Ok jeepers answer me this. If the rear brakes wear out faster than the fronts why are my front rims dirtier than the rears????

 

I don't think I've ever seen or heard of worn out rear brakes before the fronts. A majority of your stopping force comes from the front, therefore you eat through more pad subsequently causing more brake dust. Have you owned the Jeep since new? Maybe the last owner changed the fronts and not the rears and that is why you are thinking it is opposite.

 

JKs are definitely biased to rear braking.
It surprises a lot of folks at first but no news there. It seems rear pads are wearing out 2:1 over the fronts.

 

Been around the JK long? It's known for eating the rear pads way before the fronts. My rear pads were gone at 30k and the fronts still looked new. OP, I have no idea other than airflow at the rear may cause the dust to be evacuated better.

 

I know up that a lot of vehicles today are biased more toward the rear than ever before. Maybe because the surface area of the pad itself is the answer? I mean look at the size of the pad material vs the rear. Even though the rear pads may wear out more quickly, there is more material/surface area on the rotors in front, therefore more dust. That's my theory?

 

mebbe cuz you don't rotate often enough.


Just kidding. Can't say I've noticed a difference on mine.

 

Twinkydog may be on to something. The front and rear brakes are made differently. The front disk is just a disk. The rear brakes use a combination of disk and drum. The drum is inside the disk and only used for emergency/park brake.

 

Nope, this is my first JK (lots of Jeeps though) and I've only put 4k miles on it. I've always done my own brakes (and most of my friends) and I've always done the fronts first. Thanks for the heads up on the JK. Seems against principal that the JK would be rear biased in the brake department, but what do I know.

 

Maybe it has to do with the smaller pads, or pad material that they wear faster. ?????

 

It has to do with the more sophisticated ABS today's vehicles have. It allows normal braking to be biased to the rear for more stability.
Earlier systems could not do that without risk of locking up the rear brakes.
Harder braking is still the job of the bigger front brakes.
My '01 VW Golf wears out the rear pads faster than the fronts, too.