Jabberwock

Sorry actual mileage on the car is 32,500 right now.

Decided to replace the rear pads today - mostly for something to do. I have had the week off and have been doing small projects around the house most of the week. The front pads still have at least 1/2 material left, but when I checked the rears this am, the rear pads looked like maybe 70% was gone - they were getting pretty close to starting to wear the brake wear indicator which I wanted too avoid. I'd say that within 1-3K miles the wear indicator would have been in jeopardy.

Interesting that at least on my car the rear pads were wearing faster than the front pads. The rear pads are quite a bit smaller than the fronts because the front brakes do the majority of the work in most cars.

I took my time, cleaned everything as I went, and it took about 90 minutes start to finish. Very easy job. If you are fairly mechanically inclined the hardest part is jacking up the car and removing and remounting the wheels.

amcdonal86

Jacking the car up and removing/remounting the wheels is definitely the most tedious part of most jobs. It helps to have another car whenever you're working on a car so that you can work at your own pace!

Kansas

I don't think I've ever heard of rear brake pads wearing faster than front brake pads unless there was a serious sticking caliper problem. Rear brake pads are often not as thick as front brake pads when they are new so one can't judge the remaining life of rear pads based on the thickness of front pads. If you check the specs, I think you will find than the original thickness of your rear pads was at least 2 mm less than your front pads. Generally, rear brake pads last 50-100% longer than front brake pads.

Even when rear pads appear to be getting a little thin, they can take a long .......... long time to wear down to minimum specification. I had the rear pads on my 00 LS400 replaced for the first time at 120,000 miles for my convenience but they likely could have gone a bit past 130,000 miles. I would have expected a similar life span for the rear brake pads on your LS430.

I've found that it's cheaper in the long run to let brake pads wear down until they trigger and trash the brake wear sensors rather than doing premature brake jobs. Even then, the wear sensors can sometimes be repaired and reused.

Milan

iTrader: (5)

On my old Accord it wasn't uncommon for the rears to wear faster then the fronts.

Jabberwock

Nope brakes work great, no problem with sticking calipers, no dragging on the pads. The rear pads were wearing slightly faster than the front pads on my car but not due to any mechanical problem.

I specifically did not want the wear sensors to get damaged just to get more miles out of the pads. The wear sensor costs more than the the pads to replace.

Anyway the pads are a relatively small expense - pads cost $50 - so I'd much rather replace them early rather than a little late. And it was a fun project for a sunny, quiet Friday afternoon. And the job is so easy, now that I have done it once, if I wanted to be quick, the pad replacement could literally be done in 10-15 minutes per wheel.

Cejay2

Jabberwock,

I need to replace my rear brakes and it appears that we both have the same vehicle model and year. Just curious, did you remove the caliber bolts to install the brake pads?

jimbosr1

i had a 09 accord and one of the major problems of that body style is the rear brakes were out much faster then the fronts.

Jabberwock

Cejay - no need to remove the caliper bolts to replace rear or front pads. I think there is a do it yourself sticky with pics that shows how easy it is. Just dismount the wheel and remove a small cotter clip, slide out he long pad retention spring pin and the pads come right out. If you really take your time it is a 15 minute job per wheel - not counting wheel dismount and remount.

Cejay2

Thanks a million Jabberwock!

CeJay

fergo308

Rear pads wearing quickly could be due to excessive application of the traction control.particularly if you've been driving it in the snow over the winter months.


Justin...