I recently had a pair of 380 front brakes fitted to my KJ wagon (thanks Brendan) & took the old assemblies home.

Its the wear of the old pads that's puzzling me. New pads were fitted a few weeks before I bought the wagon, so they've only done 20000km* and overall don't show much wear. However all 4 corners of all 4 pads show pronounced (& equal) wear. In other words, the corners all taper down. What would cause this?

*I'm easy on brakes & don't do much city driving. I did 85000km in my TS & the pads were still good when I sold it.

Many pads have chamfered edges/corners from new, maybe that's what you are seeing?

Many pads have chamfered edges/corners from new, maybe that's what you are seeing?


I don't know much about pads, but 2 people who have changed plenty of pads were baffled by them. The tapers are similar rather than precisely equal. Also they are rough - not what I'd expect from the factory.
From the chopped-off corners, the tapers extend 15mm on the long side & 10mm on the short side. They taper down by 2mm. The pads are Bendix DB1203.

Any chance of a photo?

A lot of pad manufactururers put a chamfered edge on there pads in an ettempt to eliminate squeel inc Bendix some years ago when they went down the asbestos free path , particularly the Advance pad.

Some were worse to get on top of and 1203's were one along with some Subaru's and the commodore's 1331's.