How hot should rear disc get?

[Kevin]

My Chrysler Concorde uses disc brakes in the back, but they never even get warm! Granted I haven’t touched the rotor (who would?) but shouldn’t they be getting hot? My front rotors throw off a fair bit of heat after driving in stop-and-go traffic. The pedal feels fine and there is no dragging.

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[Lorrin Barth]

There was a owner on here several months ago who found his rear brakes weren’t working. He didn’t notice any difference from the driver’s seat but found the problem when checking the condition of the rear brakes.

The engineers want to make sure that the rear brakes never lock before the fronts. The rears locking first creates an unstable condition and the car will spin. Because of this most the braking action is done by the front brakes.

Think about it, in a panic stop the weight of the car shifts onto the front wheels. With the rear wheels unloaded like that and remembering the engineers never want the rear brakes to lock first, how much work are the rear brakes doing?

[Kevin]

[quote=”barneyb” post=107256]There was a owner on here several months ago who found his rear brakes weren’t working. He didn’t notice any difference from the driver’s seat but found the problem when checking the condition of the rear brakes.

The engineers want to make sure that the rear brakes never lock before the fronts. The rears locking first creates an unstable condition and the car will spin. Because of this most the braking action is done by the front brakes.

Think about it, in a panic stop the weight of the car shifts onto the front wheels. With the rear wheels unloaded like that and remembering the engineers never want the rear brakes to lock first, how much work are the rear brakes doing?[/quote]

My old brakes on my Cavalier would get warm but those were drums. How do you check if they work? The parking brake works.

[Lorrin Barth]

Jack up a rear wheel. Have an assistant press the brake pedal while you see if you can turn the wheel.

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