Rear Brake Pads Worn after 25K miles?

Went to the dealer for my oil change today, and they showed me my rear brake pads were almost completely worn down, while the fronts were nearly perfect. I've got 25K miles on the truck. However...

I purchased the truck about 3 months ago, gently used, with 17K miles. I don't know the history of how it was used prior to me owning it, but looking at the receiver hitch, it had zero evidence (worn paint, no rust, super clean) of prior use, so I can say I'm confident it wasn't used for frequent towing. Bed had an OEM rubber mat over the plastic bed-liner, and neither was marked up like it had frequent loads in it.

I've had numerous vehicles before, and have never seen any pads wear out after just 25K miles. And I've never had one so worn on the rear with the fronts like new.

As I can't seem to find any auto parts stores with them in stock (most don't have any ability to order rear pads), I'm wondering if they were all worn out at some point, and the Ford dealer I purchased the truck from found front pads locally (they seem to be in stock everywhere), and skipped the back.

Just odd for them to be like this. I have some heavy duty ones on order from Rock Auto, and will swap them out this weekend, but wanted to know if anyone else had this issue. I did a search here and haven't seen anything similar.

 

Have not really heard of that but might want to check if the calipers are sticking. Iirc @Eurodriver had a sticky caliper causing poor mpg??

 

MPG seems to be on par or just slightly less than what others are saying they get. I tend to do 80 on the highway, and a lot of around town driving, but I'm in the 18mpg combined. On the road, when cruising at 75, I'm about 19-20.

I'm going to pull them apart this weekend and check movement on the calipers. I'll jack it up first, put it in neutral, and check the wheels to see how they roll and go from there. If they seem like they're sticking, I'll take it to the dealer and have them do it. I know that pads are a wear item and not covered under warranty, but the calipers are.

Thanks for the caliper question. It would make sense. I have felt like maybe my mileage was just a little less than what others are getting.

 

Sounds like the previous owner was doing burnouts.

 

The fun of used vehicles. Never know what the previous owner was doing. So many factors it’s hard to tell(stop-go, hill driving,etc)

 

Heres your answer

https://www.tundras.com/threads/burn-out.129355/page-2#post-3298135

 

I pulled the passenger side rear tire off today to start the swap of the pads, and found that the ones that were in there weren't nearly as bad as I was lead to believe by the Toyota Service folks, but figured since I was already started, I'd put the new ones on.

So... I ordered rear brake pads from Rock Auto (none of the local places had them in stock, or even an order stream to get them) and finally found the time to put them on today. Since we have the Electronic Parking Brake, I had to improvise to get them to release.

If you're in the truck with it on, shift to park, and rather than pulling the parking brake button to engage it, you will need to push on it to get it to release a bit. However, that won't fully disengage the brake caliper, allowing room for new pads.

To overcome the piston not retracting, I had to apply reverse polarity voltage to the EPB solenoid on the caliper. I used a 9 volt battery and a couple of multi-meter leads. I don't have a video of it, but I can say that it wasn't hard. Remove the caliper bolts, apply voltage to the solenoid (picture below), and the inner piston (not visible) will retract. The piston you see won't retract, but you can then use your typical piston compressor to get it to compress.

In the photo below, the EPB wire is disconnected, and you can see how to bias the solenoid from the connector.

I thought I was good once it was fully compressed, but it seems the new brake pads I purchased from Rock Auto weren't the correct ones, so I'll be sending them back and starting again.

 

Somethings wrong. Rear brakes, pads or shoes, should last 100K to 200K miles on a truck. My Tacoma is at 110K and they are at about 33% used. A GMC and Chevy I owned both sold at 100K, with rear discs, were not even at 50% and they did a lot of towing. The rear brake bias on a pickup is very low otherwise theyd lockup very easily.

 

Q? Why didn’t you just release the EPB with the control button first?

 

I did, but it releases it enough to allow the caliper to relax just a little, but not all the way.

 

I agree. Since I bought it used with no history, I'm going to replace them now and check them every 10k miles or so.

 

The rock auto pads are Front pads. Has the holes for guide pins.

Also you can compress the rear caliper piston by using a Brake caliper wind back tool. $24 on Amazon. But your way works too.

