Mazda 3 brake balance - newbie question
 

Just bought a 2006 Mazda 3 S hatch with 15K on the clock - primarily for my wife. Lovely car and great fun to drive. I've noticed two things: the front pads look virtually unworn and the rear pads look partially worn. But after a weeks driving, the rear wheels have a good coating of brake dust and the front ones don't.
Is it possible that the brake balance is wrong and all the effort is going to the back wheels? Or is this just a characteristic of 3's? I haven't used the car in real anger yet - but it doesn't feel wrong - I just don't understand why all the brake dust should be on the rear wheels when all my other cars have showed the opposite.

Thanks!
Chris

if the front pads look newer than the rears, the previous owner could of changed them, possibly with dust free pads, or near dust free
oh, and just so ya know, on ALL cars, the fronts will wear out faster, because most of the braking is done at the front... thats why alot of cars have discs up front, and drums out back

I would agree with dentinger, that sounds like the most likely answer.

A front engine, front heavy car like the 3 would show some swirly behavior under braking if the bias was rear heavy. You'd get more than the expected ABS activation since the rears go light under braking, especially heavy braking.

With a car like the 3 you'll get 60% to 80% of the braking on the fronts depending on initial velocity and brake pressure applied (how hard you hit the brakes) because of the weight on the front and the transfer of weight to the front.

That said, the 3 is a "wagon" and as such must take into account the larger than normal weight difference from empty to fully loaded, but I belief in the "base" 3 comes with EBD (electronic brake distribution) to compensate for this effect.

Good point about the possibility of dust-free replacement pads on the front - thanks. Somone told me that the factory pads are pretty soft and generate a lot of dust - so that seems the likeliest explanation.
I absolutely concur on the general comments about braking - it was that which caused me to raise the question.
Thanks again!

yeah. The factory pads are soft...

I hand-washed mine last weekend since it was warm--first time washing it since winter started, and even with a light amount of driving (<1000miles/month) there was a surprising amount of "sludge" built up on the rims.
The factory rotors aren't that great either, at least on the '07... They must be a relatively low-grade steel since they rust so quickly. Some of it is finding its way into the clearcoat on the rims >_<