Extremely uneven pad wear

[ghurley777]

I had a constant squeeling coming from my rear drivers side. Got out and checked it out and the rear drivers side pads were worn down to nothing (past the wear line) and the passenger side pads look new. I assumed the caliper was frozen so i bought all the parts needed to replace the caliper. Using a big C-clamp i was able to push the caliper back in easily. Now im confused. Everything looked fine, lines look good. So i replaced the pads on both sides and crossed my fingers. Driving home and to work today if felt fine, better response on the brakes, no noise or excessive dust. Anyone have any ideas what could have caused this? Could it be that i freed up the pistion when i pressed it in? Problem with master cylinder? Previous owner could have only changed passenger side rear pads?

-Greg

[sx moneypit]

I would take a look at the caliper guide pins.Remove the caliper and make sure the pins move in and out freely.

[ghurley777]

I did take everything apart and the pins were still nice and shiny with grease still present. I relubed and reassembled. Slides move easily.

[sx moneypit]

The caliper piston could have been stuck in the bore possibly ,were both pads worn the same?

[ghurley777]

Yes, inner and outer pads were evenly worn. piston seemed to compress pretty easy with a big C-clamp.

[sx moneypit]

You could possibly have a brake hose problem or something in the ABS system.Without checking the pressures at the brake hose outlets it is hard to tell.Neither Alldata or Identifix shows any brake wear problems with your car.You might want to put a few miles on the car and then recheck the brake pads.

[ghurley777]

Thanks for the input SX. I'll keep my fingers crossed and just go with it.

[sx moneypit]

No problem,keep me posted.




-Ben

[audtatious]

Could have been anything from contaminants in the caliper to a stuck piston. On another car I would consider the E-brake but on the G it has its own pads.

Def keep us informed.

[ghurley777]

You guys asked me to keep you updated so here it is.

I replaced just the pads, and lubed everything up on Aug 19 (2 weeks ago). I have looked at my pads and brake dust every day and the pads seem to be the same on both sides, no noise coming from trouble side, no excess brake dust build up on rims. This leads me to believe that either only one side in the rear had its pads replaced at one time, or my taking it apart freed something up. Either way i think im out of the woods.

I did contact Infiniti to see if i was still covered under warranty and i was 3 months out of warranty. They got me in touch with a regional rep and she told me to take it to my local dealer while they figure out if they will help me financially. RIGHT... Let me roll the dice and see if a big company is going to give me anything for free. Glad i went about it on my own because they basically told me to screw, because they hadn't found anything on the last preventative maintenance that suggested there was an issue. Just what i expected.