95 Formula, rear brake wear

I've had my 95 formula for less than a year, and now have to replace my rear disc brake pads for the second time already. I use semi-metallic ones that I think should last. Does anyone know if this is typical? The front ones don't seem to wear much.

Have you been power braking?

No, never. But I do a lot of stop-and-go driving in heavy traffic. The rear pads are a lot smaller than the front ones so I can understand why they would not last long, but this is ridiculous. I just wondered if this is a problem that F-bodies for that year (95) experience a lot.

the rear pads shouldnt be wearing like that. You shoul have replaced your front pads a few times before the rear gives any problems. The rear does only like 25% of the stoping power so they should last a while. Maybe your proportioning valve is not working right. It is what distributes the fluid pressure so most goes to the front. Have the rear wheels ever locked up before the front ones when you put alot of pressure on the brake pedal? But i would get advice from a expert which i am not.

That sounds about right, I couldn't agree more

I had a 95 TA that had the same symptoms/problem. I changed the back brakes 3 times and the front only once. The guy at the garage said that his wife’s did the same thing, and that it was set up to have more braking in the back for better control under braking conditions (i.e.. the backend is more likely to come around if most of the breaking is in the front). However, my 99 TA did not exhibit the same rear break issues. It did have a problem warping the front disks every 30K miles. Does anyone know where we could get better disks?

It sounds, from the postings, that you could adjust this, maybe it will help.

Jeff

I just replaced my breaks and the back were totally shot and the front ones were almost new so mine's doing the same thing. Actually the rear passenger break is wearing faster than the others for whatever reason. I'd look into it but I'm more conserned about fixing my e-break. The cable slipped off of the handle so I re-attatched it and the handle works fine now but when I pull the e-break handle I feel the resistance in it but it does nothing the car just starts to roll away...

I've had my 95 formula for less than a year, and now have to replace my rear disc brake pads for the second time already. I use semi-metallic ones that I think should last. Does anyone know if this is typical? The front ones don't seem to wear much.

Doesn't sound typical. If the calipers are sliding properly, I have run into the problem being the brake hoses. Although they seem good on the outside, they tend to "collapse" on the inside as they age. When you hit the brakes, it is under great pressure so the brakes work. But the fluid only returns under slight pressure (the pressure of the rotor slightly "opening" the pads as it spins.) If there is any resistance or delay on the fluid return, it causes slightly accelerated pad wear. Just a thought. You can also try a better pad material. Raybestos OEM is part # PGD413M. You may want to upgrade to ceramics part #PGD413QS. I have had good results with this pad. Good luck.

I had a 95 TA that had the same symptoms/problem. I changed the back brakes 3 times and the front only once. The guy at the garage said that his wife’s did the same thing, and that it was set up to have more braking in the back for better control under braking conditions (i.e.. the backend is more likely to come around if most of the breaking is in the front). However, my 99 TA did not exhibit the same rear break issues. It did have a problem warping the front disks every 30K miles. Does anyone know where we could get better disks?

It sounds, from the postings, that you could adjust this, maybe it will help.

Jeff

I have a 99 Grand Prix and had the same issues. I replaced the discs with Raybestos rotors and pads, and still had quick rotors warpage. OE for your rear pads are ceramics. Is this what you have? I switched to Raybestos QS (ceramics) and my rotor warpage was gone ( after 3 sets of semi metallics. I think the semi- metallic compound may be too rough on the rotors and may heat them up. The ceramics gave me better stopping, no noise and so far, longer life. If you would like to upgrade your rotors, you could look into cross-drilled and or slotted rotors. They help the rotor stay cooler and offer better brake performance.