Looks like I might need to replace my rear pads soon, and it is the 3rd time in 1.5 yrs. It seems that once the pedal is pressed, the right rear wheel stops the car first, followed by left rear, and two front....btw calipers are working, and the pads are OEM. What could be the cause?

 

If your calipers are OK, I would look into your parking brake settings, it may be too tight causing the pads to be always rubbing and as such are always first to engage when you press the pedal...

 

I would check the parking break also Kostya, since you are a 5Spd and use you handbrake everytime you park.

 

I do not usually use my parking brake to park. Someone made a point once about some sort of a valve that distributes the braking power to front and rear wheels, does anyone know anything about that?

 

ok while one the subject of brakes since it possible to install 300zx brakes on the max why not also the 350Z fronts which would be bigger i believe the factory replacement and also a few overseas parts extra for those

 

Proportioning valve is what splits the braking force. In our cars it's built into the master cylinder, is non-adjustable, and is controlled by the ABS.

Possibilities, then:

1. Right rear caliper is binding. Use a feeler gage to check clearance between front and back pads and rotor on the left and right side -- it should be equal and present. If the right side has less clearance than the left side, the pads are incorrectly shimmed, or the right rear caliper's piston(s) are not fully disengaging. Did you rebuild (shims, slides and pistons) your calipers when you did your rear brake job?
2. Master cylinder is going bad or a brake line is collapsing (watch your rear brake lines when you apply the brakes, if this is possible, see if the hose is collapsing.)
3. ABS is getting faulty data and activating prematurely on one or more wheels -- but this usually causes an ABS light and code. This would be caused by bad wheel speed sensors in most cases.

HTH.

 

it is imposible... I think you are driving in reverse.......

You have a problem with your rear calipers or the brake

 

No its not, its wierd but i had the same problem. My rear brakes wore out twice as fast, and i had suspected somehow the rear brakes were somehow grabbing first, but i never knew why. This was until i put on new rear brake pads (higher performance ones) and had the front stock ones and brand new sticky tires all round, at around the same time. That the only logical explanation for what happened to me on the highway which led me to total my car.

I was going around a curve ~70 mph and tap my brakes a little harder than usual cuz people were slowing down and all of a sudden i start sliding out. I try to get traction back by but then im sliding all over the place and i have to brake to keep from hitting the person in front, but that just makes it worse and i end up losing control and spinning out. Thats not the worst part, this happened twice, exactly the same in 2 weeks, only the second time i totalled my car. I did some browsing online and it seems that what brake bias to the rear that existed (since i found my rears wore twice as fast, but thought nothing of it back then) was accentuated by the fact i put on better tires and pads with a higher coefficient of friction.

I never looked into it, but now im curious since someone has a similar situation.

 

why did you ***** up my thread man? I asked a specific question regarding rear brakes, the fitment issues have nothing to do with this. Please delete and post the new thread

 

My rears also wore out first. Dealer said that it wasn't unusual because the rear brakes are smaller. I hadn't heard that before and it had never happened to me before.

 

I've actually had a problem with my front calipers sticking a bit even after I changed the calipers out once. I suspect our master cylinders go faulty after a while. I'm planning on swapping mine with a refurbished one soon to test that theory... the brake pedal has never really felt "consistent" in the same way other cars I've owned have had the same consistent "feel" to the pedal no matter how long you've had the pads/rotors on there.

 

I talked to a service tech a while ago and he said that the rears were designed to wear out faster than the fronts. If he really knows what he is talking about or if he is full of sheyat, I don't know. I do know that my rears did wear out faster than my fronts.

 

on my 1st car (1988 Chevy Corsica) the problem was so bad that whenever I pressed the brake pedal, the rear end started going loose. It won't happen in Max because it is equipped with ABS.

this is b.s that the rear wear out faster because of smaller brakes. Nissan has put larger brakes on the front for a reason that they can take more heat. That way, the rears should still get reasonable life expectancy.

 

this is odd. in most cars i know of the front wears out about twice as fast. i would bleed the brake lines first. it's a pretty easy procedure that you can do yourself, and a good first step to troubleshoot this issue.

 

The rears should last twice as long as the fronts. I would suspect the master cylinder is the main culprit, but maybe the rear pads are composed of a slightly different compound that is softer.

BTW, I have heard of this problem with Honda's also.

 

My rear brakes have lasted check just as long as my fronts on the maxima.

However when I worked on my cousin's subaru, the rear pads wore out faster than the fronts. I think maybe the issue is the type of pad material used and the thickness of the pad that determines its wear characteristics.

