B7 Rear Brake Wear

**PHA** · 09-01-2014, 08:57 PM

Had the 15,000 km service today and was told that the rear brake pads are already down to only 5mm.

The front is at 10mm. I'm astounded as with my previous B6 Passat I still had more than that left after 80,000km and the Toyota Vienta before that still had the original rear pads when I sold it at 300,000km (went through 2 sets on the front in that time).
The adaptive cruise seems to be hard on the brakes and I sometimes wonder if it's only braking on the rear. I often change down manually to minimise the braking. Ditto when slowing for corners.
Have others experienced this sort of wear or is it something unique to this vehicle?
The car is mostly used for country travel so the brakes don't get used like they would in city commuting. If I'm told they're had it at 30,000km would I be justified in a very frank discussion with VWA?

**Umai Naa!!** · 09-01-2014, 09:27 PM

Rears don't have a lot of material to start with.

The rears do wear at a higher rate than the fronts in most cases.

European cars have higher wear rates than Japanese cars in most cases.

**MJW** · 10-01-2014, 08:06 AM

Mine is coming onto 50,000 klms & I was told at the 45,000 klm service that the front pads & discs will need replacing at the 60,000 klm service which they say is quite normal for my sort of driving. No mention of the rear pads at all.

I would say 65% of my driving is in reasonably heavy traffic.

**PHA** · 10-01-2014, 09:31 AM

My main concern is why the B7 is wearing the rear brakes down at more than 4 times the rate that my previous B6 did.

**h100vw** · 10-01-2014, 09:52 AM

Was that a visual 5mm or measured with a ruler I wonder. What do they have new?

Either way I'd not be going with OE pads for replacement. I have some QFM pads in my S3, that will be 5 years and touching 100K in April. Including a handful of track appearances here. The discs are still serviceable and being from the UK, I'd be perfectly happy just replacing the pads.

Gavin

**brad** · 10-01-2014, 09:57 AM

rears come on first to reduce apparent nose dive, therefore they wear quicker.

I can understand your concern as wearing at that rate would really peeve me.

It's not an issue with the electric parking brake is it? One of my mates just got the latest Commodore with elec pb & didn't realise you had to press the button to disengage it (won't RTFM), so he would simply put in gear & drive off so that the fail-safe disengaged the brake.

Every cloud has a silver lining - use this as an avenue to get away from VW branded pads & fit something that has less dust, better feel & less rotor wear.

**Lucas_R** · 10-01-2014, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by h100vw

Either way I'd not be going with OE pads for replacement. I have some QFM pads in my S3, that will be 5 years and touching 100K in April. Including a handful of track appearances here. The discs are still serviceable and being from the UK, I'd be perfectly happy just replacing the pads.

Gavin

Originally Posted by brad

Every cloud has a silver lining - use this as an avenue to get away from VW branded pads & fit something that has less dust, better feel & less rotor wear.

In addition to what the boys have written above, another option are Remsa brake pads (sourced through GSL Rallysport). These are a longer lasting pad, with far less dust, and operates just like OEM in every other respect (no noise/works fine when cold/has low pad sensors etc).

I changed my pads out in the 1st week i had the car, knowing that the VW stock pads were extremely dusty and soft, meaning they don't last long. See info and pics here: MK6 Replacement Brake Pad Thread

Although this is on my Golf, the principal is the same regardless of car model.

**brad** · 10-01-2014, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Lucas_R

Although this is on my Golf, the principal is the same regardless of car model.

I'd go with remsa as well.

passat with electric park brake needs VCDS or similar to retract the pistons I believe. Never seen it myself so maybe incorrect.

**PHA** · 10-01-2014, 03:39 PM

Thanks for the info guys. I might check out the Remsa pads as I'm rather tired of the dust too. What about the disks? What's the recommendation for when they're shot. Yes, VCDS is needed to change the rears and I don't have access to it so I'll have to think about that one. I've heard that there is a workaround but at the risk of damaging the electric mechanism.
I still can't understand though why the B6 and B7 brakes are essentially identical and the driving pattern is the same except for the adaptive cruise but the wear is so different. If I can get over 100k on one car, why not on both?