When I swapped the springs and shocks out a while back, I checked the rear brake pad thickness which looked like it could go quite a while longer. The car has 43K on the odo, and gets a lot of freeway driving. In any case, I started noticing more brake dust showing up on the right rear rim over the past couple of months compared to the other rims. I pulled off the wheel today to see if anything was obvious, and was surprised with what I found. The inner pad was worn down to the point that the tensioner spring on the backing shim was wearing into the disc. The pad isn't completely gone, but there isn't much left. No warning outside of the increase in brake/metal dust.
What's strange about this is the fact that the inner pad on the left side isn't showing this extreme wear. It has about the same amount of pad left as the outers (about 1/4"). Why would one possibly wear so much more rapidly than the others? Could something have happened with the spring change since the pads looked OK back then?
Looks like I'll be doing a disc and pad install a little sooner than I anticipated. I know that a caliper retractor tool is needed to do it. According to the shop manual, the brake hose/pipe has to be removed in order to remove the caliper. Looking at it, it would seem that the caliper could be pull out of the way without doing this? What have you done?
Did any of the brake pad brands that you used come with the spring-loaded backing shims?
Thanks for any answers/tips that you can give me on doing the rear brakes.
What's strange about this is the fact that the inner pad on the left side isn't showing this extreme wear. It has about the same amount of pad left as the outers (about 1/4"). Why would one possibly wear so much more rapidly than the others? Could something have happened with the spring change since the pads looked OK back then?
Looks like I'll be doing a disc and pad install a little sooner than I anticipated. I know that a caliper retractor tool is needed to do it. According to the shop manual, the brake hose/pipe has to be removed in order to remove the caliper. Looking at it, it would seem that the caliper could be pull out of the way without doing this? What have you done?
Did any of the brake pad brands that you used come with the spring-loaded backing shims?
Thanks for any answers/tips that you can give me on doing the rear brakes.
