Unusual Brake Wear

[Ryan]

Hi all, I recently did a front brake replacement on my brother’s 2019 Subaru Impreza (base model). His front brakes were worn out in what I thought was a short period of time (around 30k miles). I replaced the pads, rotors, and hardware, cleaned and lubricated everything, etc. About 5,000 miles later, he brings it back and I find that the front pads are very worn again, and one of the rotors has hot spotting from a very obviously stuck caliper. I took the caliper off and found the pads to still be moving freely, and the caliper piston retracts with little effort. I am hesitant to replace the caliper without being sure about it since it seems like everything is moving like it should. The other side of the front brakes were also very worn but not quite as bad as the one side. For reference I had previously done rear brakes and inspected those and they have plenty of material left and are wearing very evenly.

Basically I am wondering what else could cause dragging brakes when the caliper appears to compress easily, slide pins move freely, and the pads don’t appear to be stuck. The fact that both of the front brakes are wearing heavily makes it even more odd to me (if it was just one side I could see it being a bad caliper or something). I am somewhat at a loss and hoping for some insight.

Thanks!

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

Unusual for a new vehicle to have such issues…
Possible causes:
Faulty brake hoses
Faulty calipers
Faulty master cylinder / proportioning valve
Driver riding the brake peddle.

[Ryan]

Agree, very unusual. I took a closer look and the calipers retract easily but once you pump up the brakes they stick again, both sides. Really scratching my head on this since it seems to be both sides and they stick right away.

[Author]

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