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Car: Honda Accord 2007 SE, 47000km

Recently I heard a chirping noise as I was moving the car; yeah, must be the wear indicator from one of the braking pads. I have to mention the braking pads were the originals, never change them, although I always inspected them when I rotate the tires.

I bought new pad for both front and rear and set to work. I started with the rear wheels since looking through the wheels, the rear pads seem to be worn out.

On the passenger’s side the outer pad was completely gone while the inner pad with the wear indicator had some 2.5 - 3 mm left so the wear indicator was intact.

Same story on the rear driver’s side but there ~ 1mm outer pad and ~ 3mm inner pad and also wear indicator wasn’t touching the disc.

The caliper pins were ok, still moving although they needed some greasing.

By comparison the front pads are still good, about 3-4 mm till U-channel would be gone (the one at the middle of the pad).

Is this normal? Does rear pad wear out more quickly the front ones? What about the uneven wear of the inner/outer rear pads?

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Aug 27, 2017 at 21:36
  • get a set of new pads and see if they are equal thickness inside.outside to begin with. It is unusual, but not unheard of, for them to be asymmetric causing you to think later they are wearing unevenly.
    – agentp
    Aug 28, 2017 at 13:31
  • Thank you for your comments. I have to add, the pad which was almost gone seems to be somehow stuck into caliper bracket and the shims they were sliding on (those are replaceable) were slightly rusted. My problem now is: do I have to service the brakes (pads and caliper) from time to time even if the pads are not worn out?
    – HondaAccord2007
    Aug 29, 2017 at 15:59
  • Are you the first and only owner of the car? It's possible that a prior owner replaced the front pads before you got it, and that isn't in its service history. But at such short mileage, the pads shouldn't wear out so quickly, unless they always carried a lot of very heavy things in the car.
    – user3685427
    Oct 23, 2017 at 13:53
  • Thanks for your comment. My take is that front and rear caliper/pads dimensions are proportional with the car weight on the front/rear axles. That’s true I am a gentle driver and rarely slam the brakes. But my question is why? ..And why the outer pads wear more quickly than inner pads, making the wear indicator useless?! And yes I am the original owner, pads never had been changed before..
    – HondaAccord2007
    Oct 24, 2017 at 16:05

4 Answers 4

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Normally front pads wear faster than rears if fitted at the same time, but as always this depends on how the car is driven, plus the conditions the brakes have to endure along with their maintenance schedule etc. As you say your rear pads seem to be wearing sooner, Its likely that you'll have sticking calipers on the rear which basically means that the calipers are not sliding freely in their mounts. Firstly though, once the calipers are removed, check that they're not sticking by making sure that the pistons slide/screw back in freely, and smoothly.

If the pistons are ok and travel back into the caliper pots ok, you can then concentrate on properly cleaning and removing grit and debris from the caliper and mounting slide rails.. Once these are cleaned up you can then refit the pads and calipers with a little caliper grease on their contact points. AVOID getting ANY grease on the braking surfaces.

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    In my experience working on old rusty garbage, the problem more often tends to be the slide pins. These need to be cleaned with emery cloth and greased with good quality slide pin grease every time the brake pads are replaced, but this is often neglected, even by those quick brake shops. Also make sure the rubber boots that are protecting the slide pins are present and in good condition, otherwise cleaning and greasing won't do any good. As well, if not replacing the rotors, you should at least get them machined.
    – Tiny Giant
    Jul 7, 2018 at 5:51
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I would also recommend looking into if your brake pads can easily slide back and forth on the shims. If you had to force the brakes onto the bracket by force, the brakes aren't getting released all the way back.

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I have the same conditions on my 2011 Nissan Murano; 70,000 miles, 0.25" on front 0.18" on rear. I am sure there is a proportioning valve to put more pressure on the rear because with the same pressure the front wears faster. I have had faster front wear on all disc cars until now. Long ago, proportioning valves were used in cars with front discs and rear drums because drums require less pressure to activate. Without the valve , rear drums would have worn out while the front discs were hardly used.

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I thought it is normal that rear brake pads wear out more quickly the front ones. Reasons are as follows: Firstly, the rear pads are smaller than front ones. Secondly, rear pads wear out more quickly then front ones,this issue exists in usually you just tapped on brakes a little bit or put on the brake slowly and gently. Only you jam on the brake frequently or the rear ones are drum brake ,the front brake pads wear out more quickly then rear ones. Help it's helpful.

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    It is not normal for the rear pads to wear out faster than the fronts pads.
    – Zaid
    Feb 21, 2018 at 17:29
  • Brake force distribution in cars is heavily biased to front due to simple physics. So I agree with Zaid.
    – juhist
    Feb 22, 2018 at 19:24

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