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Subaru Outback Brake Questions

40 messages,  Last post on Dec 21, 2008 at 1:12 PM

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#11 of 40 Re: 193k on rear pads???? [paisan] by xwesx Dec 18, 2006 (10:13 am)
Replying to: paisan (Dec 15, 2006 1:30 am) You can if you would like, but I am the one who replaced them. I will let you know if I ever end up replacing the rotors.   I am not sure why it is unbelievable. After all, the original fronts were replaced at 125K and the rears should not wear as quickly as the fronts. I replaced the fronts again just about a month ago, at 218K, and they had a little over 50% left on them. I guess I was just getting a lot of rocks, but one was squealing for a week and I got to the point I thought it must be a squealer going off.   I am also not much of a braker, I prefer to look ahead, use the gears, etc. I would guess that I touch the brakes less than half as often as most other drivers. An artifact of learning to drive with old pickups, I suppose. I still have all the original shoes on my 1969 Chevy C20 and I just turned 70K on it this summer. I have had to replace the brake cylinders and the master, though.   I'm sure it helps not living in urbania. Replies to this message: leo2633 (Dec 18, 2006 11:07 am)
#12 of 40 Ah ha by paisan Dec 18, 2006 (10:33 am)
One of the folks who uses engine braking. Interesting to note, an interesting factoid they taught me in racing school about engine braking. They explained that engine braking will give you something like 1/1000th of the braking power that brakes do and the cost to replace clutch/engine/drivetrain components are about 100x or more the cost of replacing pads....     I still find it hard to believe but then again if you put 70k miles on your 1969 Chevy pickup, that explains a lot. 70k is about 3-4 years in my cars and I have 2 cars for road use at any given time.   -mike Replies to this message: xwesx (Dec 18, 2006 3:50 pm)
#13 of 40 Speaking of brakes... by ateixeira Dec 18, 2006 (10:44 am)
Helped my sister change her brake pads yesterday. On a 2003 Forester.   So she's the opposite, I guess the rides the brakes all day long. My pads lasted 4 years longer (similar mileage pace).   -juice Replies to this message: lucien2 (Dec 18, 2006 4:42 pm)
#14 of 40 Re: 193k on rear pads???? [xwesx] by leo2633 Dec 18, 2006 (11:07 am)
Replying to: xwesx (Dec 18, 2006 10:13 am) My 1992 Sentra, which I bought new, went 165K on the rear drum brakes, at which time the original shoes were about 50% worn. I changed them just for good measure. Today, at 289K, my brother-in-law, who now owns the car, is still running the original drums. It's now on the third set of rear shoes, although the front pads have been changed about every 40K or so.   That car was amazing. 100K on the OEM Michelins, 197K on the original clutch, which was still serviceable when changed, and about 168K on the original muffler (the rest of the exhaust was changed at around 210K). Lots of highway driving.   Len
#15 of 40 Re: Ah ha [paisan] by xwesx Dec 18, 2006 (3:50 pm)
Replying to: paisan (Dec 18, 2006 10:33 am) Mike, out of curiosity, what is the average life span for a set of pads on one of your vehicles? I have acquired the impression that you are an excellent driver, but I also imagine much of your daily driving is spent in city or stop/go situations so yours should be an accurate guage as to how long pads "should" last in city driving. As Len mentioned, I would expect it to be quite a bit more often than highway or relatively low traffic "city" driving.   As for engine braking, I always keep my vehicle in the most appropriate gear for the speed so that if need be, I can quickly react to an emergency situation should it arise. If I have to slow quickly, it is the brakes all the way and I just try to keep pace with the shifter. But, if I see that I should slow, I will do that gradually rather than racing up on a slow down situation (intersection, traffic congestion, etc) and then braking. I also do not use my brakes during highway driving except in emergencies. I see so many drivers applying their brakes coming into every curve and it just seems so pointless to me. With the truck, I haul heavy loads and pull obscenely heavy trailers on a regular basis. If I were to rely on my brakes all the time, they would be fried come the first steep grade. If I hit an 8% grade at 35-40, I can keep the speed reasonable with only periodic applications of the brakes. Were I to hit it at 60-65, I would fade those buggers to oblivion and be going 100+ come the bottom..... not that it stops others from doing so. Every day I see folks at the top of "the hill" (short, steep hill near my house) riding their brakes all the way to the bottom. Again, pointless and a lack of foresight in my opinion. I guess that unless I have premature failure of a clutch, transmission, or other driveline component then I have no basis for deterimining that I am causing undue stress on the system. My truck's clutch is still original and my car's tranmission is (seems to be?) doing fine.   My van, though... ugh. That darned thing idles at about 30 mph (if it is in drive... 1st limits it to about 20) and I cannot seem to get it adjusted so that it idles properly. It takes quite a bit of force to get it stopped so I often throw it in neutral just to take the added resistance off. I put new shoes on it back in 1993 when I rebuilt the mechanical system on it. It needed new front pads already after 35-40K miles, I think I replaced them in 2004. But then, I feel like I am always having to ride the brakes on it as compared to my Chevy or Subaru. Considering I might drive it a couple hundred miles a year, working out the bugs has been extremely low priority.
#16 of 40 Re: Speaking of brakes... [ateixeira] by lucien2 Dec 18, 2006 (4:42 pm)
Replying to: ateixeira (Dec 18, 2006 10:44 am) I upgraded the pads on the BG5 in 2000. Re-did the brakes completely (pads and discs) in 2004, figure about 80k on the discs and 70k on the pads. That included 2 HPDE's though, so that certainly accelerated the wear.   The FXT was aaaalmost ready for pads at 40k. I drove it hard though. It has fantastic brakes that begged the driver to go deep in any given corner. I miss them more than the power.   The little GF8 will be interesting. I know she needs new shoes (!) soon. Front brakes are likely going away completely in the Spring, in favor of WRX or GC8 bits. These one pot dinky jobs are not cutting it.
#17 of 40 Luc by paisan Dec 19, 2006 (1:50 am)
Before you get any brakes, make sure to let me know, I may have some very good ideas etc.   -mike Replies to this message: lucien2 (Dec 19, 2006 7:54 pm)
#18 of 40 Brakes by paisan Dec 19, 2006 (1:53 am)
Rear drums do almost no braking effect, so yeah 145k miles on original drums is viable. As for my driving, generally on my tow vehicles I replace pads every 20-30k miles which includes mostly city/stop and go driving, but also includes a lot of highway. On my cars 20-30k also. Of course my driving is generally far more aggressive than normal folks. I've been known to go through a set of rotors in one HPDE weekend.   As for towing though your vehicle brakes should not be effected as you should have adequet trailer brakes on anything over about 1000lbs sometimes 1500lbs on the trailer.   -mike Replies to this message: xwesx (Dec 19, 2006 9:45 am) kavoom (Dec 19, 2006 11:54 am)
#19 of 40 Re: Brakes [paisan] by xwesx Dec 19, 2006 (9:45 am)
Replying to: paisan (Dec 19, 2006 1:53 am) As for towing though your vehicle brakes should not be effected as you should have adequet trailer brakes on anything over about 1000lbs sometimes 1500lbs on the trailer.   Oh, right.... trailer brakes. I am sure they would help, but that means I would have to install an electric brake controller first. Replies to this message: kavoom (Dec 19, 2006 11:54 am)
#20 of 40 Re: Brakes by kavoom Dec 19, 2006 (11:54 am)
Replying to: xwesx (Dec 19, 2006 9:45 am) I got 143K out of my rear drum brakes on my 99 Outback Sport and they didn't change them when they sold it used...

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