I went in to Midas to get my brake pads finished beginning around Feb this year.

2 days back my brakes start screeching. I drive and when they are changed I realize the two brake pads on 1 front wheel are completely finished and the 2 on the other side are still pretty full.

Does anyone know what the cause of this could be?

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    What do you mean by "finished"? Did you get them resurfaced? – Chenmunka Jun 30 '16 at 7:58

I guess finished means completely outworn.

This sounds like a seized caliper on that side, which always brakes a little and so wears the pads.

It does not have to brake that much that you notice it, but typical signs are a hotter wheel on the one side compared to the other side after some (especially fast) driving and a wobbling noise which often occurs above a certain speed and vanishes at a different, lower speed. You may also notice that the car pulls to one side of the good brake when braking from high speed.

Another hint: Lift your car and compare how well you can rotate the wheel by hand, compared to the other side.

The caliper can be overhauled, but since this also is some work / money, simply replacing it may be the better option.

(Of course, it could be something different upstream the brake system, but usually, it's a seized caliper)


I'd put my money on a failed caliper on the opposite (less worn) side.

Consider what happens if a brake caliper fails and doesn't apply any clamping force on the rotor. Your car will certainly brake less well, and in order to stop you're going to have to apply more force. The side that functions is going to dissipate all of the car's energy and gets hotter and wears faster.

A failure to clamp could be caused by a seized piston in the caliper, likely due to old or contaminated brake fluid.

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