Brake Pad Wear?
 

I'm at 45k miles and the dealer said I still have 60% left on the front pads and 40% on the rear. I've never had pads last this long on a car before. Granted I've also never had a car this light that doesn't require braking for most turns either :D Just curious if others are experiencing the same.

Yes, some people have gone to 100k+. If you do a lot of highway driving it helps.

It also helps if you drive a manual and use engine braking. I'm at 48K miles on mine. When I was in for the 47.5K service, the service tech didn't give me a percentage but said they had plenty left.

I'd love to see the numbers comparing average brake life between autos and manuals in this car.

I just checked my pads a few weekends ago after doing my 35k oil change and also noticed this. Is it weird that the rears are wearing out before the fronts? In all my previous cars, I've always had more wear in the fronts.

Were all your other cars fwd by any chance? I am in no way an expert on brakes but one would deduce that the wheels powered by the drivetrain would put more strain/usage on the brakes.


Also the fact that the car's center of gravity sits so low and that the engine/tranny sit so far back make the car quite balanced vs other front engine cars that have the weight bias more towards the front meaning more strain on the pads when braking.


Then again I could be all wrong about all of this

Not particularly. I've seen the same on my tacoma (front engined rear driven) as well as my wrx (front engined awd). I've always thought that the fronts were always working harder due to weight transfer during braking, granted this car is probably the lightest car I've owned. Perhaps the traction/stability control plays a part in it? I know when it kicks in, it uses the rear brakes to keep things in check, but I hardly ever set that off (usually off on trackday/autox)

I bought my car used so I don't know if the brakes have been changed etc. but when I took the car in for 30k service the tech told me that they look brand new and they felt aftermarket (he drove the car after the service) they squeel ever so slightly. Also, I've always had more brake dust from the rear pads than the front. I agree with @BigFatFlip that it's probably from the traction control system.

43k and I bought new street pads because I was just plain tired of OEM, nothing wrong, probably have another 10k-30k miles left in them but they stop like crap ever since I overheated them. So, OP's life is reasonable, light car + long lasting compound.

Hell just found out from another post that some places offer 'lifetime brakes', literally they're supposed to last the life of the car. I wonder if they can even engage ABS with good tires equipped...

Brake wear has to do with traction to the road not power to the wheels, fronts will always have more stopping power/use more material/generate more heat because of the way weight transfers upon slowing the car down. FWD may have more weight over the front end creating more traction and thus more brake wear, but not much more than a similarly setup front engined rear wheel drive car with similar suspension geometry.

Unless ABS/Traction Control is in play.

Lots of burnouts?

I bet your stability control pumps the rear more the the front.

Yep. The nannies working overtime.

Yup. Everytime your rear wheels would normally lose traction, the stability control kicks in by using the rear brakes.

Is it me or anyone else having a problem determining what percentage of the brake pads are left on the BRZ? I don't have any issues with my other cars but I just don't know where to look even with the wheels off on the Subie. Is it through that tiny slit in the calipers?

yeah, or you can just swing the calipers up. they're super easy to remove.