Strange Brakepad Wear

[Dan DiBiase]

So the brakes on the A4 starting making as funny noise (to quote my wife) on Wednesday last. I drove the car, heard a bit of a noise that sounded like worn brakes, and checked the fronts, which looked fine. At the 45k mile service, 4k miles ago, the brakes were reported as about 65% worn in front and the same in the rear. But the noise came and went.... So Friday afternoon, with it making the noise constantly, I took it to the local shop. The right rear brake had just about completely worn the pad and was starting to work on the metal. All of the other pads were fine and still had, according to the shop, about 4 - 5k miles left (I had them all changed out). 

What would cause such bizarre wear on a rear brake? We don't carry a lot of passengers, in fact, typically there is only one person in the car.

Dan D
'04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
Central NJ USA