Front brakes

[Raza]

My friend's god of a Honda Civic has rear drums.  It's a 2002.

Can anyone think of a reason that rear disc brakes would go before fronts on a FWD car?

[The Pirate]

My friend's god of a Honda Civic has rear drums.  It's a 2002.

Can anyone think of a reason that rear disc brakes would go before fronts on a FWD car?

My 2000 Civic is packing rear drums as well.

I can't think of any reasons offhand, but my friend has a 2001 Mazda Protege (ES 4 wheel disc) that needs the rear brakes replaced at a higher frequency than the front.  My dad had a 2001 Grand Prix GTP that showed the same thing, it always needed rear brake work more frequently than the front.


Edit:  Maybe the parking brake mechanism on the rear has something to do with it.  Another possibility is front discs are almost always ventilated, whereas this isn't as common with rear brakes, maybe it's the heat.  Similarly, front brakes are generally larger than rear brakes, so they are more powerful, but more adept at dissipating heat, which would help with wear. 

Third scenario, and I'm stretching here, is cold weather.  I've seen pads frozen to rotors before.  I can't explain why this wouldn't manifest itself on the front though.

[The Pirate]

Yup. I assumed they were drums, but when I popped the wheel off I was surprised to have a disc rotor staring back at me.

It was a good thing I looked too: if I hadn't looked I'd have been quite miffed, because I would have bought shoes instead of pads.

Ouch, I bet that was slow. Mine has the 3.0L V6/4-spd auto combo. I'd peg 0-60mph somewhere between 8.5 and 10.0 seconds.

I think they look quite crappy without some of the lower body cladding.

I also like how it drives and looks.

I wish the chassis was stiffer than a wet noodle, and that the suspension was better so that it would handle better...  But all in all I'm quite pleased. Very underrated cars I think.

Yeah, 0-60mph on the Acclaim was just this side of glacial.  Oddly enough, it was really fast from 0 to about 16 mph, but after that it was all over.

[93JC]

Gearing. I've driven a Neon with that same three-speed automatic, and it's gearing. First is short, which comes in handy when you're engine braking down a steep hill, but first and second are quite widely spaced. The two-three shift isn't as bad, but the one-two shift makes it noticeably slower.

[Raza]

My 2000 Civic is packing rear drums as well.

I can't think of any reasons offhand, but my friend has a 2001 Mazda Protege (ES 4 wheel disc) that needs the rear brakes replaced at a higher frequency than the front.  My dad had a 2001 Grand Prix GTP that showed the same thing, it always needed rear brake work more frequently than the front.


Edit:  Maybe the parking brake mechanism on the rear has something to do with it.  Another possibility is front discs are almost always ventilated, whereas this isn't as common with rear brakes, maybe it's the heat.  Similarly, front brakes are generally larger than rear brakes, so they are more powerful, but more adept at dissipating heat, which would help with wear. 

Third scenario, and I'm stretching here, is cold weather.  I've seen pads frozen to rotors before.  I can't explain why this wouldn't manifest itself on the front though.

I just found it strange.  When I had the Mercedes, 10,000 miles was all the brakes could handle.  When I got the Passat, I drove it even harder, but 23K on, the fronts are still originals (though I think they're about to go) and last time I had my car inspected they made me change the rears.

[S204STi]

My friend's god of a Honda Civic has rear drums.  It's a 2002.

Can anyone think of a reason that rear disc brakes would go before fronts on a FWD car?

On a car with drum brakes, the drums wear out incredibly slowly because they do little of the work,and really they don't need to do much more than they already do.  Most of the weight of a FWD car is over the front axle, and when you brake inertia sends all the rest of the weight forward as it were over the front end.  The rear brakes really can't do too much or else they may lock up, which is even more useless.   Therefore FWD cars with drum brakes will wear out the fronts more.  Also, with drum brakes there is a momentary lag between application of the pedal and application of the shoes to the drums due to the size of the gap between the shoes and the drums.  Disk brakes are touching all the time, just without pressure so when you hit the brakes the pads apply almost immediately.  Drums can't run like that or else they will drag, due to the servo-effect that is inherent in drum brakes' design.  The result of that very convoluted series of sentences is that when you brake the fronts grab first followed by the rears,and by that time inertia is already in play.  Some cars use suspension geometry that allows the rear brakes to do more of the work, by essentially hauling down on the car, but the same general rules apply.  More weight over the front, more work to turn motion to heat via friction, more wear.