Well I was installing new rotors and pads and lookie what I found. *Sesame street* One of these things is not like the others...

Rears



Fronts for comparison (car has 34000 miles - never had new pads)



As you can see, the inside right rear pad is gone. I always looked at the outside pad and figured, well it's time to change the brakes, even though they got a little life in them.

I talked to the service guys at nissan, and they said that crud likely accumulated on the sliders for the pads, and that one right rear was slow on backing away from the disc (if at all). They said to use brake disc lube on the slider pins (basically a dry lube that can withstand high temps and doesnt attract stuff). I'm going to try that, but also watch these pads very close, just to make sure it's not the caliper itself. Never saw any mention of lubing the sliders on peoples how-to's on brakes, so thought I'd mention it.

 

Hmmm. My right rear brake has started to make noise. I better take a look.

It's an 03 SB Track no less.

 

That is odd, I wonder if a piston is (or was for some time) stuck or if the crossover was somehow clogged up.

Chris

 

Sad thing is I actually had the brake fluid changed out not too long ago at the dealership - makes me wonder if they were looking at the brakes at all, or if this was something that happened since then.

 

They may have been bled unevenly.... if there was bubbles in the right rear line, it would not clamp as hard...

Time for new pads and rotors...

http://mynismo.com/products/multivendor.asp?mid=2260294

 

Generally on all cars the inside pads wear faster [10-20%] than outside usually a factor in heat build up.
With floating calipers the inside always has more force than the outside due to calper bending.

Not to the extreme of your pictures however.

 

install your new stuff and go and reinspect after 1000 miles

 

I would re-bleed all calipers with new fluid before installing new pads. Also look at the boot for the pins that caliper floats or slides on and if possible lubricate it, (I have never done anything like this, its just some food for thought).

 

Are you running the car on the track at all, or driving aggressively with these pads? Also, have you removed your rear dust shields? The one thing I noticed when I started pushing my 350 hard on the track was that the inside rears were burning up very quickly. I got rid of my rear dust shields...they were like having a heat sink enveloping the rotor. My wear rates evened out a bit when I did this. On these cars, the rear pad is sooooo tiny, that the stock pads in particular can dip outside of their optimal temp range. Allow them to radiate a little more heat and you may seen an improvement.

 

Nope, not running it on the track yet - only occasional hard braking. I dont have a grinder to cut the shields off with, or I would have done it when changing these out. What real purpose do those shields serve anyway?

P.S. With the kit from stoptech, the axxis ultimate pads, when installed as labelled, place the wear indicator on the inside pad, whereas the shop manual says it should be on the outside pad - anything I should worry about? I'd really hate for the dang things to mess up something (haven't even taken the car out since I switched everything out). Heck, given how these cars tend to chew the inside pads, it might be better to leave them there if they won't mess anything up.