My brakes make a tiny squeal when the pedal is lightly pushed. 42K miles (mostly all city). Then when I push to “stop”, the noise goes away and brakes work fine. I looked at the driver front when I just changed the trans fluid and brake pads look ok. Anyway, does anyone know if the backs go 1st? Most of my cars (Camrys) had front disc and back drum. My wife’s 2004 accord had 4 wheel disc and at 65K, her backs went 1st. Short of listening for the sensor and/or removing tires/calipers to look at the pads, what should I expect on that car for the 1st set to go bad??? thanks
Looking OK is not the same as measuring thickness. And the driving pattern will have a large bearing on pad and rotor life. So while one person will need brake work soon another might not need it for years later. And yes on some vehicles the back went first .
If you are not going to do the work yourself check reviews and find a brake shop that will do an inspection before you do have a stopping problem.
Yes, on many vehicles with 4 wheel disc brakes . . . the rear brake pads do wear out faster than you might expect, they might even wear out ahead of the front
Some of it has to do with modern braking systems. It is no longer desirable for cars to nose dive when applying the brakes. Thus, things are set up to prevent nose dive, which means the rear brakes are doing far more work, versus cars which were built in the 1970s and 1980s, for example.
I suggest you remove all 4 tires and inspect all of the brake pads.
On my Toyota crossover (Highlander) the rear brakes went first and about twice as often as the fronts. Be prepared to buy rotors too. Here’s why. Once brake force distribution became a thing rear brakes got more of a workout than they used to.
thanks for the comment. I haven’t looked at them yet but once the sensors hit, I’ll get new pads at autozone. I’ve only changed rotors once on my 1994 camry I believe. not sure why I did that as I usually just put pads on and things have always been fine. I saw that the Toyota pads have rubber shims on the outside which helps instead of that orange goop you put on.
I took the left front off to change the trans fluid and it looked okay. I do need to remove a back tire and look at those. Pads are like 50 bucks with tax at autozone so I’ll just do them soon. I need to flush all lines (never ever done that on any of my cars and they all lasted over 10 years but I’ll do the Rav 4 soon).
I’ve had REALLY bad luck with store brand brake pads and rotors, especially Autozone
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I just bled my brakes (back) and the pads look near new and have a lot of wear left. Will do the fronts today and look there.