Front versus rear brake wear

General Discussion
41

The brake system is setup that way on purpose… The front is where you want your stopping power anyway…even if the vehicle has perfect 50/50 weight bias. The front is the best place for mfg’s to put most of the stopping power…unless you drive long distances at high speed in Reverse that is. But since you are always traveling forward…the front is where you want the bias to favor in stopping power.

Typically you will go thru about 4 front brake pad replacements before you replace one set of rear pads. I’ve seen as many as 6 front pads before one set of rear…and I bet it can go even further to be honest. I’ve seen 15 yr old vehicles with the original drum brake shoes on the rear and they still weren’t worn out! Just the way it is… Trust me.

You also do not want to “Dial Up” the action of the rear brake system, they are working properly (if they are working properly that is) But really there is nothing wrong with the wear schedule you are seeing.

Blackbird

42

Living in the snow belt of New York State I can say that we generally go through rear pads much faster. During the winter the rear wheels and brakes are bathed in snow and salt spray much more than the fronts. This seems to cause faster wear as more corrosion builds up on rear rotors. My last few cars are getting slightly better wear on the rear pads so I am replacing them slightly less often than fronts but I am certainly not getting even two front pad changes before the rears have to be changed.

The worst rear brake wear I ever had was my 2008 Honda Accord which ate rear pads every 30 to 35,000 miles.