Brake pads

[TobyU]

If you have a nice smooth pedal with no pulsation and no warped rotors etc and you don't have bigger tires on an off-road vehicle then you really don't need to turn or replace the rotors when you put pads on. Many people believe this but it was just a thing the dealers and garages told people to sell service and parts. Kind of like the fact that Jiffy Lube and the quick oil change places convinced the American people for the past 30 years that it was imperative they change the oil every 3 months or 3000 miles. A huge percentage of people have now come to the understanding that this is all hype and it's not necessary to change oil nearly that much. Some people still swear by it and change fully synthetic oil every 3000 3500.
They might have greater peace of mind but a lot of people would say they're just wasting money.

 

[Plati]

If you have a nice smooth pedal with no pulsation and no warped rotors etc and you don't have bigger tires on an off-road vehicle then you really don't need to turn or replace the rotors when you put pads on. Many people believe this but it was just a thing the dealers and garages told people to sell service and parts. Kind of like the fact that Jiffy Lube and the quick oil change places convinced the American people for the past 30 years that it was imperative they change the oil every 3 months or 3000 miles. A huge percentage of people have now come to the understanding that this is all hype and it's not necessary to change oil nearly that much. Some people still swear by it and change fully synthetic oil every 3000 3500.
They might have greater peace of mind but a lot of people would say they're just wasting money.

Totally agree (rotors) and have done that many times over the years. Lately I just replace them because I'm in there and I like to take everything apart and make it all like new and then I'm starting at square 1. Plus I enjoy overkill or over engineering things. In my mind for my stuff its better to go overboard then underboard. Unless I'm on a boat.

Let the oil posts begin!

 

[Kevin Esplin]

Well I popped for the Duralast Gold and Duralast rotors, I’ll keep you posted in coming weeks if noise or dust is an issue. Drives me nuts to have chrome rims with back dust all over.

 

[TobyU]

Well I popped for the Duralast Gold and Duralast rotors, I’ll keep you posted in coming weeks if noise or dust is an issue. Drives me nuts to have chrome rims with back dust all over.

You're going to get some dust. Especially if they're semi-metallic but a lot of the new pads are ceramic. Ceramic pads have always been known to give less brake dust but they have a bad tendency to squeal like a city bus coming to a stop. I have it happened many times on customers cars to the point that I stop putting ceramic on. But they are good for less dust.

 

[edizzle]

i us the powerstop rotors and pads on all of my vehicles. the stang, my 2004 4Runner, my work vans and vehicles, etc. they are a good quality product. absolutely makes a big difference in temperature induced brake fade. are they the best, no, but absolutely serve their market.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

How are you finding those Powerstops versus stock? I hate the feel of the stock Rotors and Pads. Feels like I need too much pedal pressure and it’s not linear at all so I push a bit and get nothing then push more and get too much braking

Looking for something a bit more linear and stronger than stock

Marm

 

[edizzle]

havent really given it a good whirl yet. my tool for retracting the rear e-brake motor should be here today. i will report back when i have all 4 corners done.

 

[Plati]

What tool is that? Rotor not motor?

My tool for removing the rear rotor is a sledgehammer. Its ugly.

 

[TobyU]

How are you finding those Powerstops versus stock? I hate the feel of the stock Rotors and Pads. Feels like I need too much pedal pressure and it’s not linear at all so I push a bit and get nothing then push more and get too much braking

Looking for something a bit more linear and stronger than stock

Marm

Hmmm, maybe some cars are easier to feel differences or some people just feel the brakes more, but I have never noticed any difference in action or ability. I have once or twice felt hot brake fade that would have been less with other pads and/or rotors.
Brakes on my cars feel the same when they are down to under 20% pad left as they go with new thick pads. Every vehicle I've ever driven the brakes even feel the same the pants were down and they're grinding into the rotors. It stops exactly the same you just hear the noise and feel a tiny bit of vibration. New pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel new pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel when that fresh. But I have never noticed anything that is worth comparing or that would change my buying preferences. Now if I were dealing with a high performance car at high speeds or very hard driving, I very well might consider and upgraded quality pad and are rotor I see no need for daily driver normal vehicles. These cars all have more than adequate braking systems. Now people that tow any good amount of weight may certainly enjoy some upgraded stopping ability but or just using these vehicles by themselves I've never had the need.

