2014 JK brake question

Buffy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Location
Burlington, NC
The wife has a 2014 JK that we’ve owned since new. The back brakes started making a noise so I decided to do a break job. All the pads and rotors are original and the Jeep has 74k miles on it. The front pads could have gone another 30k miles no problem but the rear brakes were wore out! The rear driver side was metal on metal. Has anyone experienced this? Normally it’s just the opposite, two front brake jobs to one rear.
 
Buffy said:
The wife has a 2014 JK that we’ve owned since new. The back brakes started making a noise so I decided to do a break job. All the pads and rotors are original and the Jeep has 74k miles on it. The front pads could have gone another 30k miles no problem but the rear brakes were wore out! The rear driver side was metal on metal. Has anyone experienced this? Normally it’s just the opposite, two front brake jobs to one rear.
Click to expand...

If I had to guess, I would say sticking caliper.
Any rust on the brakes?
 
Buffy said:
The wife has a 2014 JK that we’ve owned since new. The back brakes started making a noise so I decided to do a break job. All the pads and rotors are original and the Jeep has 74k miles on it. The front pads could have gone another 30k miles no problem but the rear brakes were wore out! The rear driver side was metal on metal. Has anyone experienced this? Normally it’s just the opposite, two front brake jobs to one rear.
Click to expand...

Same on my wife’s 2008 JK. One front brake job to 3 rear. Completely opposite. No metal on metal but the rears wear way faster than the fronts. Got 90k on her JK.
 
This is a common problem on JKs. I’ve experienced it on multiple personal JKs as well as customer’s JKs no matter stock or built
 
No rust whatsoever on the Jeep. It’s version of off reading is 1000 feet of gravel to the garage! Lol “it’s her Jeep and YOU can’t touch it!!!!” To quote the missus. I keep telling her in 10 years that bitch is mine and then it’s on! She just rolls her eyes.

The only thing that I noticed is the rear pads were difficult to get into the bracket. Makes me wonder if you sand a tad off the ends of the pad it would help them release from the rotor. They just seem too tight to float.
 
Higher rear pad wear is very common for many cars and trucks. Think of it this way: You have the proper amount of brake torque balance on the front/rear, but how that front/rear torque balance is achieved is different on the front and the rear.
You have different pad sizes, different caliper locations, different rotor effective diameter, etc., for the same pad compound on the front and rear. So the amount of pad pressure for pad area can be different on the front and the rear (likely more pressure per area in the rear with the smaller pad), and the center of the pad swept area can be at a different radius in the rear, which means that the rear pad may see a higher rotor swept velocity under braking then the front because of the different radius (same wheel speed but different pad radius). There's also the significant matter of the front and rear pads being a different temperature under normal street driving conditions, which really changes based on how much braking energy needs to be shed. Pad temperature difference has an effect on pad wear, and it's very likely that the rears are spending more time in the temperature range that isn't as good for pad wear for that particular pad compound. Part of that temperature sensitivity has to do with the interstitial layer of pad compound that gets deposited on the rotor, so if the pad does not spend enough time in the proper temp range to maintain that interstitial layer, wear can change.

ABadJeeper said:
Like others have said this is rather normal for JK's I think it has something to do with the Stability control / electronic braking.
Click to expand...

You would have to spend a huge amount of time under wheel slip conditions that would trigger the stability control. Unless you live in Alaska and your daily commute involves a shitload of wheel slip every day, I don't think that would contribute at all.

Actually, I take that back. Depending on how the brake proportioning is done, that could be a contributor. I was thinking about stability control situations, but if they're doing electronic proportioning for normal street conditions than it would make for higher wear in the rear. You're using more than the normal amount of rear pad pressure under normal brake conditions (more than the traditional amount of front/rear bias), and then reducing rear pressure under rear slip conditions. So yeah, if Jeep is doing that then that's probably most of what's happening. I often forget they do stuff like this on the newer cars. :rockon:
 
Last edited:
Fabrik8 said:
This is very common for many cars and trucks. Think of it this way: You have the proper amount of brake torque balance on the front and the rear, but you have different pad sizes, different caliper locations, etc., for the same pad compound on the front and rear. So the amount of pad pressure for pad area can be different on the front and the rear (likely more pressure per area in the rear with the smaller pad), and the center of the pad swept area can be at a different radius in the rear, which means that the rear pad may see a higher rotational velocity under braking then the front because of the different radius. There's also the significant matter of the front and rear pads being a different temperature under normal street driving conditions, which really changes based on how much braking energy needs to be shed. Pad temperature difference has a big effect on pad wear, and it's very likely that the rears are spending more time in the temperature range that isn't as good for pad wear for that particular pad compound.



You would have to spend a huge amount of time under wheel slip conditions that would trigger the stability control. Unless you live in Alaska and your daily commute involves a shitload of wheel slip every day, I don't think that would contribute at all.
Click to expand...

I follow the logic, but my XJ is the opposite. Must be the weight distribution. I even did a disk brake swap on the rear. It doesn’t bother me though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
NickMaul said:
I follow the logic, but my XJ is the opposite. Must be the weight distribution. I even did a disk brake swap on the rear. It doesn’t bother me though.
Click to expand...

That's another variable, yes. Also old-school brake system, probably with an old-school proportioning valve, which would often wear front pads faster.

You could theoretically change pad compounds and reverse that behavior from the front to the rear, just based on the temperature/wear characteristics of the particular pad compound (if there's enough sensitivity to that condition on a particular vehicle). You could also make the same wear behavior worse with a different pad compound. Either way, you'd have to do a fairly big change in pad compound type, which is easier to do with something like aftermarket performance pads.

But, if you've got 74k miles out of a set of pads, those pads don't owe you anything.
 
Last edited:
Buffy said:
The only thing that I noticed is the rear pads were difficult to get into the bracket. Makes me wonder if you sand a tad off the ends of the pad it would help them release from the rotor. They just seem too tight to float.
Click to expand...

Aftermarket pads? The aftermarket stuff often fits like absolute shit depending on the brand and quality grade you get. I've seen really bad backing plate fitment, but also friction material that is offset or crooked on the backing plate. That's usually on the cheapie pads, which I don't ever personally buy but often have to work with (or return) when I'm helping people do their brakes.
 
Back
Top