rear rotors gone before front rotors?

abelanger · Aug 25th, 2004, 02:55 PM

Recently, at just 23,000 miles, my 2002 Altima's rear brakes pads and rotors wore down so badly I couldn't drive the car. This was just 5000 miles after paying to have the brakes checked (they were fine) Funny thing is, the front brakes and rotors are still OK.

Don't front brakes always wear before the rear brakes? I know the Altima has Electronic Brake force Distribution, but this seems ridiculous! The dealer checked the calipers and said they were fine. They attributed wear to a rock getting stuck in the brakes, so it's normal wear + not covered under the warranty.

I had an independent mechanic look at it, and told him the Nissan response. He said "that's complete BS"

Is Nissan having trouble keeping brakes on cars? Why would rear rotors wear so much more quickly than the front? How often should brake pads be replaced? I thought they would last a lot longer, especially since I'm doing mostly highway driving. And one more thing, on the drive when I broke down the tires were squealing while I was coasting, not just when braking.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

wickedsr20 · Aug 25th, 2004, 11:13 PM

Without knowing all the details, my best guess to what may be wearing your rears out prematurely is either a stuck or dragging parking brake or possibly sticking calipers. I just replaced rotors and pads front and rear on my Altima (much easier to do this myself than to try to turn my own rotors on a Sat. afternoon/night) at just over 48k and the only parts on mine that were in need of replacing is just the front pads were almost to the wear indicators.
The rear pads were about 40% and all the rotors can be turned (will hold on to these for spares) without a problem. The main reason I did my own is that Nissan wanted $340 to do just the fronts.

God only knows what the full brake service would have been.

Wont Be Beat · Aug 28th, 2004, 10:23 AM

Not sure about the brakes, but the screeching tires might be due to excessive toe.

Excessive toe: sounds like a WWF finishing move.