 

[duneslider]

Hmmm, maybe some cars are easier to feel differences or some people just feel the brakes more, but I have never noticed any difference in action or ability. I have once or twice felt hot brake fade that would have been less with other pads and/or rotors.
Brakes on my cars feel the same when they are down to under 20% pad left as they go with new thick pads. Every vehicle I've ever driven the brakes even feel the same the pants were down and they're grinding into the rotors. It stops exactly the same you just hear the noise and feel a tiny bit of vibration. New pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel new pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel when that fresh. But I have never noticed anything that is worth comparing or that would change my buying preferences. Now if I were dealing with a high performance car at high speeds or very hard driving, I very well might consider and upgraded quality pad and are rotor I see no need for daily driver normal vehicles. These cars all have more than adequate braking systems. Now people that tow any good amount of weight may certainly enjoy some upgraded stopping ability but or just using these vehicles by themselves I've never had the need.

Just curious if you have ever used higher quality pads and rotors. On my jeep I have now used several of the "store brands" and all felt about the same and I felt they worked about the same. On a whim, I tried centric rotors and EBC yellow pads and it made a huge difference. It was way more expensive than everything I had used in the past on the jeep but it was significantly better. WAY more dust and noisier than anything I had used but stopping is better and I haven't experienced fade like I had previously in fact they seem to get more grabby when they get hotter. Previous to this I was looking at getting a big brake kit for the jeep to help stop the 35's, now I don't feel like it is needed.

I personally don't feel the brakes are that bad on the expedition, so I don't know that I will use anything special on mine.

 

[TobyU]

Just curious if you have ever used higher quality pads and rotors. On my jeep I have now used several of the "store brands" and all felt about the same and I felt they worked about the same. On a whim, I tried centric rotors and EBC yellow pads and it made a huge difference. It was way more expensive than everything I had used in the past on the jeep but it was significantly better. WAY more dust and noisier than anything I had used but stopping is better and I haven't experienced fade like I had previously in fact they seem to get more grabby when they get hotter. Previous to this I was looking at getting a big brake kit for the jeep to help stop the 35's, now I don't feel like it is needed.

I personally don't feel the brakes are that bad on the expedition, so I don't know that I will use anything special on mine.

Well, I've never used any slotted or cross drilled or anytime special rotors but I believe I have used some at least brand name or higher performance pads over the years on some vehicles with large tires. I had a 79 Ford with 44 in Ground Hawgs on it a Ramcharger with 35s and a Durango with 38s. I don't actually remember having any stopping problems with any of them. But I might have put some Bendix on them instead of just the store brands.
You can certainly alter stopping characteristics by changing the composition of the pad. And as you said a very crabby pad is probably going to create more dust probably wear out the rotors faster where is a harder pad or ceramic might create less dust and even have less brake fade but not have as much grippy stopping power. I've just never really owned a vehicle that didn't have more than adequate stopping ability except for maybe one. I bought a 36 ft long Excursion stretch limousine back in 2007. It had 86000 miles on it then I felt the brakes could have been better. Maybe just a nature have a huge vehicle that's been altered and not really over-engineered to have more than enough Breaking ability but that's the way they are. As soon as I got it I went through all four brakes and replaced rotors calipers and pads. I can't say that it stopped a lot better but at least felt like I had more stopping ability. I got a little over four years out of those until the rotors were starting to rust a little bit and separate at the ends. These were still just wearever from Advance Auto Parts so it's not like I was buying the most expensive that for years is great for those or for anything on that vehicle. Then the next set came from O'Reilly Auto Parts and they lasted until I got rid of the vehicle which was over six years. So I would say the quality was definitely better with the O'Reilly brakebest as opposed.sed to wherever at least at that time.

