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what effect does changeing one brake pad have?

yu have leading and trailing sides depending on which side the piston is and which side the slides are and which way the disc rotates and lots of other variables if you change just one side you are going to be putting better heat disipation proerties onto one wheell compared to the other, and this will lead to the side which has less pad on it working harder as well as the steering trying to go towards the newer pads because they have more retardation than the old ones even worse, if you mix and match pad compounds/materials/makes this is going to cause even more problems at least whenyou have one set of pads you know that they are, by and large, going to behave in the same way in an emergency sitation with odd pads you might end up with one wheel doign all the braking and the other one doing nowt, which would lead to some "intresting" claims if you had an accident

Reply to
dojj
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The message from "des" contains these words:

Quite possibly very little, but since they sell 'em as sets of four and they ain't expensive and the /are/ important I reckon I'll stick to changing a set.

Reply to
Guy King

Hi,

I know someone who only replaces individual pads instead of a set, I am sure this can`t be a good idea but does anyone know what effect it could have on braking?

Even if a complete set of pads are used there is usually only one pad that has worn, sometimes the brake material is worn at an angle while the others can be as little as half done. What causes this?

TIA

Des.

Reply to
des

Could well be a knackered wheel bearing.

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Cause could be a pad or part of the calliper sticking, depending on the design, - whatever the cause it needs fixing for a lot of reasons (strain on wheel bearing, uneven braking etc.) then ALL FOUR pads replaced.

Reply to
Richard Murphy

Both pads won't be equal so in theory you'll get uneven braking. However, I never ever found this happens and even when, on an occasion, the pad was worn to the metal, the braking was totally fine and equal. I cannot see the logic or an explanation for this.

Consequently, heresy though it may be, I'd be prepared to replace one pad if only one was really worn for some reason. Bear in mind that I would test the brakes before I assumed they were equal, and if they weren't I'd replace the lot.

Rob Graham

Reply to
Robin Graham

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:

Ditto.

But...

If you have the car long enough and always use the same make and type of pads, you can end up with a couple of sets of used but good part-worn pads which can be quite handy if you're tight enough.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

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