Hmmm- OK, I see what you're getting at. First off, welcome. Second - Just based on the age and the mileage yes, it is very likely that you're going to need new front brakes soon on the truck. What we've all learned over the years is that the front brakes do most of the work when stopping and consequently they wear down long before the rear shoes.

On your question about why the indicated life left was so different between your most recent visit and your visit 6-mos prior - yes, either of those two answers could be correct, but it could also be several additional things as well.

1. They may have checked the right front 6-mos ago and the left front on your last visit. In a perfect world the brakes would wear roughly the same amount on the inner and outer pad of each wheel and roughly same on both sides of the vehicle. Unfortunately the world isn't perfect and neither is the Xterra.

2. You may have a stuck brake caliper. That is a caliper that isn't releasing fully whenever you let off the brakes. The constant application of pressure will wear down a brake pad in no time at all. You may also notice sluggish acceleration and/or poor fuel economy along with wheel that feels considerably hotter than normal - If you're not experiencing any of those other symptoms then I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about that.

I've been working on vehicles for a long time and one thing I've seen many times is that as brake pads wear thin and the calipers extend out to furthest limits of their reach they'll often bind a little creating a 'sticky caliper'. I usually attribute this to the fact that the pistons and sleeves don't have a lot of overlap at that point so it's easy for a piston to get a little crooked (picture an extension ladder at it's lowest height where both sections overlap fully vs. a ladder extended all the way out with only a few feet in the middle overlapping - which is more sturdy?) anyways point being that last 20% can wear down much faster than the first 20% because the caliper can stick a little so you may want to keep a close eye on it or just plan to go ahead and have the work done.


Also, here's a little tip: if you have drums on the rear you probably don't need to have them changed. Just have the shop check them when they do the front brakes. What we've all found is that the rear shoes tend wear very slowly compared to the front. I'm at 115k and still on the original shoes - as are many others.

-Saturday.