Hi all, So, I got some new tires today (Pirelli Cinturato P7’s) on my 2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Premium. While doing the tires, the tech told me that the front brakes looked great, but the rear pads were getting pretty thin. Is this normal? I always thought front brakes wore out much faster than r…

The rear pads are generally thinner than the front ones even when brand new. It would be unusual for calipers to stick (either pistons or slides) on a 2012 model Subaru unless you live in an area that uses a lot of road salt or you’re out on wet/muddy roads a lot. It’s possible the sticky caliper d…

@Jman136 Nowadays, rear brakes do far more work than in the past. It’s all about handling and tire contact. The days of the front brakes doing 80% of the work are long over. By having the rear brakes do more of their share of the work, the front doesn’t nose dive when you apply the brakes. And …

“By having the rear brakes do more of their share of the work,” Curious, how is that done? electronically?

Rear brake pads are usually much smaller than front brake pads and this also leads to faster wear. I live in the snow belt of New York State and the constant spray of snow and salt from the front wheels onto the rear ones also helps eat rear brakes. Up here rear drum brakes last 200,000 miles or m…

Yes, the salt doesn’t help. My last front brake job was required because the rotor had rusted out (you could see holes in it) before the pads were gone. That could be solved with the proper materials for the rotors??

I can tell the OP that, when I had my 2011 Outback serviced recently, I asked for a brake inspection in view of the 56k miles on the odometer. The mechanic reported that the front pads had 6mm of material remaining on them, and the rear pads had 5mm of material remaining. It isn’t unusual on mode…

Curious, how is that done? electronically? The short answer is Yes, @Bill Russell. The longer answer is the brake system is biased to apply more brake at the rear than would be allowed by the Federal standard. The front is supposed to lock first at all times so the car will remain stable. Rear loc…

^ With my largely rural and highway driving pattern, I think that 8k miles–or maybe 10k miles-- would be possible. If I drove largely in an urban environment, maybe only 5k miles.

Don’t rear brakes just tend to be smaller overall than fronts, rotors and all?

Rear brake pad question

Maintenance/Repairs

Jman136 October 25, 2015, 11:02pm 9

Driving conservatively, how many miles could you go with 5mm pad left in the rear and 6mm in the front? I know there are a lot of variables, but was just looking for a rough guess.

Topic		Replies	Views
Rear brakes pads wearing out twice as fast as front on 2005 Camry Maintenance/Repairs	17	27297	June 8, 2014
Front versus rear brake wear General Discussion	41	48037	March 21, 2017
Subaru Forester rear breaks only good for 35000 mi? Maintenance/Repairs	14	4873	July 8, 2014
Brake pad wear on rear pads for 2004 honda Maintenance/Repairs	3	449	August 12, 2007
Front vs rear brake pad wear Maintenance/Repairs toyota , camry	8	4685	June 23, 2018

Rear brake pad question

Related topics