 

[edizzle]

What tool is that? Rotor not motor?

My tool for removing the rear rotor is a sledgehammer. Its ugly.

Foxwell OBD2 scanner. it allows you to retract the electronic parking brake (EPB) motor. then when complete, it activates it.

 

[ANGEL TORES]

I just recently did my brakes about 2 weeks ago and I shopped on rockauto.com. Price was competitive and I went with the PowerStop Heavy Towing Kit. Replaced rotors, pads and calipers. Calipers came in a nice red powder coat.. I tow a 30ft camper and I am very happy with performance. I agree with Atrie with the whole Ford missed their mark by not putting out better performance in the brakes. Is what it is I guess. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

Hmmm, maybe some cars are easier to feel differences or some people just feel the brakes more, but I have never noticed any difference in action or ability. I have once or twice felt hot brake fade that would have been less with other pads and/or rotors.
Brakes on my cars feel the same when they are down to under 20% pad left as they go with new thick pads. Every vehicle I've ever driven the brakes even feel the same the pants were down and they're grinding into the rotors. It stops exactly the same you just hear the noise and feel a tiny bit of vibration. New pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel new pads will often have a little bit of noise and a slight bit of roughness you can feel when that fresh. But I have never noticed anything that is worth comparing or that would change my buying preferences. Now if I were dealing with a high performance car at high speeds or very hard driving, I very well might consider and upgraded quality pad and are rotor I see no need for daily driver normal vehicles. These cars all have more than adequate braking systems. Now people that tow any good amount of weight may certainly enjoy some upgraded stopping ability but or just using these vehicles by themselves I've never had the need.

Toby, you have a fair point. Most road cars are calibrated similarly.

My guilty confession is that I spent about 25 years racing karts and cars at a serious amateur level in Europe (I am originally from the UK.) So I do tend to be hard on brakes and “forget” I am driving an Expedition

So I’m probably not a typical user im that I prefer a pedal with more initial bite and pedal progression than Ford wants to give me from the factory.

P.s it’s a minor gripe and largely influenced by my driving style. Apart from this I LOVE my Max Limited 302

 

[jowel]

there is a company name max advance brake that's is where i bought my brake pads and if you want the upgrade for brake rotors they also have and the brake pads that they selling is all ceramic pads check them out

 

[Bilsto]

I don't know what's on mine, they were freshly done right before I got it. I suspect they're the Auto Zone cheapies. They've been okay. For what it's worth, I shop www.RockAuto.com for that. Excellent array of choices, and their prices are unbeatable, even with shipping.

 

[rumline]

I just had my Expy in for an oil change and the complimentary inspection noted that my front brake pads are down to 7/32". I only have 14k on my Expy and I have young children so I generally drive like a grandpa. WTF? Are others experiencing similar wear on their Motorcraft pads?

 

[edizzle]

I just had my Expy in for an oil change and the complimentary inspection noted that my front brake pads are down to 7/32". I only have 14k on my Expy and I have young children so I generally drive like a grandpa. WTF? Are others experiencing similar wear on their Motorcraft pads?

absolutely not! we got 35k out of ours and that was HARD DRIVING. I mean aggressive mountain driving constantly on the brakes.

 

[Plati]

I just had my Expy in for an oil change and the complimentary inspection noted that my front brake pads are down to 7/32". I only have 14k on my Expy and I have young children so I generally drive like a grandpa. WTF? Are others experiencing similar wear on their Motorcraft pads?

Where did you get the "complimentary inspection"?
Do you trust them?

Certain chains are going to use that as a sales tool to sell you something ya don't need.
Can you check it yourself or have it verified?

 

[rumline]

It was at the local Ford dealership. I don't distrust them, yet.

I'm not opposed to checking it myself but I'll have to read up on it. What tool do you use to check the thickness?