Just a little story I feel the need to share:

Several days ago my wife told me her brakes on her Mountaineer were making
some noise. I drove it to the store the next evening and sure enough, there
came a godawful grinding noise whenever the brakes were applied; it also
sounded like there was a little noise just rolling along at a crawl, too.
Not good. I got home, eyeballed the rotors thru the slots in the wheels,
didn't see anything. (Then again, it was about dark, so there.) I waited a
bit to let the rotors cool down (learned a year or so ago to do that the
hard way) and ran my finger across one of the rears and felt a definite
groove. uh-oh. So I tell her be careful, I'll fix it this weekend.

I went yesterday and picked up new pads and rotors for the rear (fronts were
done several months ago). This morning, jacked up the back end, pulled off
the wheels, loosened caliper bolts, and started to pull off the
calipers...and then noticed the problem. The caliper wouldn't come off.
While the outside of one rear rotor was slightly grooved, the inside pads on
both sides were completely, totally, gone...nothing but shiny metal gouging
into the rotor.

I felt a little sick then and actually more so now. I've been working a ton
the last year or so, and didn't realize the mileage she's racked up, and it
just never crossed my mind...but looking at what was supposed to be the
brakes on the vehicle my kids ride in everyday was nauseating. How long had
it been like that??? Not only that, but I let her drive it on friday. makes
me want to crawl under a rock.

Anyway, posting this here is sort of like preaching to the choir, but if
there's any vehicle at your house that the brakes haven't just been done on,
when was it done? It might be a little bit longer ago than you think.


wabbitslayer
01 GT vert

wabbitslayer wrote:
Lately Ford has had a reputation for putting on soft rotors that help
the vehicles have quiet braking. So when you have to replace the pads
for the FIRST time, you quite often replace the rotors also.
By all means, go with aftermarket parts on these items.

BTW, if you really want to see a POS throwaway setup, look at the rear
drum brakes on a Focus.

"wabbitslayer" <wabbitslayer (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

miles round trip) then about a week later I felt/heard something not right.
Took it to my buddies place and pout it on the lift. metal to metal on the
pass rear, other side was still in good shape. The front brakes were
recently redone but the drivers side was barely at spec and the pass was
totally illegal. Stupid me for thinking buying a car off a lot it would at
least be safe.....

Gumby

97 gt vert

It used to be that buying from a dealer meant you would get a quality car.
Not true any more, they just buy them, wash them, sell them. I had issues
with a dealer that told me they had a 110 point inspection on a Corvette I
bought years ago and then had to get the rear end rebuilt within 100 miles
of purchasing it. Recent years it is all about profit and nothing to do with
getting repeat business.

"Gumby619" <numya (AT) bidness (DOT) com> wrote

That's not entirely true either. Some dealers are crooks, others are
honest. Caveat emptor.

In your dealer's case, did one of those 110 points indicate that they
inspected the inside of the rear end? If not, then that's just the way
it goes. How many miles were on the car when you bought it?


"Les Benn" <lesbenn (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote in
news:XSOqh.91194$lD5.5431 (AT) newsfe14 (DOT) phx:

The brush you are painting with is pretty damned broad....

Recently, we had a couple of stinkers make it through our used inspection
routine with concerns present.... One involved a used SuperDuty and $1400
worth of damaged rims. We are now "upside down" on that unit but our DP
stepped up to the plate and made things right.

Another is a 5R55E in an Explorer that the inspecting tech didn't mention
some engagement concerns it was having..... I'm in the process of
disassembling that one right now... We will wind up "upside down" on this
one too... but we have to make things right for our customer... even to the
point of a loaner whilst I mend his new to him Explorer.....

Then, along comes someone that says "dealers".... not any specific dealer
(as if fine points like this don't matter)... just "dealers" are thieves or
some such.... At the same time, quality doesn't come cheap - premium cars
are worth premium bucks.

had 37k miles on it
"Joe" <nobody (AT) home (DOT) now> wrote

Sounds like the previous owner beat on it, or it was just a bad rear.

"Les Benn" <lesbenn (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote in news:PSZqh.73624$9S6.45460
@newsfe15.phx: