Early Wear on Rear Brake Pads?

[lisafairfax]

I just had my first 3,750 mile service (actually around 3,500 miles as I had a dead battery last week and had to call Infiniti Roadside Assist). The technician marked the front brake pads at 9/10, makes total sense, but marked the rear brake pads at 7/10. Is this normal wear & tear at 4,000 miles? I'm a very mellow driver.

[Obsidian EX]

I just had my first 3,750 mile service (actually around 3,500 miles as I had a dead battery last week and had to call Infiniti Roadside Assist). The technician marked the front brake pads at 9/10, makes total sense, but marked the rear brake pads at 7/10. Is this normal wear & tear at 4,000 miles? I'm a very mellow driver.

Yeah, for some reason the EX35 seems to really like rear brakes! I'm at 24k miles and it's time for the rear brakes to be replaced. I've already had one brake service (ground rotors, etc), but a new set will be due soon.

You'll find a couple of threads long this same line where people have complained about the general warning light coming on, followed by a failure of the VDC system. The system appears to be very sensitive to wear, and you'll notice it more under hard acceleration (I guess the brake fluid moves around too much, and this makes the system think there is some type of malfunction in the brake/VDC system).

[SteveTheTech]

Hi there,

I think what you might be looking at is the results of a technicians gauge that may be slightly out of adjustment.

I know I was using a measuring gauge that was 2/32" less than it should have been for a while. While I always performed a visual inspection. I would always try to use percentages or the green,yellow,red boxes on the back of the Infiniti evaluation form, instead of numbers.

Honestly,
Don't worry about brake readings until you hit about 27k miles. The rears should last till about 30k and the fronts tend to average about 40k, but that is wildly variable, especially if the Fairfax you are in is Virginia. Don't read too much into these numbers. I know my shop has no standard on what type of measurement we use. I started using measurements in thirty seconds of an inch as a kid and never migrated to metric measurements when I joined Nissan. The readings are almost always incorrect, or not a complete representation, when you see them on the back of the repair order.

Many vehicles do no wear brake pads evenly so a reading of 7 could be either represented in Imperial or Metric measurements it could be measured on the inner or outer pad. To me that could mean just about anything.

[p kullenberg]

Steve: Just as a data point, I'm at 42000 miles on the original brakes; that being said a huge portion of that has been long haul, cross country driving, plus I use the man. feature of the gear box to decel. I've probably got another 10-12k on the rears.

Cheers Pat

[SteveTheTech]

Holy crap Pat,

I don't know that I've ever seen that many miles out of original pads.
At least in my area that is a pipe dream.

[EXceptional]

Do the Brakes have squealers when the Pads get down low, or is it just Metal on Metal ?

Our Car has 30,000 Km's on it.

30,000 Km = 18,641 Miles

[SteveTheTech]

You will most likely first notice either a light squeak front the right rear. The next step is the BRAKE light and slip and vdc light coming on periodically. It will increase in frequency in the level in the reservoir drops.

You probably have 15k Km before you will need rears.

[4sure]

Just took my Ex35 for a Maintenance Service C with about 23,000 kms, and was told today I had about 2.8/10 left on both rear brakes.....is that normal? I only drive my car within city limits

[SteveTheTech]

is that normal? I only drive my car within city limits

Brake wear is very hard to average. Driving in the city might actually lead to less mileage out of a set of pads given the increased amount of use out of the brakes. If you have double the mileage but the majority of it were from highway driving you still might have the same amount of pad life left due to the lower number of overall brake applications vs. miles traveled.

Infiniti has been using this style brakes for about 10 years now and they have been consistently getting about 30k miles out of a set but some EXs I have seen go through them at 22k. Some like Pat have surpassed the average by more than 10k.

[Real10]

Had rear rotors machined because of brakes “vibration” on 11000 (pads were at 5 mm). Next time at 15800 pads were at 3 mm, rotors machined again and rear pads replaced. Mostly (80%) highway driving

[EXceptional]

Just so I'm clear on this, it's the Pads that are wearing out quickly?

The Rotors generally last much longer?

[SteveTheTech]

Yeah the pads tend to wear on the quick side.

I have a loyal client from the DC who commutes from one end to the other and has worn the rear brakes on his 09 G37 coupe (lighter) in just over 20k.
On the same note.
There is a member of this forum I know with an M35 that had about 50k when his rears needed replacement.

[Real10]

Just so I'm clear on this, it's the Pads that are wearing out quickly?

The Rotors generally last much longer?

It looks this way in my case

[ANBYOND]

At 8,500 miles my dealer told me my brakes were more than 50% worn, LOL! I normally get 30k out of my other vehicles brakes or more.

[luvEX35]

Hi everyone, I own a 2008 EX35. I just had my car serviced at 36,600 miles. I had a feeling I was going to need brake work done. I had to have the rear brakes replaced, they were at "3mm". The fronts are at 7mm. I guess 36,600 is good mileage for these brakes, I drive mostly city, lots of stop and go. The other thing I have noticed, I am hearing lots of tire noise, the technician said the tires are "scalloped" and that can cause some noise. It appears that I have good tread left. I have them rotated regularly. So I am going to wait until fall to get new tires before the New England winter comes. I am looking at Michelin MXV4 and Pirelli P6.

[SFBill]

Just had my 15,000 mile service on my 2010; required a rear brake job (added $400 to my service - yikes!). I'd read that the EX goes through rear brakes quickly; the short life in my case is probably in part due to the amount of city driving I do in San Francisco (lots of hills and traffic).