rear brakes on my tow vehicle

msprinkle · 02-24-2014, 06:41 PM

Hello everyone in Jayco land!

I have a question about rear brakes on my tow vehicle. I just replaced my brake pads and rotors because I the rear driver side was making a grinding sound and I noticed that the rotor was scorn. Once I got the tire off and the pads out I noticed that the pad with without the wear indicator was at fault. It wore faster than the pad with the indicator, thus damaging my rotor. I tow with a Honda Ridgeline which has 65,000 miles on it and I assumed that since I was towing a trailer (FeatherLite x20e) that the brakes wore faster then normal. Both rear pads were completely gone. I was a bit surprised when I got to the front pads and found them to have plenty of life left to them. My guess 20,000 miles or more of life left on them.

So here is my question, is it normal to have the rear brake pads wear so much faster than the front pads?

I did replace both front and back pads and rotors with Power Stop’s extreme truck and tow rotors and pads. http://www.powerstop.com/products

**Crabman** · 02-24-2014, 07:07 PM

Same thing happened on my previous TV, my Chevy 1500 at 70,000 miles . The brakes felt soft so I bought a set of front pads without even looking ASSUMING the front always go first, which had always been my experience in the past. But there was Plenty of pad left on the front. Looked at the back and to my surprise they were just about gone. My guess too was that it was from towing, or from having all disc brakes instead of rear drum which I had in the past.

lx22f/c · 02-24-2014, 07:23 PM

When one pad wears faster than the other, its a indication that either your hardware or caliper needs attention. The caliper slides or the caliper is at fault.

SMS1115 · 02-24-2014, 09:26 PM

lx22f/c is correct. If the wear is uneven like you describe, the there are more issues than just the pads. I've seen this many times in my years as an auto mechanic. Crabman, GM stepped away from disc in the rear for a few years because they had design issues. My 2013 actually has drum brakes on the rear axle because of this issue. I have heard that the 2014's have gone back to disc rears.

msprinkle · 02-25-2014, 05:31 AM

[QUOTE=msprinkle;177849]Hello everyone in Jayco land!

I have a question about rear brakes on my tow vehicle. I just replaced my brake pads and rotors because I the rear driver side was making a grinding sound and I noticed that the rotor was scorn. Once I got the tire off and the pads out I noticed that the pad with without the wear indicator was at fault. It wore faster than the pad with the indicator, thus damaging my rotor. I tow with a Honda Ridgeline which has 65,000 miles on it and I assumed that since I was towing a trailer (FeatherLite x20e) that the brakes wore faster then normal. Both rear pads were completely gone. I was a bit surprised when I got to the front pads and found them to have plenty of life left to them. My guess 20,000 miles or more of life left on them.

So here is my question, is it normal to have the rear brake pads wear so much faster than the front pads?

I did replace both front and back pads and rotors with Power Stop’s extreme truck and tow rotors and pads. http://www.powerstop.com/products

As an additional note The rear pad pairs wore about the same. About a three millimeter difference between the pair.

**Crabman** · 02-25-2014, 05:32 AM

Yes I should have added that my brakes did not wear unevenly on the back like the OP`s did, they were both nearly gone but had not ruined the rotors. Had one side wear on my DW`s minivan which ruined the rotor. That was from a bad caliper.

msprinkle · 02-25-2014, 06:56 AM

The rear pad pairs and the front wore about the same. About a three millimeter difference between the pairs.

I assume since the TW is doing more breaking while towing and the rear pads are almost half the size, the wear faster. Perhaps I need to adjust my trailer's brakes?

Seann45 · 02-25-2014, 10:23 AM

ALL vehicles with rear disk brakes need to be serviced every 2 years. This includes lubricating the slide bushings and all moving parts on the system. IF you have ABS then you also need to make sure you have the brake fluid changed every 2 years.. full flush...
Always remember WHOA is more important than go..

Bird Dawg · 02-25-2014, 10:35 AM

I am not a mechanic but I am wondering if the weight is setup right. I have seen so many people going down the road with the front end of the TV up in the air and the rear end of the TV squatting like crazy. Would that affect brake wear? As far as setting the brake controller, a Tech told me, the Trailer should stop the truck in a parking lot, but the truck should stop the trailer on the highway.

Fred

David472 · 02-26-2014, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seann45

ALL vehicles with rear disk brakes need to be serviced every 2 years. This includes lubricating the slide bushings and all moving parts on the system. IF you have ABS then you also need to make sure you have the brake fluid changed every 2 years.. full flush...
Always remember WHOA is more important than go..

Seann is right on with this.
Towing has nothing to do with it. Get your rear calipers serviced, or more likely, replaced, and fully flush the lines.

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