Un-Even Brakepad Wear

[msilver]

My mom's 04 Mountaineer 4.0 AWD 72,000 miles, is starting to lose its brake petal. last time she had her oil changed (i was away at school) they told her she needed rear brakes. To day i took her car to work and changed to oil inspected everything, rotated the tire, gave it the works. I looked at the brakes while i had the tires off, the rear pads where shot, i think the rotors can be turned. i looked at the front rotors, and i measured them on both the driver and passenger side. on both the outside pads were 8mm and the inners were 6mm. Is this common? i was think that when i do the rear brakes i will take these apart and clean up the slides on the front and lube them.

 

[IZwack]

Unless the caliper has two opposing pistons (which is usually not the case), then the pad that rests against the piston (usually the 'inner' pad) will typically wear out faster. So yes, it is common.

 

[Gus Gorilla]

Could be the slides like your thinking. Something to keep in mind is when you push the brakes the inners make contact first technically. Because of the piston. Then the pressure moves the slides and the outers touch. This is very very quick. I've seen two footed drivers cause this to an extreme. 2mm isn't really that bad. If there's the same uneven wear side to side with no other problems then I'd leave 'em alone.


edit: Bam. beat me to it. I've got to be more concise like that.

 

[msilver]

thats what i figured thanks IZ and Gus