I'm unsure of the ppl spinning out while braking though

 

I thought about getting the brakes bled....my pads and rotors are OEM, so its got to be smthg else other than brake pad material

 

I noticed something similar to you guys...rears wearing out sooner than front pads. However, the first original set wore out the same, so I have no idea now. But ever since the original pads, my rears wear out faster than the fronts. Oh well, what I do is check them every 9 months anyway, and throw new pads wherever needed. We all know that our max's brake system is pretty much the weakest link anyway. All the max's I ever had were hard on the pads. I think it's just a "Max thing".

 

my rears wear faster than my fronts and i have no issues with "uneven" braking...i have a few spare sets and the rears are smaller so that's what i always attributed it to..maybe we're wrong?

 

Ditto. My back ones wore out first and my front were about half gone (@50K) and I have not noticed any abnormal breaking.

 

no its because the rear brakes have more pressure so your car dosent flip fowards. just like on a bicycle. if you apply the same pressure on the front brakes what happens? your bike flips fowards.

 

(points up)

That's the single lamest thing I've ever read on here, maximaownsyou.


OBTW -- My 2k2 rear brakes at 60,000 were still 40%+ on stock pads/rotors. Finally replaced them. Fronts are only good for me for 20-30k.

 

ROFL, so the Maxima is going to flip "over the handlebars" just like my old 18 speed?

Right




I'm of the opinion that something's not right if your rears are wearing out faster than your fronts. I'd try bleeding first. Maybe something is up with the master cylinder; it'd be worth checking into. Also make sure your rear calipers aren't frozen up - that's been known to happen on these cars.

 

I am the orig owner of my 2000 GXE. The original rear pads lasted about 60K mi/4 yrs Replaced with OEM pads. Had to change the rear pads again (OEM) at 70k mi due to frozen rear caliper-they just wore out faster. Now 6 mos later and at 83k mi, rear pads need to be replaced again. My front pads were changed along with rotors at 25k mi under the wtty. The front brakes have not been touched ever since. Now, the front brakes last me 60k mi and rears barely 8-10K mi. WTF is going on with my car

 

Every 40K for rears and every 60K for fronts here. Maybe it has something to do with the way people brake? (gradual vs. last second stomp on it.)

 

I have 36k miles on my 2003 with OEM pads and the rear pads have just started to squeal....squeal clip scraping the rotor. The brakes perform normally....no issues at all. Not a sound from the fronts. Most of my driving is in heavy traffic. I have Hawk HPS Pads, Technafit SS Lines and Dot 4 Fluid that I will be installing this weekend. Also will be doing GR2 caliper paint in silver along to Nissan brake decals. Hopefully, it won't look ricey.

 

WTF....

Ok, let me tackle the first annoying thing... even in cycling you use the FRONT brake more, it is more stable with better traction. The rears are only used more on steep decents where flipping is a real danger and even then many people including myself just shift weight towards the rear and continue to use the front brakes more.

Ok, now the second. Your car IS NOT going to "flip" over... I dont care how hard you slam on your brakes. go ahead and even disconnect your rears and slam on the brakes.. let us know how that goes...

your rear brakes should wear far less often that your fronts, I changed my front brakes three times before I changed my rears. The stock rear brakes lasted me 4.5 years. Something like 70% of your braking force is done by your fronts. You must have a problem with your rear brakes, I would flush in all new fluid, change lines even, check your parking brake...

 

Add me to the list of shorter rear pad life.

My brakes have always felt fine. At 42K my rear indicators started making noise so I changed the pads all around. The fronts still had some material left. The inside rear pads were much more worn that the outside. The calipers and sliders felt fine. Probably an e-brake or master cylinder issue, huh? Maybe this is also causing the bad gas mileage?



We should take a poll.

 

rofl i was wondering to see if anyone was going to catch the part where the car actually flips.. have i mentioned i have too much time on my hands to think of crap like this?

 

Yup...the brake force is usually split up 70f/30r. My front pads always wear out prior to my rears. I change the fronts about twice as much as the rears and even then there is still a good amount of pad left on the rear.

Like a lot of others said, its either your caliper sticking (try bleeding the system with new fluid), parking brake out of adjustment, or the pads not returning off the rotor after applying the brakes.

Let the being.....

 

If the parking brake or one caliper was sticking wouldn't the car be pulling to one side?

 

Parking brake...no.

Caliper yes...depends on if its only that one. If you have issues that a fluid flush would take care of then more than one caliper could be sticking.

 

I agree you Cabernet on driving style. If you drive hard/agressive, your stops are alot harder. Too much hard stopping wears on the rear brakes more.

 

My dad drove the car that i totalled for the first 3 years. He was nowhere near an aggressive driver. The back pads still wore out twice as fast.