Back brake pads on the way out after 22K

[curly747]

Hi,
Just curious what others experience is with brake pad wear for passat mostly doing city driving. I have a 2016 Passat Alltrack which i bought new four years ago. I had the four year service the other day and the dealer advised there is 2.5mm left on back brake pads and 5mm left on front. They said back would need to be done soon. I was a little surprised back pads wear more than front but am more surprised that any pads are on their way out after 22500kms. The dealer said it had something to do with stability control applying brakes but that seemed odd to me. The car does probably 80% city driving so lots of stop start i guess. I am no hoon. I used to drive a camry and got approx 50K on front pads and 100k on back pads.

[Lucas_R]

European cars use quite an aggressive brake pad which gives good pedal feel and impressive braking performance, at the expense of lots of brake dust (as im sure you have noticed on your wheels compared to your Camry) and a relatively short service life - especially so in a city environment where you are constantly using the brakes.

If you replace the brakes with genuine and keep driving the same way in the same environment then you can only assume you will be changing them again at around 45,000km.

As for why your rear pads are more worn that the fronts, this is because VW increase the rear brake bias in certain braking situations to avoid the car pitching forward - so the rear brakes are used far more often than they would have been in your Camry.

There are plenty of very good quality aftermarket options, in particular ATE Ceramic and Akebono Euro Ceramic which (as the name suggests) use ceramic in their makeup, offering much longer service life & greatly reduced brake dust - with the only downside that I have noticed is a slightly less aggressive brake pedal feel which I actually prefer as I found the original pads too aggressive and would regularly find myself not being able to brake smoothly. These pads cost more initially, but last 2-3 times longer so end up cheaper in the long run. They are also more gentle on the brake disks so they will last much longer too.

Also its important to remember that consumables such as tyres and brake pads can last one person 20,000km and another person with the same car 80,000km because it varies largely not only based on the type of driving they do (eg city driving with lots of turning/roundabouts etc and someone who does lots of highway driving) but how smoothly or aggressively they drive.

[Hillbilly]

Strange mine were only half worn at 43,000km but then I dont use them aggressively unless is an emergency.

Unlike my friend who roars up to traffic or a corner and slams on the anchors every time because he cant look past the front of the bonnet. Then he moans because his tyres and brakes wear out fast

[curly747]

European cars use quite an aggressive brake pad which gives good pedal feel and impressive braking performance, at the expense of lots of brake dust (as im sure you have noticed on your wheels compared to your Camry) and a relatively short service life - especially so in a city environment where you are constantly using the brakes.

If you replace the brakes with genuine and keep driving the same way in the same environment then you can only assume you will be changing them again at around 45,000km.

As for why your rear pads are more worn that the fronts, this is because VW increase the rear brake bias in certain braking situations to avoid the car pitching forward - so the rear brakes are used far more often than they would have been in your Camry.

There are plenty of very good quality aftermarket options, in particular ATE Ceramic and Akebono Euro Ceramic which (as the name suggests) use ceramic in their makeup, offering much longer service life & greatly reduced brake dust - with the only downside that I have noticed is a slightly less aggressive brake pedal feel which I actually prefer as I found the original pads too aggressive and would regularly find myself not being able to brake smoothly. These pads cost more initially, but last 2-3 times longer so end up cheaper in the long run. They are also more gentle on the brake disks so they will last much longer too.

Great information. Thanks. I will look into ceramic pads when the time comes. And yes i have noticed the brake dust front and back.

[curly747]

Strange mine were only half worn at 43,000km but then I dont use them aggressively unless is an emergency.

Unlike my friend who roars up to traffic or a corner and slams on the anchors every time because he cant look past the front of the bonnet. Then he moans because his tyres and brakes wear out fast

I drive pretty sedately which is why it surprised me. My continental tires are lasting pretty well and they have a reputation of wearing out fast. I just had a look at the pads and discs and i think the front have plenty of life and rotors look good. The back rotors are quite corrugated and the pads do only have a few mm of life left. I am curious if you do mostly stop start city driving like me ?

[Hillbilly]

I drive pretty sedately which is why it surprised me. My continental tires are lasting pretty well and they have a reputation of wearing out fast. I just had a look at the pads and discs and i think the front have plenty of life and rotors look good. The back rotors are quite corrugated and the pads do only have a few mm of life left. I am curious if you do mostly stop start city driving like me ?

Nope lived at Bribie Island and only used it for30 min or longer trips so wasnt in traffic a lot but tyres were still at 4mm when I sold it at that km's as well so while I dont drive like an old lady i try and read the road ahead and not use the brakes too much

[curly747]

Thanks Hillbilly

[lolcats]

As for why your rear pads are more worn that the fronts, this is because VW increase the rear brake bias in certain braking situations to avoid the car pitching forward - so the rear brakes are used far more often than they would have been in your Camry.

There are plenty of very good quality aftermarket options, in particular ATE Ceramic and Akebono Euro Ceramic which (as the name suggests) use ceramic in their makeup, offering much longer service life & greatly reduced brake dust - with the only downside that I have noticed is a slightly less aggressive brake pedal feel which I actually prefer as I found the original pads too aggressive and would regularly find myself not being able to brake smoothly. These pads cost more initially, but last 2-3 times longer so end up cheaper in the long run. They are also more gentle on the brake disks so they will last much longer too.

This is very interesting info, makes me like the car even more.

I’ll have to see how long mine last and look at going ceramic, too. I wonder if going to a slotted rotor at the same time would negate some of that reduction in brake performance?


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