It is time for me to get new brake pads. My question: Do I need to get all four or can I just get the front(they do most the work). I always had the understanding that you change the fronts and then when you need fronts again then you get the rears. Thanks

 

Ok to replace the fronts or the rears independantly of each other as needed. There's nothing carved in stone about having to replacing the rears when you replace the fronts a second time....but it often works out that way.



Cheers
DD

 

Doug is right.

The rule is you can't do one wheel at a time, or one side (front and back but left side only), you can do both front wheels or both rear wheels or all but not the front left only.
The other thing to take into account is the pad wear should be pretty similar side to side, and also inner pad to outer pad. Won't be identical but pretty close. If it isn't that might indicate a problem. Inner to outer usually means the caliper needs a rebuild.

 

Awsome! Thanks for the reply. It is true that the front does most of the work right?

 

Yes, but they are 'sized' accordingly and each works at near it's maximum capability. There's no hard and fast rule that the fronts wear out twice as fast as rears on every car all the time. They need to be monitored individually.

 

Trevor: Mikey was right in that the front pads wear substantially faster than the rears. While you're at it, why not go ahead and do all 4 corners. It's just not worth the frustration of having to watch and listen for problems on the rear pads/rotors for problems.

I recently bought my XK8, and found the front pads paper thin @ 59K miles. When I went to install the pads today, I found new pads on the rear. Who ever heard of re-shoeing the rears and not the fronts? By the way, modern Jag brakes are very easy to change. Almost everyone on this forum says to replace the rotors ($350) at pad changes. The machine shop said I had sufficient metal to turn the rotors once @ $11 per rotor.

 

I said pretty much the opposite actually. There is no fixed ratio of wear. Changing both ends at the same time usually means that you'll throw away lots of usable life at one end or the other.

There's also little point in routine turning of rotors. Turn them if they are actually damaged and will not work properly with new pads. If there's not enough meat left, replace them.