Rear brake pads unevenly worn - why?

[calonzo]

I got new tires today and the tech told me I needed rear brakes, which I expected. But he said that one side was down to 1 mm and the other still had 3 mm of pad left.

I replaced the pads and rotors at the same time, so I would expect that they would wear evenly.

Is there a reason for this? A caliper issue? A defective pad?

I would like to know before I replace the pads and rotors.

Chris

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[Austin@Wunderladen Racing]

The inside and outside pads do not heat up or cool down at the same rate which results in one wearing faster than the other, being within 1-2mm of each other is pretty normal.

The rears are also fairly prone to having tapered wear because of the rubber bushings that the slide pins ride in. We offer a sealed brass replacement which eliminates the pin's ability to wiggle around during braking

https://www.wunderladenracing.com/c...products/civic-x-bronze-rear-caliper-bushings

 

[calonzo]

The rears are also fairly prone to having tapered wear because of the rubber bushings that the slide pins ride in. We offer a sealed brass replacement which eliminates the pin's ability to wiggle around during braking

Makes sense. How come the same issue doesn't affect the front calipers?

 

[Austin@Wunderladen Racing]

The front brakes are still prone to tapered wear under heavy use due to their floating design, but they're more rigid because the slide pins are part of the caliper and are housed in the steel bore of the bracket. It's the opposite in the rear where the slide pins are part of the bracket and live in the rubber bushings that are in the caliper.

 

[calonzo]

Weird. Thanks!

 

[Romeoridgee]

if the caliper is not seizing and the pads are not sticking to the retainers, vehicle stability assist uses one of the rear brakes to aid in turning at high speeds. if you're going left at hwy speeds then the rear left brake caliper activates a little I believe, and vice versa on the other side. throughout the life of the pads, it seems you were turning one direction more than the other on hwy.

 

[calonzo]

if the caliper is not seizing and the pads are not sticking to the retainers, vehicle stability assist uses one of the rear brakes to aid in turning at high speeds. if you're going left at hwy speeds then the rear left brake caliper activates a little I believe, and vice versa on the other side. throughout the life of the pads, it seems you were turning one direction more than the other on hwy.

Very interesting!

 

[st4xor]

if the caliper is not seizing and the pads are not sticking to the retainers, vehicle stability assist uses one of the rear brakes to aid in turning at high speeds. if you're going left at hwy speeds then the rear left brake caliper activates a little I believe, and vice versa on the other side. throughout the life of the pads, it seems you were turning one direction more than the other on hwy.

Do you happen to have a technical source for this info about VSA and rear brakes?

Motivation: I had alarmingly high rear brake pad consumption on one side of the vehicle during my last track day outing that I would love to pin on VSA instead of just lack of driver skill. Was my first time on a new track, and have not seen this issue during other outings. So I'm curious to try and sleuth out what was different this time around, and I suspect that maybe a different combination of track features was causing VSA to freak out (which I left full enabled).

I've found some chat about some claimed Type R rear brake intervention from VSA (here, and here), but still searching for info on the other xgens

 

[Austin@Wunderladen Racing]

The first time I took my car on track I found VSA to chew through rear pads faster too. I always do the pedal dance before going on track now to disable everything but ABS. When VSA kicks in it is slowing down individual wheels via the ABS module in order to keep the car from spinning out, which normally means clamping the rear brakes to keep the rear end in line.

 

[calonzo]

The inside and outside pads do not heat up or cool down at the same rate which results in one wearing faster than the other, being within 1-2mm of each other is pretty normal.

The rears are also fairly prone to having tapered wear because of the rubber bushings that the slide pins ride in. We offer a sealed brass replacement which eliminates the pin's ability to wiggle around during braking

https://www.wunderladenracing.com/c...products/civic-x-bronze-rear-caliper-bushings

I installed the bronze caliper bushings and the brakes feel great!

They don't come with instructions, but I found the video on YouTube.



I did have to get rid of the rust inside the hole for the bushings on the calipers to get them to fit in, though. But other than that, it was easy.

 

[Austin@Wunderladen Racing]

I installed the bronze caliper bushings and the brakes feel great!

They don't come with instructions, but I found the video on YouTube.



I did have to get rid of the rust inside the hole for the bushings on the calipers to get them to fit in, though. But other than that, it was easy.

Thanks for your support! I have been meaning to find some time to put together written instructions to put up on the site

 

[calonzo]

I forgot to post a picture and measurements of one the pads that was visibly worn more on one side of the same pad front than the other. I measured it and it was 0.034 inches thicker in the front which is almost a full millimeter. Again, not sure if it is significant.

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