how long for rear brakes to wear out

_UnLiMiTeD_ · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:36 pm

Hey guys, i just got my brake job on my kj about 2 weeks ago. The fronts were toast but my rears were still at 70% does this sound right?

Im at 46,900 kms (not miles) and as far as i know, this is the first brake job done to the kj. I just did the fronts and left the rears since they had some much left on them.

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:46 pm

rear brakes always last longer than fronts. the front brakes do about 75% of the work when stopping.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:10 pm

Yea, that sounds right.

Mine still look new at 30k..

_UnLiMiTeD_ · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:36 pm

alright just had to make sure, my other car had drums in the back so i wasnt sure the life span on the dic brakes, thanks for the info

corwyyn · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:38 pm

Yeah, I'm at 82k and still haven't replaced the rears, but I do check them whenever I rotate tires or do the fronts. Probably take care of them this week since I'm off the whole week, then I won't have to worry about them for a long while

myjeepwalks · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:34 pm

99k miles on mine and still have the orig rear brakes. Mine are drums though. I just did my fronts this past summer for the second time since I've owned it.

Burchie · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:09 am

same deal here. 89K on the TJ, still have org shoes on the back, and done the fronts at 65K. I down shift a lot

03kjsport · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:26 am

i bought my 03 kj new with only 13 miles on it in oct of 02. i replaced my frontt breaks 2 thanksgiving's ago and im replacing my rears next week. im at 80,000 miles now. they are the O.G rear shoes.

Uffe · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:10 am

My rear discs seem to have rusted more than worn away. I need to brake harder and more in the future to keep them alive. Pads will last me about 10,000kms still. Pads aren't expensive but discs are, I hope to keep the rear discs alive for at least another year.

greenrider · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:29 am

I had around 52 K's on mine and replced all . i had a caliper stidk and it wore out one rear brake pads so i replaces it all.

itsajeepthing · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:26 am

I bought my Jeep new in '03. Right now I have just under 104000 km's on it with the original brakes front and rear. They are due to be changed now though.

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:05 am

Over 95,000 and all original brakes and still look good, just checked them when I rotated the tires last Wednesday! Shooting for 100,000 on them :wink:

detroit_doc · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:21 am

I went through both my fronts and rears at around 36,000 mile on my 2003 liberty with rear discs. Both fronts and rears were about equally worn.

I do a lot of brakes jobs. My family used to own a brake shop. We sold it. But everytime any of my family or friends need brakes they show up at my doorstep. I've noticed lately that many vehichle wear out their rear brakes at roughly the same time or in some cases even before the fronts. This definately was not true in the past. But I suspect in recent years manufacturers have been attempting to match pad life between the front and rears.

Recently I've had a three different friends show up with fairly newer cars (2004, 30 - 40 thousand miles) telling me they need rear brakes. I told then, "nah, you're just hearing it wrong. You probably need fronts, your rears should be fine." Sure enough on all three vechicles the fronts outlasted the rears - although the fronts were close enough that I replaced all of them. Those cars were a 2004 Cadillac CTX, a 2004 Pontiac Aztec and a 2004 Trailblazer.

It's true that the front brakes do more work. The rear brakes are much smaller, and may use a softer pad compound. So even though they do less work, they can be engineered to have similar pad life expectancies.

snowsport · **Joined:** Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:52 pm **Posts:** 1211

My rear brake pads needed to be replaced at about 20k miles. My fronts are still good at 38k miles.

WGNMANinaRENEGADE · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:45 am

see the other brake thread. i got about 84k on mine, no prob's with rear. replace front @ about 80k.
often, it's the driver that puts excessive wear on breaks. i know i can go 3 or 4 times the miles w/o any problem compared to my wife. tho, i must admit, my many years of cussin and fussin must have soaked in cause she drove the renegade for about 60k of those miles. then i wonder, how is it that in 10k on her convertable her brakes already suck!!!

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:43 pm

detroit_doc wrote:

I went through both my fronts and rears at around 36,000 mile on my 2003 liberty with rear discs. Both fronts and rears were about equally worn.

I do a lot of brakes jobs. My family used to own a brake shop. We sold it. But everytime any of my family or friends need brakes they show up at my doorstep. I've noticed lately that many vehichle wear out their rear brakes at roughly the same time or in some cases even before the fronts. This definately was not true in the past. But I suspect in recent years manufacturers have been attempting to match pad life between the front and rears.

Recently I've had a three different friends show up with fairly newer cars (2004, 30 - 40 thousand miles) telling me they need rear brakes. I told then, "nah, you're just hearing it wrong. You probably need fronts, your rears should be fine." Sure enough on all three vechicles the fronts outlasted the rears - although the fronts were close enough that I replaced all of them. Those cars were a 2004 Cadillac CTX, a 2004 Pontiac Aztec and a 2004 Trailblazer.

It's true that the front brakes do more work. The rear brakes are much smaller, and may use a softer pad compound. So even though they do less work, they can be engineered to have similar pad life expectancies.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but from what I've noticed on most Jeeps, and Chryslers in general with rear disks, is that the rear pads last twice as long as the fronts. I got about 25k out of the new pads I put on my KJ at 50k (and it got new shoes at the same time), and it's about time for new brakes again at 100k and the unreplaced rear shoes look like they've got about 50% of the friction material left on them.

detroit_doc · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:55 pm

ThunderbirdJunkie wrote:

I'm not disagreeing with you, but from what I've noticed on most Jeeps, and Chryslers in general with rear disks, is that the rear pads last twice as long as the fronts. I got about 25k out of the new pads I put on my KJ at 50k (and it got new shoes at the same time), and it's about time for new brakes again at 100k and the unreplaced rear shoes look like they've got about 50% of the friction material left on them.

Yep, that' my experience with most drum brakes as well. My observation about late model vehicles wearing out the rears around the same time as the fronts were all on vehicles with rear discs. And to even qualify that more, I've only noticed this on 2003+ vehicles. In the 90's and early 2000s, the vehicles with rear discs still seemed to go through 2 sets of fronts for every set of rears.

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:17 pm

Man I must be doing something wrong compared to most others since mine are still good. I used to be a certified brake specialist as well and still do a lot of brake jobs yet today, have one on Christmas Day as a matter of fact! But I am not seeing the wearing out front / rears at the same time, must be a big city thing :wink:

ReneDave · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:10 am

Hmm... I figured it was partly beach driving to blame for my rear brakes wearing out so quickly. I'm at 33K now and it doesn't look like I'll get past 40K before changing them. The rear rotors have a good amount of rust on them, salt water has probably helped with that, and I can't help but think that that's helping wear them out.

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:27 am

I got the front replaced ~55k, and I think my rears are still original (not first owner) at ~76k (drums).

how long for rear brakes to wear out

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