quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
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Went to the store bought ceramics pads for all around. Started with the rear ones and found both sides were indeed down to 1mm on one pad and the inside one had 2mm.

Then I got the fronts off and found they still had plenty of pad left. I changed them anyway.
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I just had exactly the same thing happen on my 2013 VW Jetta SE. Rear brakes were worn down to almost nothing, but the fronts still have plenty of life left in them! Makes zero sense because front brakes have always worn out first.

Its just the way Ford sets up the brake bias on these, not to mention that the rear pads have a very small contact area on the rotor, as compared to the front. Our expedition is the same way.

GM had an issue on the 800-series trucks (99-06) where road debris would destroy the pads on the rear axle. Got bad enough they switched to drums in like 2005 and kept them on most 900-series trucks after that. It's why you see a weird mud flap-looking thing on the front of the rear wheel arch on a lot of trucks now but they're far from perfect for keeping stuff off the brakes.

My F-150 has had rear brakes replaced first as well. I believe there are 2 things going on. 1st Ford has gotten the rear brakes sized closer to what’s needed. Secondly traction control comes into play much more often. The 3.5 Ecoboost will boil the tires right off if given half a chance.

Adaptive cruise control (CC) uses the rear brakes to decrease speed on many cars. I found this out recently, when we took our Subaru Forester in for service and also had a courtesy inspection of other items. The rear pads had more wear, which surprised me, because I have 4-wheel disc brakes on my 2005 LJ, and the fronts always wear down faster. Same for other 4-wheel disc brake cars that we've had. But the Forester is the first that we've had with adaptive CC. The service tech explained it to me, and did add that it was one of the most discussed topics in Subaru service at the moment.