Does VSC wear out your rear brake pads?

[Elkins45]

My 2016 Mazda 6 is making grinding noises from the rear brakes so I’m thinking I need new pads. It only has 62k miles and that seems early compared to all the other vehicles I’ve owned. Plus, I’ve never had rears wear our before fronts. Do electronic parking breaks or traction control systems cause rear brake pads to wear faster than they used to?

 

[supton]

Parking brake should not wear out pads. TC could though. It tries to “grab” the spinning wheel so that the open will increase torque to the other wheel.

That said, it could be normal. EBD (electronic braking distribution?) has been around for a while. Used to engage the rear brakes first, to help prevent nose dive during braking. The fronts come in quickly as you ramp up pedal effort, but, for some drivers who only ever light brake, may find “excessive” rear pad wear, since rear pads are usually much smaller.

My ‘04 VW had EBD. I wore the rear pads out at 168k. Fronts were fine, and didn’t replaced until 175k, at that point, 3 of them still had 3/4 of the lining left (the fourth one delaminated, thus forcing the replacement).

 

[Kruse]

A local company has a fleet of about 10 fairly late model F150 trucks. On these trucks, the rear pads were replaced before the fronts, probably because the rears are applied before the fronts for stability.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

My 2016 Mazda 6 is making grinding noises from the rear brakes so I’m thinking I need new pads. It only has 62k miles and that seems early compared to all the other vehicles I’ve owned. Plus, I’ve never had rears wear our before fronts. Do electronic parking breaks or traction control systems cause rear brake pads to wear faster than they used to?

Seems fairly normal for the Mazda/Ford collaboration vehicles. I had a 2011 Fusion that when I sold it around 120k, I had replaced the rears 3 times (once just before the sale) and the front pads were still originals, with nearly half the pad material left and the rotors were perfect. Never had activation of the stability systems that I could tell, so I assume it’s more a proportioning valve that was set too strongly for rear bias.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

A local company has a fleet of about 10 fairly late model F150 trucks. On these trucks, the rear pads were replaced before the fronts, probably because the rears are applied before the fronts for stability.

That's been my experience with a 2WD Chevy Silverado with traction control. The rear pads were worn out at 102,000, but the fronts are still ok at 140,000.

 

[The_Jeff]

Absolutely. This picture is from NC where they don't get that much snow, and an inexperienced driver just nailed the gas until their brakes caught fire.

 

[Dave9]

Yes some modern vehicles with TC have more rear brake bias than they used to.

 

[D60]

A local company has a fleet of about 10 fairly late model F150 trucks. On these trucks, the rear pads were replaced before the fronts, probably because the rears are applied before the fronts for stability.

If true I hope that's closely monitored by traction control. In slick or icy conditions more rear brake than front is a horrendously bad idea

 

[michaelluscher]

Yes
Modern stability control systems often Brake-based torque vectoring to assist with traction and stability
Because why spend time and money on proper chassis development and good tires, when you can just lean a little on the brake on the outer rear wheel on a sweeping turn to keep under/oversteer in check

 

[The Critic]

It only has 62k miles and that seems early compared to all the other vehicles I’ve owned. Plus, I’ve never had rears wear our before fronts. Do electronic parking breaks or traction control systems cause rear brake pads to wear faster than they used to?

It has been that way on many cars.....for at least 10 years.

 

[Elkins45]

Pads were toast. One was starting on the rivets.

 

[missingcurlybracket]

Could it have been dragging? I wouldn't expect an EPB or TC to elevate brake wear significantly without extensive use limiting slip and EPB's typically disengage when driving.

 

[Elkins45]

Could it have been dragging? I wouldn't expect an EPB or TC to elevate brake wear significantly without extensive use limiting slip and EPB's typically disengage when driving.

The sliders and caliper pistons moved freely so I don’t think so. I think it’s probably a combination of pad materials chosen for their quietness and efficiency rather than longevity, and a bias toward the rear brakes that’s a little higher than cars I’m used to.

 

[B6_Dolphin]

Infiniti uses Active Trace Control on their Q50/Q60 which manages understeer/oversteer in turns by modulating the rear brakes, and thus the rear brake pads do experience increased wear on those models.

 

[bullwinkle]

The Ford Transits we have wear out rear pads before the fronts, guessing Ford assumes heavy rear loading which should improve braking in the rear. The issue with fronts grabbing hard first-slippery conditions can mean loss of steering ability, even with ABS firing. That’s why running lower gears downhill in bad conditions is a good idea, as long as the rears don’t lock up.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

My 2016 Mazda 6 is making grinding noises from the rear brakes so I’m thinking I need new pads. It only has 62k miles and that seems early compared to all the other vehicles I’ve owned. Plus, I’ve never had rears wear our before fronts. Do electronic parking breaks or traction control systems cause rear brake pads to wear faster than they used to?

Seen this and replaced them myself on Subaru and Nissan. My brother reports same with Honda civic that were toast at under 20K mi in my niece's car driven in the Cali hills
We had them gone before at my house in 40K miles - but all serpentine secondary roads here.

I always swear at Subaru engineers the rear pads are criminally undersized - actually the size of dominoes!

On the subaru, the parking brake is a mini drum inside the rear rotor hats. Never wear at all - just need dusting and some careful silicone or teflon grease in critical spots

and yes I feel stability control affects wear.

 

[Hall]

Seems to be the case since the introduction of anti-lock, traction control, etc. Notice how vehicles don't nose-dive when braking hard anymore ? The other thing is, the automakers haven't changed the size of the rear brake components to make them beefier, which might even out the wear difference from front to rear.

 

[Elkins45]

FWIW I did the front pads today. They were at about 2mm. I guess Mazda just used really grabby and soft pads for OEM. My Corolla went 180k on one replacement set of front pads and the factory rear shoes. I guess that kind of thing can only be expected from a Toyota.

I wonder if vehicles that are driven infrequently suffer more wear because the rotors rust over between drives? My Chevy truck front pads were completely gone at 44k but it only gets driven maybe 3K a year.