Eating rear pads - ideas pls

[yum]

My 1994 4L uses rear pads much, much faster than front ones. In fact, the rear ones now need changing but the fronts appear almost untouched.

Is this normal, and if not, any suggestions on how to sort it out? is there a balancing valve somewhere?

Thanks

>>> Edited by yum on Friday 23 November 10:41

[trefor]

They all do that sir.

When you say eating, you shouldn't get through more than 2 sets of rear pads in the time it takes to wear the fronts out. If you are then maybe the front pads are glazed and need replacing anyway.

T/.

[philr]

If the fronts get glazed then can't you just "unglaze" them with a decent bit of sand paper or the like ?

You could also consider putting different pads on the rear (say green stuff) as they might last longer than the standard ones (kevlar instead of ????).

[trefor]

Pads are only around £40 - they may have overheated and the compound gone too hard to wear/function well. Not worth playing around with sandpaper IMO.

Warning - greenstuff pads eat discs like there's no tomorrow. A set of Mintex/Pagid fast road pads are just as good. I've got Greestuff on the front of my Chimaera with their funky discs, they're no better than the Mintexes I had before with the std discs.

I noticed more of a difference in feel doing a complete fluid change (to DOT 5.1, but I think the main reason was my old fluid was 5ish years old).

T/.

[Greenv8s]

quote:My 1994 4L uses rear pads much, much faster than front ones. In fact, the rear ones now need changing but the fronts appear almost untouched.

Is this normal, and if not, any suggestions on how to sort it out? is there a balancing valve somewhere?

Thanks

>>> Edited by yum on Friday 23 November 10:41

Assume you are using similar compound front and rear, if not that is most likely your problem! If the rear discs are badly worn they can become grooved which then wears the pads more quickly. I think it's unlikely the brake balance is wrong, it's hydraulic and very reliable. Could be that the handbrake is binding. You can see the last inch or so of 'inner' cable by the caliper, if this is under load with the handbrake 'off' this might suggest the handbrake is binding. But it could be jammed inside the caliper too so this isn't conclusive. You might be able to tell by pushing the car with the handbrake off?

On my rears the caliper slide wore and the brakes tended to get stuck on when they were hot. Symptoms were very early brake fade on track, loads of brake dust, hot wheels and the outer pad worn very much more than the inner one. I haven't come across anyone else with this problem yet but you never know, you might be seeing something similar?

Cheers,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

[yum]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I do tend to thrash the car (track days and general use). I would estimate that it is two/three rears for every one front. I wonder why they make them this way.

Cooked the rears at Croft last year, so I'm now running Pagid fast road pads front and rear with EBC grooved discs. Much better than "green stuff" which cracked after fitting and had to be replaced. The combination seems ok, but still use the rears heavily.

Richard

[zippy500]

Check the rear ones arent binding. Go for a normal road run and then touch your wheel carefully to see if it feels really hot. Your discs will probably be a blue colour if its really bad. My Honda CRX used to have a similar problem. In the end I had to get new calipers. You could jack it up and see how freely the wheel spins when out of gear also.