Hi,
My Mitsubishi Carisma Diesel has gone in for a service this morning and the lovely young man has called to say that the rear brake pads need changing. Is it me or does this seem odd for a 2 year old car that's only done 25K? I would have expected the fronts to go before the rear? Any comments appreciated...
Should I mention that this is also a free service as part of the 3 year free servicing provided with the car.
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If the garage is local, why not say you will be down in a minute to have a look at what they have found?
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Hiya.
Mileage/age seems reasonable, seeing as I don't know what sort of conditions you've been driving in. BUT, I do agree that the fronts would have gone way 1st. No chance that they've been done at another service point, or that you or your young man said or heard the wrong thing? Jolly odd if it is the case & worth pursuing. There was a post yonks ago about a porche driver ranting on about how his entire rear brakes needed attention. Turns out that, due to performance of the car, for the rear brakes to get any serious kind of use it needed serious braking, which it had never had & therefor they kind of seized due to lack of use. So altogether most odd.
Service might be free-pads & labour to fit them won't be!
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I'm off to pick the car up in a minute, having said do the work as I need a safe/realiable car and don't want the discs getting damaged by worn out pads.
I'm not all that fussed about the cost just amazed that they needed doing, I will be asking them about it.
As for the cost your not wrong £108!
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If the handbrake uses the same pads as the service brake then the pads are likely to be quite soft in order to obtain a good parking brake performance. In this case they may well wear fairly quickly. Upmarket cars sometimes have two lots of pads at the rear ~ service brake and handbrake ~ so that the service brake pads last longer. Presumably with this set-up the handbrake pads would last practically for ever. Manufacturers cannot afford to put this degree of sophistication into cheaper models.
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L\'escargot.
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Well the service managers comments were: Mitsubishi set the brake bias towards the rear to stabalise the car under braking, thats why the rear ones have gone first.
Oh well, at least the service was free.
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for god sake dont brake on a bend if your rear brakes come on first !!
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Well the service managers comments were: Mitsubishi set the brake bias towards the rear to stabalise the car under braking, thats why the rear ones have gone first.
I have noticed a tendency for a minority in the motor trade to lie even when the truth would do the job equally well or better. I cannot think that the service manager actually believed this. Why do they do it?
Or is it me?
Not to say that the work was unnecessary - it's not uncommon for one of a pair of pads to wear out prematurely if it is not retracting properly or the caliper is not free; in which case you would replace both and probably the other side as well. Maybe he thought that you would push for the work to be paid for on the warranty if that was in fact the case.
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I was surprised when I discovered that my Passat needed new rear brakes when the front ones were OK. On all my previous cars the front ones lasted about 3 times as long as the rears.
What is going on?
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I have some experience of servicing Mitsubishi's and the rear pads tend to last ages - twice as long as the fronts. Mitsi do not bias braking to the rear. The biggest problem is that the rears do so little 'work' that the discs tend to start rusting and the calipers sieze.
I would ask to see your old pads - if they really are worn then I would suspect a sticking caliper or some kind of fault with the proportioning valve that is allowing too much pressure to the back.
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As Aprilia has said, always ask for the old bits back and get someone to look at them who knows if they needed replacing or not.
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It also depends on on the type of driving you have to do.Does your route require a large amount of braking.My mazda is similar mileage to yours but the discs/pads are as new,as most of my commute is motorway/dual carriageway.Rear pads may be smaller on your car.
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When i purchased an ex lease BMW with 85K miles the lease co print out showed rear pads changed at 80k for the first time.
That didn't stop the main dealer telling me they needed replacing again at 100K (they didn't) and they told me again at 115K the rear pads needed changing (they still didn't) - I took the car to an independent for the 130K service and told him the rear pads must need doing by now .....his reponse...no there good for another 5K come back in 3 months and I'll check them again.
Don't trust the dealers -
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I have been told (or read somewhere) that occasional very firm braking makes sure the rear brakes get some use, and helps avoid seizing up etc. Anyway, according to my local Honda garage, the Civic brakes are good for another 6 months or so @ 60% front, 40% rear wear. Still on the original pads at 3 years old, 25,000 miles.
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Inrteresting comments.
My daily commute is a 50 mile round trip, mostly motorway. However I was doing a bi weekly round trip of 140 miles, again on the motorway for a few months. There's been moments of hard braking due to traffic build up etc, but I've not spent my weekends doing handbrake turns!
I bought the car with 16K on the clock, so who knows what the previous owner did. I do know the car was serviced prior to me picking it up, so the pads have obviously worn excessively in the last 9K.
My intial thoughts were front wheel drive vehicle, the braking must be biased to the front as they are the driving wheels?
I think I'll bite the bullet this time and see what happens, if they need doing again at the next service (9K) then I'll jump up and down on them (they've had this expereince before).
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My intial thoughts were front wheel drive vehicle, the braking must be biased to the front as they are the driving wheels?
As a general rule, the ratio of braking torque front-to rear is designed such that all four wheels lock (with ABS etc turned off) simultaneously. This ratio is governed by the downward force that exists on each axle under maximum braking conditions, and this in turn depends on the static weight on each axle together with the weight transference from rear to front caused by the deceleration. On average the ratio of braking torque front to rear is approximately 2 to 1 and is not dependent on whether the vehicle is front or rear wheel drive. The actual ratios will vary from vehicle to vehicle.
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L\'escargot.
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