Brake pad wear

what problem does this indicate? I can’t find anything doing a quick search. There are about 200 miles on these. 1st pad is outer. The pins seem fine. They pulled right out no problem. Pistons are retracting easily.

 

What all did you do??

New Rotors New Pads ??

Just what brand parts ??

What kind of brake problem where you having that prompted you to pull things apart??

 

I must be missing the problem. What were the symptoms?

Unless I know more, I'd recommend you rough them up with a wire wheel and re-install.

 

Calipers, pads & rotors. Advanced for calipers & rotors - wearever? I believe. They got decent reviews. Their brake pads, not so much, so I ordered some Wagners from Amazon. The passenger side (above pics) was braking hard/rough. Only words I can think of to describe it. No vibration. Like it was being overworked?

 

I was looking around online cuz I know the wear pattern can help narrow down the problem(s). I thought maybe I was missing something or just wasn't wording it correctly. I would put "outer wear" & would get results regarding the outer pad wearing faster than the inner. Anyway, besides the wear in the pics, I just posted symptoms in previous post. One thing I did notice is that the pads seemed really tight lengthwise, as though they had absolutely no wiggle room. They fit in the caliper, but it was as if they were just a pinch too long or the caliper did not have enough clearance. I imagine there has to be a little room there, otherwise the pad couldn't slide easily, correct? Just something I never thought of in all the times I changed pads. I wasn't looking for anything though. I mean I haven't had any issues til now.

 

Might be poor quality problem on everything just enough to cause the right side to act different

Sort of a stacked tolerance problem every little bit makes things a little worse

Being in person is much easier.

My first Guess is the caliper or rotor something is out of the vertical plane

meaning as pressure is applied the pad is not impacting the rotor across the pad in a even fashion.

Less bearing surface the harder that side needs to work

given time the pad should wear in unless it is really off.

all 4 pads are the same ? In this day it is so easy to have anything tossed in a box

 

I think the same. Something binding when pressure applied and pad goes down unevenly. That's what one of the pics looked like at least

 

Yup. The pads seemed to be up to par. My guess now is it's the calipers. Poor choice on my part. I sanded down the ends of the pads & it seems a little better. Now, it could have been that the pads were too long, but I'm going with the calipers. There's a story, always a story, which I'll spare you most of, but this is my second set of calipers & rotors since I first did them in Nov. They seemed fine. Then about a month ago I had my tires rotated & it seemed as if that's when the brakes started shuddering when applied. I put "it seemed" cuz could it have been slowly coming on? Plus I started shaking from 50 on up after the rotation, so who knows if I was just more sensitive to shakes, shudders, shimmies.... Anywho, took a bit to get the tire thing squared away & then I went after the brakes. The drivers side was covered in brake dust & the rotor was worn funky. Can't remember exactly, but didn't look good. Wish I had taken pics now. The passenger was not as bad. I got advanced to replace everything & ordered new pads. So this almost grinding, braking hard thing is different than the other. Same everything partswise, but to me it seems as the the calipers are the parts that are at most risk for defect, especially after market ones.
I'll give it a couple of weeks & pull 'em apart again & have a looksee. My guess is I am beyond Advanced's return date, however I am presuming that my one year warranty just re-upped with the new calipers, so if I have to I'll just keep bringing them back til they get sick of me
The pic shows what I was referring to regarding no, & I mean no, wiggle room.... The rest of the pad, beyond the pin was not constricted, but those points I circled, were.

 

Come to think of it, I should still have the brake pads from round one kicking around. &, since I was not on a mystery fix it mission, maybe those were restricted as well & I didn't notice when I was removing everything? Although I think I would'a had probs sooner. Anyway, I'll hunt around in the shop....

 

It is quite possible when putting wheels back on if your not paying attention to get one lug tighter then the rest .

This will cause a shimmy on braking that can get blamed on the rotors .

Since caliper cores may be almost any brand castings who knows? I bet it is quite common to be mixing and matching of different ones.

Only a few hundred miles since last fall or did I read that wrong?

 

Whelp, part of the tire problem was the tire place was torquing them at 120. I have the original rims & lugnuts, so it’s 83. I figured this out, lectured them & ended up with a new set of cooper at’s for 650.00 installed & road force balanced. I also went & bought me a new torque wrench since mine went among the missing & retorqued post install.

& no. I see how you could go there though with my “short story long kristi” descriptions which can end up clear as mud. The first brake change was in early november. I had put on around 6,000 when I went in for the rotation in early March. The tire woes lasted a couple weeks (three “visits”). I decided to not tackle the brakes until the tire stuff was ironed out. Helps when trying to figure out what’s going on.... sort of. In this case, maybe not since if the torquing or crappy tires (I had two out of round) did anything to the brakes, it would be hard to say for sure.

Soooo, post tire resolution I exchanged calipers & rotors, bought new pads & started anew. That was a couple/few weeks ago, so when I started this thread I guesstimated at 200.
So just to clarify, the braking shimmy is no longer a problem. It is this heavy braking like it is being overworked.
Did that help?

& I should have a little clearance or wiggle room where I circled, yes? It just seems logical that I’m order for the pads to do their job they’d have to have some leeway in those spots, yes?
I am feeling a renewed fight as a new day dawns & maybe i’d Be better off attempting to return advanced’s & starting all over again with NAPA parts.

 

The pad should be able to slide freely inside the caliper. There should be no extra space on either side however. When installing pads, its best to take a flat file and get rid of any rust in those spots, just be careful as to not file away the material of the caliper itself. I took some brake caliper grease and put some on the ears of the pads that contact those spots, aswell as on the back of the pads where they contact the pistons.

Another place to check for if you suspect your pads are hanging up is the slide pins. If theyre rusty, get new ones. I used some ACDelco ones I found off Amazon, theyre stainless so they shouldnt rust. Also cover them in brake grease.

 

Thank you. I knew this about being able to slide. It’s just one of those things that I would try to explain to someone & it would be dismissed or blown over as the issue. I mean they were pressed up against the rotor when braking & then the pressure was off when not because the pistons where not frozen. But I would imagine the outer edge of the pads stayed right up against the rotor, again though, no pressure so I would not feel anything unless the brake was engaged. Meanwhile the inner edge Ed of the pads are moving freely or rather, making contact after the outer edges if at all.
& the pins were fine, although some stainless sound way better in the long run.
The calipers were new, so no need for rust removal duty, but will do on the next pad job down the road... pun not intended, but I did just notice it....

 

@Blue92 - What I meant by "I knew this about them being able to slide", was more like a thank you for the confirmation/validation that it was not only the need to move, but to slide freely. Just had to add that cuz it was bugging me that first I ask & then I put that I knew it. Sounded kind'a snooty.... Weird word.... snooty....

 

Oh thats ok! I dont let the interwebs hurt my feels. Glad I could help!