Rear Pad Wear

[Instrumental]

Had the truck in for an oil change today, and the shop said my rear pads are at 2mm and of course the rotors are beyond turning. With just over 49,000 I'm wondering what might have caused this much wear. My previous experience is with rear drums, and the wear rates on those is tiny compared to the front. The fronts are ok, but as the vehicle is new to me they could very well have been replaced at some point. W Is it normal for the rear to wear so much? What could cause it?

And of course, any favorites for reasonable pads and rotors? Not gonna be breaking the bank here!

 

[Wyle]

I don't think that much rotor wear is normal. I'm assuming they have 2mm of wear left and not 2mm thick.

There are areas of the rotor that aren't under the pads. Do you see a large difference in thickness between the brake area and non-braking areas? I ask because if there is not much difference, the rotors must have been turned at some point. I'm speculating, but over torquing the lug nuts at some point might have led to warped rotors. Resurfacing them to eliminate warpage might have left them near minimal thickness. Just one guess.

If the non-braking areas are still "manufactured" thickness ... WOW. That's a lot of wear for rear rotors at 49k miles. I'm at 126K and the shop pointed to my brakes during my recent oil change as well. There is still reasonable wear left on the pads, but some small cracks were noticed. Didn't measure the rotors. Time to order replacement pads. I'll go with OEMs. I've yet to see aftermarket ones last 125k miles.

 

[Sparky]

Not to sound too cynical, but check them yourself. There have been cases of shops trying to drum up extra work by lying through their teeth about brake wear.

 

[gmcman]

Yes, pull the wheel and post the pics.

 

[christo829]

Only time I ever saw that much wear in a short number of miles was from a sticky caliper, and that was only on one side.
I suppose it could be possible that a set of cheap, coarse pads could cause that kind of weardown, but I'd think you'd
notice some really crappy brake performance with either the sticky caliper or coarse pads/cheap rotors.

Definitely check them yourself to verify. Years ago, I had a shop try to tell me something similar. I took a micrometer
to the rotors, and they were well within spec. When I mentioned this later, they tried to say they meant the pads, not
the rotors. Pads still had about half their body left..... I only went there because I had just had surgery, and
couldn't do much wrenching yet. I definitely enjoyed walking out on them...

I can't remember if these trucks put more braking pressure on the rear before the front, but some metered brake system
don't distribute braking pressure evenly (to cut down on front end dip under hard braking I think). If the previous owner was
a brake rider, that might contribute to excessive wear.

Brakemotiv seems to be a common choice as far as replacement rotors and pads. I just went with OEM's when Rockauto
had a sale.

Good Luck!

Chris

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I would definitely check myself as the only reason I could see that they are bad would be that the PO had them turned and they took off way too much material.

 

[Instrumental]

Oops, my bad, PAD thickness is 2mm, rotors are beyond spec to turn. I should proofread!

I will do the job myself, I haven't paid for a brake related repair in many moons. I'm just curious about the wear.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Pad wear does not surprise me, but you may not even need to turn the rotors. O did not on my first set of pads and they worked fine. The rotors were not glazed or anything.

 

[Wooluf1952]

Are both inner and outer pads worn down?
I had to replace both front rotors and pads at about 20k miles. The inner pads had worn down to nothing and it was metal on metal. I believe it was from sticking calipers. The outer pads were like new.
The rear pads and rotors had to be replaced for the same reason 2k miles later. That was the reason I joined the OS.
The point is, if only one side (inner or outer) is wearing, look close at the calipers. And make sure the pins are well greased.

 

[Instrumental]

Got an oil change last week, and the same dire warning from the dealer: 2 mm left, has to be done NOW! Rotors are scored, no saving them! Only 4mm on the front, only a few thousand left on those. Around 700.00 to do the the whole thing.

So, tonight I popped off the rear tires to check for myself, and this is what I found.

I don't feel any particular thickness difference other then rust between the pad vs. non-pad portions of the rotor, the grooves are barely noticeable to the finger.

The left side pads were equal, you can't see it on that picture, but I made sure. On the right side, I had to pull the caliper off to see for sure, but one of the pads has just the tiniest bit of wear groove left, so I will be changing the pads. (I don't see how the dealer could have known that, however, as it wasn't visible in the 'window' on the caliper) Haven't made up my mind on the rotors yet.

 

[Wooluf1952]

When mine wore out, the outboard sides looked new. The inboard sides, however, were completely ruined.

I brought them in to a dealer and the mechanic thought I'd found them laying in a field.

 

[Sparky]

When mine wore out, the outboard sides looked new. The inboard sides, however, were completely ruined.

I brought them in to a dealer and the mechanic thought I'd found them laying in a field.

Sign of sticky slide pins.

 

[Wooluf1952]

Sign of sticky slide pins.

Yup. The thing is, it happened at less than 20k miles. I didn't realize there was a problem until I applied the brakes and heard the sickening sound of metal on metal, on the way to work. Had to be one of the coldest days of the winter too. Only about 5 degrees that morning.