so I just changed out my brake liners for my rear tires and noticed that the inner liner for the rear wheels were worn down to the bone. is anyone else having this problem? does anyone have any additional info as to why this happens and how to correct it? I'm leaning towards a possible alignment issue (that would make sense for the front, but the rears?)

 

Can you possibly rephrase the question, or re-term the object in question? I am personally unaware of what a "brake liner" is as it relates to our cars...especially as to what these would be for the rear tires. The only things that should be wear items on the tire/wheel/brake assemblies should be the brake pads, brake rotors, and tires themselves.

- Matt

 

are you talking about rear brake linings perhaps? ie. brake pads. if so, they should be wearing evenly between the inner and outer pad.

Later

 

wait, i re-read your post and it looks/sounds like you changed your rear brake lines and noticed your rear tires are bald on the inner edge?????? am i right???? do i win a prize for figuring out your post????? if this is the case then yes, it is normal for them to wear harder on the inner edge than on the outer. Mini's have negative camber built into them from the factory to aid the handling. the downside is increased tire wear. cars built from mid '05 onward have some minor rear camber adjustment, the older cars don't.
HTH

Later

 

lol sorry for all the confusion. what I meant to say was: I'm experiencing excessive brake pad wear. the inside pads (the ones actually attached to the brake piston) are wearing very very fast. as for the tires they are wearing nice and even. I thought this odd because the front pads are wearing even (as far as I can tell. the only thing Ive changed to the brake system are the rotors.

again sorry for all of the confusion...Im currently taking an aviation maint. class and "we" refer to brake pads as liners and pads.

 

ooohhhh I see. Well brake pad wear isn't quite as exciting now is it. How great is the difference between the inner and the outer pad?

 

S'all good. Just wanted to make sure you weren't talking about the brake pad backing plate.

Best guess I can muster would be that your inner pads are dragging...piston not retracting properly. Would be odd though to be happening on both sides, so I can as much rule that out.

Sorry I can't be of more help on this one.

- Matt

 

I am a 20 year A&P with inspection authorisation and I have never heard a fellow mechanic or pilot refer to break pads as liners. Brake linings are typicaly only on drum brakes but if you go back to the thirtys there were some expander tube type brakes that had replaceable linings

 

yeah now that I think about it that probably what my instructor was talking about.

 

How many miles did you get out of this set of rear pads?

 

how many miles on the pads? is park brake releasing properly? There is a brake bias adjustment that may be misadjusted. Did you clean and lube the pins to make sure the caliper is floating properly. This is very typical for light aircraft to wear unevenly because our pins aren't sealed and lubed, plus we usualy have rigid tubing attached to the caliper keeping it from centering properly.
Does your aircraft maintenance instructor refer to his liscence as an A&E? If so he may have known Orville and Wilbur.

 

about 30-40k but like I said they wore down very unevenly. one was worn to the bone the other was not very worn at all.

 

lol actually yes he has told us stories of the old A&E. ha ha ha but on this last pad change I did grease everything up. but Im a little fuzzy on the bias adjustment? can you give me a little more info on this or rephrase it?

 

I am unclear on how any kind of bias valve (none of which I am aware of are caliper positioned) can affect the pad wear/clamping action of a single piston floating caliper.

Bias valves are usually regarded in a front to rear manner, biasing more braking force up front over the rear (or variable to an individual's/motorsport's demands). As far as the caliper is concerned, there are none.

If his brake bias was out of sorts, wear on all of the rear pads would be greater, not just the inners. Additionally, he would be getting some fairly worrying/noticeable oversteer under braking.

- Matt

 

Good call Matt, I also had not considered an ABS issue wich leads me to believe it must be a park brake release issue. Lowered suspension may create a need to adjust the parking brake ( just speculation, I have not been under the car to confirm this and I won't be dropping my ride height for a couple more months)

 

Hey Garlic Breath!
are you E-braking into turns?

 

heck no if I were to even try and "drift" in this car I would do it the real way with the foot brake, clutch, and accelerator but I will not be doing that to my car!!! lol

 

ABS kicks in too early for a person to pull off a true left-foot brake. Also, the bias is wrong to do it.

I speak from experience.

The E-brake, on the other hand...very easy to modulate, and since it only locks up the rears manually...no worry about ABS.

- Matt

 

so how do I know if my E-brake needs to be adjusted? I looked in my maint. manual (bently publishers) and it gave me no reason to adjust my E-brake. according to the manual you only need to adjust the e-brake if you have replaced the E-brake cable, the calipers, or the E-brake clicks more than 7 times (max). I wonder? as it is right now I can get 6 clicks (max, with the e brake all the way up as far as I can pull)

 

As long as you can verify that the E-brake is releasing completely and the calipers are properly lubed and not binding, let it alone. the abnormal wear was probably due to binding calipers or someone driving with an E-brake not completely released. I suggest you make it a point to check wear on some sort of regular basis. I would expect to get 50-60K miles out of a set of rear pads unless something was misadjusted or binding. I can't imagine the cost of rear pads is very cost prohibitive.

 

cool I'll keep an eye on that. thank for all the help everyone.