subaruplatt Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Got the brake fluid flushed, the pcv valve replaced and the oil changed. At 56000 Km/ 35000 miles I still had almost half of the life in my front pads, the rears however were wearing on an angle, thinning on one edge. The rotors front and back are pristine. I changed all four pads. I decided that new pads on the back necessitated new pads on the front. Anyhow I was amazed that the new pads went on just like I thought they would without machining. My questions are: 1 Can you change only the rear pads safely? 2 What caused my rear pads to wear at an angle ? is this normal. 3 What might be the maximum number of pad changes one rotor set might see? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 You can replace pads per axle in pairs. Your pads were wearing odd because your calipers are seizing. You need to remove the pads, get the calipers off the sliding pins, then clean and lubricate them. Rotors can last the life of the car or 2000 miles depending upon driving habits, the alignment of the planets, and your good luck. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby17 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Interesting. Both of your rear brake pads showed that sort of uneven wear? That happened on my car in the front and it was because the brake was dragging slightly over a long period of time. That pad was down to the wear mark where as the other front was at 40%. Were the pads easy to get out or were they kindof stuck in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subaruplatt Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 I only saw the passenger side rear so I don't know? The Pad came out easily though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Sticking calipers. At ever brake job the pins need to be cleaned and lubricated, if not this is what happens. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torxxx Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 take emery cloth and sand down all the rust/corrosion/road poop off the slide pins. Take a synthetic wheel bearing grease of some sort and grease the hell out of the slides. Also bad wheel bearings can cause the same problem. I had the rears on my EA82 wagon do that this summer. Wheel bearing was so bad that the axle shaft and tire actually had a lean just like the pad did. Since the pad bracket bolts to the control arm itself and the rotor is attached to the hub/wheelbearing/tire thingermabobber it can cause the same problem. I almost guarantee that your slide pins are rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwbuge1 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 you need to more than just lubricate the slide pins to be effective. I have had sticky calipers on the last 3 subarus I've owned. My current one is doing it now in the rear and I've been putting off getting to it. Remove the caliper. Carefully remove the dust seal. Force compressed air into where the brake line attaches. This will pop out the piston. Look at the inside of the caliper and see if it needs cleaned up with some emerey cloth. Clean it thoroughly with brake cleaner. Now look at the piston. Chances are it will need hit with the emery cloth also. The should be NO signs of corrosion. Inspect the rubber seal on the piston also. On reassembly, give the piston a generous helping of synthetic brake grease. Reassemble everything and also lube the slide pins. My car was shaking up front when I would hit the brakes. It almost felt like I had warped rotors. When I took everything apart, the rotors and pads were fine. One of my calipers was sticking and the slide pins were almost completely stuck. When I do my car I plan on taking pictures and posting the procedure here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 One thing that has always bugged me (I'm not picking on anyone, just an observation). Not everyone has compressed air available to them. Not everyone has multiple cars to take things someplace where compressed air is available. Not everyone has someplace to store a air compressor. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StructEngineer Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 (edited) When I find seized or failing brake sliders or caliper pistons I usually just buy a new caliper/bracket set. If you dont have to replace the caliper, then you'll have a spare to replace it next time. This way, it's a lot simpler to bolt off the old and bolt on the new without a lot of down time messing with rebuilding stuff. Then with the extra bracket, you can rebuild it at your leisure. When you look at it from the perspective that you're doing the work yourself instead of taking it somewhere that would charge you $60/hr+ labor, it's worth it to spend the extra just to get new or RMD parts. Edited December 15, 2009 by StructEngineer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwbuge1 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 One thing that has always bugged me (I'm not picking on anyone, just an observation). Not everyone has compressed air available to them. Not everyone has multiple cars to take things someplace where compressed air is available. Not everyone has someplace to store a air compressor. nipper I see your point. I used to work at an air compressor factory so I actually have 3. I find it easier and less expensive to spend a little bit of time trying to fix the parts that I have. Not everyone has the money to plunk down for a brand new caliper. I realize that not everyone's experience level or tool bin is up to the task but I figured I'd post my experiences anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwbuge1 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 One thing that has always bugged me (I'm not picking on anyone, just an observation). Not everyone has compressed air available to them. Not everyone has multiple cars to take things someplace where compressed air is available. Not everyone has someplace to store a air compressor. nipper I forgot to ad. This can also be accomplished with a typical grease gun. I have seen it done on motorcycle calipers so I imagine it could work with automotive calipers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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