2004 1500 4x4 82K. At 61K my ex-mechanic pronounced that the rear pads were shot and that the front pads were fine. I questioned this since I have always been told and experienced front pads wear out first.

Comments??

Front pads are still looking good at 82K. Should I be looking for a problem.

Also, had problems removing brake pad holder bolts. Limited access on rears. Ended up using a hand held sledge hammer to bank on a 1/2" drive. Any tips??

Thanks Fraser Jim

 

Use an impact wrench.

 

This car is metric, so lay off the sledgehammering 1/2". Use a 14mm socket or a wrench.

And I dont think that is the 1st set of pads in the front. You may be on the 2nd or 3rd set of front pads in this car. In NYC due to the way people drive here, front pads tend to last 15K average and rears 30K. The way I drive, I can get 50K from front pads and 60K from the rear(usually because I drive like a nun).

 

I bought the Suburban new, so unless the Chevy dealer or incompetent mechanic slipped some front brake pads on there for free, the 82k is right.

This is my goin' fishin' vehicle, so 90% of the milage is Colorado highway.

I had an 18mm socket on the the drive for the banging.

I grew up in NYC and know that it it truly "combat" driving. One of my friends is a 64 year old Episcopal nun in the upper west side of Manahattan. You want to grab your children and get off the sidewalk when she is behind the wheel!

 

Still the front pads do more work than the rear. So the rears should last about 2x as long as the front, theoretically...Unless someone was driving with the E-brake on???

Well take them out and measure them yourself. He may have been looking at them from the side OR maybe he was hoping to make that boat payment?

Your friend sounds crazy. I mean to say I drive like one of them nuns in those old kung fu movies who spend all day in the field singing and planting rice. Real country-fied.

 

I had a 2002 Suburban and now a 2005 and I had the exact same experience with brake wear. On both the rears wore out first at about 50k miles. The fronts lasted a little longer to about 55-60k miles. The OEM are Ceramic and get very long life. Replace with Bendix Ceramic or equivalent and you should get the same life out of the second pair.

Also my front calipers were extremely tight where I couldn't replace the front pads myself. I almost stripped the caliper bolt. Shop was able to get it out with a lot of hammering.

 

Same here rear before the front, (100K rear twice, front once)

 

The fronts take most of the stopping abuse, but they are also a lot larger than rear pads...so the old adage about the fronts wearing out first doesn't always apply. In fact, it's very likely they rears will wear out first on these trucks.