Is there something wrong with my brakes?

T

TheWeekendWagon

Member
I do all of my own maintenance on my JK and every time I change the oil and rotate the tires I take a look at the brake pads. I was always very impressed with how long they were lasting, especially on such a heavy vehicle...but now as the miles keep piling up I am starting to wonder if my brakes are working properly. First off, I just had to change the rear brake pads after 70,000 miles...which seems like a really long time for me. But it seems as if the fronts are hardly wearing down at all. This is a photo of the front pads I took today, after 70,000 miles....

39629532262_c14c34102b_k.jpg


First off, I find it odd that any of the pads lasted that long but I am even more skeptical that the fronts are lasting so much longer than the rears. That doesn't make sense to me on such a heavy vehicle.

I don't feel as if the braking power or braking bias is much different than any other car I have driven and it feels to me as if the fronts are at least doing some of the work. I bought the car brand new so if there's a problem with the bias or the front lines or something it came from the factory like that. The entire brake system is 100% original and never been touched aside from the rear pads I just did a few hundred miles ago now.

I just thought I would ask here first to see if it was normal for the fronts to out-last the rears on these things before I go diving into my brake system. Thanks in advance!
 
WJCO said:
Those pads look brand new. Strange.
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Super weird right? They are at least working a little as they are warm after use. I may go buy an IR temp reader to see what the temperature difference is front vs. rear. I guess the good news is they work well enough to not be noticeable under normal driving conditions. But then if the rears were doing all the work you would think that they wouldn't have lasted 70,000 miles either. :confused:
 
I am not sure that’s the cause to be honest. Traction/stability control never engages during street driving, at least not the way I drive, and I always turn it off when in the dirt or sand.

Plus, unless the Jeep is different than most modern cars on the road then that’s not really how I understand traction control to work. Traction control, the system that limits tire spin, usually cuts power to the stop the wheels from
spinning, not by using the brakes. Stability control, which stops a car from sliding, does use the brakes but almost always cuts brake pressure to the rear if it senses a slide in order to straighten the vehicle back out because anytime a vehicle has more rear brake bias than the front it will try and rotate under braking unless you are pointing dead straight.


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Are both sides in the front worn evenly? If so, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you got 70,000 out of the rear and both fronts have even wear I’d move on be happy. Just my $0.02


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TheWeekendWagon said:
I am not sure that’s the cause to be honest. Traction/stability control never engages during street driving, at least not the way I drive, and I always turn it off when in the dirt or sand.

Plus, unless the Jeep is different than most modern cars on the road then that’s not really how I understand traction control to work. Traction control, the system that limits tire spin, usually cuts power to the stop the wheels from
spinning, not by using the brakes. Stability control, which stops a car from sliding, does use the brakes but almost always cuts brake pressure to the rear if it senses a slide in order to straighten the vehicle back out because anytime a vehicle has more rear brake bias than the front it will try and rotate under braking unless you are pointing dead straight.


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I never bought into this theory either. To me the abs/esc/bld doesn't activate enough to justify a large difference in rear brake wear. I honestly believe that the JK just has a heavy bias to the rear.

To your point on the stability control. I believe it acts mainly on the rears to let the nose pull straight, while maintaining steering. Similar to lightly applying trailer brakes in slippery conditions to allow tow vehicle to pull the set straight.


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TheWeekendWagon said:
that’s not really how I understand traction control to work. Traction control, the system that limits tire spin, usually cuts power to the stop the wheels from
spinning, not by using the brakes.
Click to expand...

You might want to follow the link below and learn how your traction control works using BLD:

https://youtu.be/K6uAKtb0Q6U

I have a 2011 Liberty with 120k and the front pads are still original and look a lot like yours. The rears I replaced at 90k. I think wear depends on driving style. Hard braking will wear the fronts and easy braking the rears. I wouldn’t worry about it.
 
sipafz said:
You might want to follow the link below and learn how your traction control works using BLD:

https://youtu.be/K6uAKtb0Q6U

I have a 2011 Liberty with 120k and the front pads are still original and look a lot like yours. The rears I replaced at 90k. I think wear depends on driving style. Hard braking will wear the fronts and easy braking the rears. I wouldn’t worry about it.
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Thanks for the link! That's the first time I have ever heard of a system like the BLD. Kinda cool alternative to a limited-slip differential I suppose. I come from a world of sports cars where that sort of thing is not commonplace. I am sure some AWD sports cars have something similar. Still don't think it's the reason for the rear brake wear and/or lack of front brake wear but interesting nonetheless! I love this Jeep more and more with everything I learn about it!

As long as it's not abnormal I will continue to be impressed as opposed to worried about how my pads are wearing. Perhaps the rears are just undersized which I can see reason for doing on this type of vehicle. Again, I don't have any problem with the way the Jeep stops right now it's just a very different situation than any other vehicle I have owned, but then again it's a very different vehicle than any other I have owned. :)
 
I usually replace the rear pads twice before having to replace the fronts.

I also find the rear passenger wears much faster than the rear driver side.

I've often wondered if there was a way to balance the brakes so they wear more evenly but haven't taken it beyond just thinking about it while replacing brake pads

your front pads look brand new for as many miles as they have.
 
jeeeep said:
I usually replace the rear pads twice before having to replace the fronts.

I also find the rear passenger wears much faster than the rear driver side.

I've often wondered if there was a way to balance the brakes so they wear more evenly but haven't taken it beyond just thinking about it while replacing brake pads

your front pads look brand new for as many miles as they have.
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That makes me happy to hear! Sounds like everything is just fine then and these brake pads are somehow superheroes. Now it's a game of how long can I make these fronts last! They may outlast the engine at this rate hahaha.
 
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