Uneven Pad Wear was Re: Breaking in Pads

Rick Warkentien sr20de@sunflower.com
Fri, 19 Jul 2002 07:01:12 -0500


 Jon Wrote:
> My front stuffs are being replaced tomorrow morning, btw, for anyone who
knew
> what was going on.  Abnormal pad wear on the passenger front from having
> one really really soft pad inside and one really really hard pad outside,
> same caliper, heavy scoring on the outside rotor surface.  Cross your
> fingers for me.
> -=|JP|=-               Cheap, Fast, Reliable; Pick any Two.

Keep in mind Jon that when i worked in a shop full time, Pad wear was the
best indicator of brake system problems. 99% of the time uneven pad wear is
an indicator of something else wrong in the system. Usually one of three
things:

1: Bad caliper. Will usually occur where the inside pad will not retract and
thus excessive wear on the inboard pad.

2: Bad caliper Hardware. Usally causes the outboard pad to wear cause the
caliper cannot slide properly and leaves the outboard pad against the rotor
after every braking cycle.

3: Bad hoses. These can cuase all kinds of funky things. Wheels locking up
going down the road, pull to one side only when braking etc.

In other words, Unless you have a different brand of pad on the outboard
side than you do on the inboard side, I wouldn't be very suspicouis of the
pads themselves. Be sure and check everything out and make sure its all in
good condition before you just blame the pads. No need for a repeat
performance in this case.

Rick Warkentien
ASE Certified and GM trained
Certified SE-R nut
Certifiable?