Disc Brakes, which pad should wear faster, inboard or outboard?

[dfkrug]

I'm an inboard guy, piston applies pad directly to disc with more force. Outboard pad is just pulled in from the outside. Granted the inboard pad is retracted from the disc when the piston moves back in and although the outboard pad spends more/most of its time in contact with the disc, it is "just along for the ride".

That's what they call a floating caliper. The other kind is a fixed caliper, where pressurized hydraulic cyls are on both
sides and the caliper is firmly attached to the hub. In a floating caliper, there are one or 2 cyls only on one side (usually
inboard?) of the caliper. So the whole caliper moves when you press the brake pedal. When you release, the drag
on the guide pins or rails keeps one pad touching the disc, while the other one backs off a little as the cyl retracts.

That said, I don't notice much of a difference on any of my vehicles, but I have no automatics, and pads are
rarely changed. I also no longer live in a cold climate where salted roads cause havoc to floating calipers. If
you have an automatic PU with floating calipers, I would expect you to have more pad wear on the side that
has the passive pad (no cyl). Automatic tranny-equipped vehicles use the brakes a lot more than manuals.

I notice that Arctic Cat quietly changed over to fixed from floating calipers within their utility ATV line.

 

[brown40]

I only have done mine, but it seems like the inside is worn more, if they don't wear evenly. I think they get wetter and dirtier, and take longer to dry out. Road crews use of calcium chloride has seemed to turn them from a mileage dependent wear item to a predictable failure in 2-3 years, regardless of mileage... electrolysis with every dampening.

 

[Monster5601]

If the inboard wears more, its a sign the puck in the disc is a little sticky, the outboard its a sign the sliders are sticky. Of course there are discs with pucks on both sides, it all depends on the style. But I've seen even wear but seem to see the inboard wears more.

Ah, that is why when I replaced the rear calibers, the disc pad wear evened out. This was on a 2003 Tahoe.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I'm a mechanic for a local excavating company, and our fleet of 30-40 crew trucks, chevy, ford, dodge, half, 3/4, and ton trucks.... pretty consistently wear the inboard pad, by the piston, the quickest. Some worse than others, but even wear is rare.