 

Thanks! I may keep then and re-order the rears, but they told me the fronts are like new. Still not sure how much they are worn compared to new. There was still meat left.

 

X2 those are the front pads.

Edit: just realized I'm in third Gen territory.
The RockAuto pads *look* like front pads.

 

Very good to know down the road. Thx!

 

Agreed. When I sold my T4R with just over 100k it still had the factory rear pads and they were less than 40% used. Front pads were replaced once and were less than 50% used. That T4R also did a decent number of miles pulling a travel trailer.

 

I drove my 2008 Tundra for 145K miles and the original rear pads still had life when I traded it in for a 2015 Tundra. I had to do pads and rotors on the rear of the 2015 at around 80K miles, which kinda disappointed me, but I could live with it. I agree with others, visibly worn rear pads at 25K miles indicates something is wrong, or the previous owner didn't know how to drive.

Matt

 

It's likely due to the auto LSD (electronic limited slip) if equipped combined with driving style. Most vehicles these days have some sort of eLSD for stability control that applies the brakes as needed per corner. German manufacturers have been doing this for many years. If you have an aggressive or spirited driving style, the rear brakes are being used often for stability control and reducing wheel slip.

My previous X5 burned through rear pads much quicker than the fronts because I like to have fun on/off ramps and left all the nannies on.

 

How did they diagnose this? What mileage were you at? Just wanting any information you have that could assist with my local dealership. They have just shaken their heads, and stated the previous owner must have "done something" that caused it, and quoted me nearly $300 to change the rear pads. I can do it myself, but don't want to overlook a potential issue.

 

My 4runner chewed through rear pads. I thought it was sticking calipers so I replaced them to no avail, later deduced that ATRAC was engaging and dragging rear calipers, most likely when offroad and combined with mud, the pads didn't last long. I could see how aggressive street driving may trigger some nannies to wear out brake pads prematurely too, wouldn't it only be one side if you're taking on/off ramps mostly turning right in the clover?

 

I can't speak for the previous owner's driving habits, but I'm neither passive or aggressive with my driving. The bottom of the truck is extremely clean, so I doubt there was any off road use in its prior life.

 

In theory yes, if you were only doing clover hot laps you'd see mostly just one side. In day to day life, both sides are used more frequently than you think and varying slick conditions (wet, snow, gravel, etc.) will accelerate the wear on both sides. Think about how easy it is to break lose the rear tires when its wet with no weight in the bed. That action is reduced by the eLSD but wears brake pads. I wouldn't be surprised if you find a measurable difference on the right side vs left but have no data to back up the claim.

 

Two footed driver could cause some accelerated pad wear, one on the brake and one the gas.. I can't drive 55.

 

LOL - This Tundra barks and flashes at you if you do that!

 

Spoke with Rock Auto yesterday afternoon, and they sent the fronts rather than the backs, so you're correct. They didn't even ask me to return them, and are sending the rears.

Not sure how the previous driver drove, but I'm fairly gentle on things.

I only took apart the one side due to the incorrect parts being sent. Will update once the correct ones are in hand and swapped out.

Previous owner may have done that, but that's not my style.



Having taken apart the one side, there's still meat left on the pad, and I don't feel it's anywhere as bad as the dealer lead me to believe. However, I did order the Ultimate Duty Performance pads made by Dynamic Friction (from Rock Auto). According to the Dynamic Friction website, those are the pads they recommend for towing, bigger tires (coming soon to my truck), suspension lifts (coming soon) and the likes.

Since I'll have a set of fronts and rears, I'm going to just swap them all out so I can properly track mileage vs wear, and have a starting reference.

 

Thanks! I'll do that today, once the rain and wind dies down a bit. I'm in NE Florida, and we have a little storm passing by right now.

 

Lol! Then you're a local! Even better. I know all too well what you mean.

 

Doubt you’d get away with that on a pickup. Rears lock up way to easily when unloaded. They only apply at something like 10% of the fronts. That’s why they last forever. My Tacoma and other brand trucks I’ve had have a proportioning valve on an arm connected from the frame to the axle. As you load the truck and it squats it allows higher rear brake pressure for stopping. I need to look if this new Tundra rear end has one.