that's also experienced the rears wearing faster than fronts

My car is a 4th Gen and I just had to replace the rear calipers and pads as the right rear caliper seized, probably from not using the parking brake and never cleaning the calipers. At the time I had more pad life left on the fronts - 50% to the wearbar vs 40% on the rear. The car had 58K with 80%+ highway miles on it. The front pads and brakes are still good to go but I understand the fronts should go first on a FWD car like the Maxima.

I went with Raybestos pads and don't have any idea how these will stand up compared to the OEM Nissan pads.

well think of it this way rear brakes are smaller thus they heat up alot faster, also yeah if i was you i'd have them bleed the brakes, make sure they start with the brake farthest away from the brake cylinder that means. When looking at the car from the rear, rigth back passenger side first, then left rear passenger first, then front passenger and then the driveer, this creates for equall amounts of fluid being distributed through the system. Thus if your low on fluid you might need to get more, also gives you better even brakeing. If you can afford it upgrades to cross/drilled slotted rotors, and better pads, check the forums about which pads are good. Also get better break lines if you can. Hope this will help you some :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

the rear ebrake on these calipers sometimes tend to freeze causing the caliper not to release........causing the pads to wear faster...also make sure the e brake cable is releasing?? just a thought

The only reason why brake freeze is because the lack of maintenance, clean your brake twice a year and you will always enjoy optimal brake, how do I know that ? I've been doing this for the last 20 years.

AA

I have gotten a lot less mileage out of my rear pads as well. I thought it might be the proprortioning valve was adjusted too much to the rear. I was reading up on it online for adjustment but from what I read (sorry I didn't bookmark it) the Maxima has dual automatic adjusting proportioning valves. depending on haow hard you are braking they will give more power to the front or rear brakes. Your wear will vary depending on your driving conditions. In harder braking more power will go to the front.

Since I do mostly stop and go driving on the 405 Fwy it makes sence to me that I would use more rear brakes. I swapped rear pads at 40k and 80k, fronts at 57k. I wait until I get a parts cupon and buy a OEM set before you need them since they are more costly than aftermarket. I tried Kragens best pads when I first needed the rears at 40k but they squealed bad and ended up getting OEMS and having to get the rotors turned with less than 500 miles on them.

yeap yeap yeap, i believe 70% of ur braking is on ur front rotors and pads, whie the rest is the rear. should be at least 2 front changings b4 the back are due.

Actually, The rear brakes only do around 30% of the total stopping power since the weight shifts to the front upon braking.
Thats why they are smaller.
Actually disc brakes on the rear are overkill on a front wheel drive car and there is not much difference in stopping distance from rear drums.

I changed my rear pads when i did my first brake job on the max.....the rears didn't need to be replaced but i did it anyway.......now its time to do the fronts again and the rears still look brand new.........i figure the rears are good for at least 50,000 miles before needing to be replaced....... :thumbsup:

I'm taking my car to the shop on Tuesday and will make sure to check the calipers. Last time my mechanic told me that rear calipers "are tight but OK to drive", and not sure if he lubed them or not. Some mechanics would rather want you to replace the caliper than fiddle with it. On our cars, when does the caliper need replacement?

yeah you may have stuck calipers...that aint cool YOO! :D

Make sure that when you change the pads you are retracting the caliper piston correctly (rotate them in with a piston tool). I assume you also know to match the tab on the pad with one of the 4 notches in the piston, right?

I am not doing the work myself....

I need to know when does the caliper need to be replaced, so that my my mechanic won't feed me with BS regarding the replacement.

just had the car on the lift: the left rear wheel is not turning over, the right rear will turn but the pads are rubbing against the rotor My mechanic told me to get only left rear caliper replaced.

1) when replacing a caliper, is that OK to replace just one, or the one on the other side of an axle has to be replaced too?

2) where can I get the best deal on calipers...Len Stoler Nissan in Baltimore quoted me $402-80 core for just one friggin caliper!

3) should the pads slightly rub against the rotor when the brake pedal is not touched?

bumpety bump

having the same problems, and currently looking for some answers.

My rears went before my fronts as well. Not exactly sure why, but I changed them all out anyway...

it looks like one rear caliper was malfunctioning for a while, and that contributed to excessive wear of rear brake pads. The problem was hard to detect a year ago because the caliper wasnt freezing all the time, so when the car was on the lift, it was OK....but froze eventually. I had the caliper replaced (from Advance Auto Parts $90 after $55 core trade-in), new OEM pads, and can already see better gas milage.

Fronts definitely wear out quicker (usually 2x) than rears.

I always thought that the fronts would wear faster and they did on my 91 Max. I had my rears replaced on my 01 a few weeks ago at approx. 38K miles. Fronts are still good. I think I'm doing more city driving now than with my 91. Mechanic said that it's not uncommon for rears to go first since they are smaller. That's my experience.

Yeah man. The fronts definitely wear out much faster then the rears. if you are having that big of a problem you mgiht want to get them checked out and possibly consider a whole new braking set up. Im planning on doing Racing Brake rotors and Hawk high performance plus pads all around. Not sure which calipers, but ill find something. good luck.

i like all the clashing inputs. you guys can't just say the fronts WILL wear out faster, or they DEFINITELY WILL. my rears have always gone out before fronts and there is an obvious pattern with other owners too. i personally attribute it to the smaller size

Ok well the title says..."do rear brakes wear out faster-all brake gurus come in." so we are pretty justified and have answered the quesiton. and yes i would attribute it to the fact that the rears are small and something is probably wrong.I was answering the question from my own POV and experience. But i guess eevryone has a different response.

Here's my $0.02. I dont know if it is useful or not, but today when I had my oil change done, my mechanic pointed out that my discs in the rear are blue! I drive spiritedly, but while braking, I always give linear pressure on the pedal, no insane tiring chirping stops. If I have to stop hard, I put my car in neutral for a few secs so that the pads aren't stuck on the rotors while they are cooling.

My front discs are slightly warped because I let my cousin drive my car over thanksgiving and he wasn't used to the sensitive brakes. Maybe due to the mildy warped fronts, more than 30% braking on my car is going in the rear??

Has anyone checked the rear rotors? I asked my mechanic what would cause the blueness. He said the rotors could be going thin and not having the ability to dicipate heat as efficiently. I also tend to use my hand brake when I park everywhere. I always release before moving.