Ford Explorer: Are Your Rear Brakes Dragging... Most Likely Yes!

Nope. The only way I knew I had a problem was when I smelled the brakes burning and the rim was hot to the touch.

Are my rear brakes dragging?

Please check out my rear brakes and post what you think the squealing noise is.
12937 miles.

http://youtu.be/NyWkwpDgGdE

Sorry for pops/clicks in audio.
Its a bit faint so turn it up a bit - but listen for squealing sound.
(squealing is in first 12 seconds)

Audio is via phone pointed at passenger side while driving by area with a long tall wall,
so sound is loud enough here to record. Overall its loud, you can hear it across the street.

Sound coming from rear, seems to be passenger side, ongoing but seems louder after service in Feb 2015.
Its there at start of driving in any temp, winter or summer, for 10 or 15 minutes,
speed of squeal matches speed of car up to approx 20mph,
then cant hear it until car slows down again.
After 10 mins or so -no noise.
Next drive, same noise again, same pattern.

Review the rear brake pics, top edge of rotor face, seems to be freshly ground?
This plus the squealing noise, is this a case of rear brake drag?

Brakes serviced by dealership Feb 2015, The Works - tires rotated.
Mentioned squealing noise coming from rear, seems to be passenger.
RO says- pads sanded, & rear slide pins lubed.
Never heard of "sanding brake pads-why would that be done instead of replacing?
(this car is not under any recalls to date)

Cheaper to sand the burnished (hot spots) areas than the cost of replacement pads. 10 seconds on a belt sander is a miracle temporally fix.

Hello Crystal
I have enjoyed my 2013 explorer sport but, when i brought it in to Donway Ford with 58000 kms to flag any warranty covered issues, the rear brake wear should have been brought to my attention, it was not, and the well documented caliper rust issue could have been flagged . The Donway ford service dept now says the rear rotors/pads need to be replaced . Amazing how how brakes can deteriorate in 10000 kms. The pads have been dragging because caliber rust forces the pads to wear . A bit of well placed lith grease routinely would have solved it .I made it clear that i knew of the rear brake issues with the service advisor and he still wants to charge me 500 bucks . He said he would look if there is binding and would get back to me. Oh and the air con just failed as well , and the nav card just shorted out and he want to charge 250 for the A5 card . The nav system that shows me driving a parallel route 100 yards away has never worked and now the dealer want to recoup 2 or 3 warranty reboots by charging 250 for a card that costs 90 bucks online. I think thats it

Had to drive for about 10 miles, noticed that the car decelerated very easily after taking foot off the accelerator. Got out and checked rear brakes and I could feel the heat coming off them just by walking up to them.... also had a terrible burning smell. The whole rim itself was extremely hot too.

Taking the car in tomorrow. Good job Ford.

Hello all,

Have been lurking around this thread for a while and finally decided to create an account and post.

My 13 Explorer Limited AWD (early build with standard brakes) has been experiencing the exact same issues that you guys are dealing with. I bought it with 49000km on it and within a week noticed that the rear pads were sticking badly, to a point where I would get intermittent screeching metal-to-metal sounds during my commute even while I wasn't depressing the brake pedal! The dealer removed everything and lubed it all up and the sound was gone. I bought this car from a Ford dealer as a used vehicle and was told that the breaks were good and did not need changing anytime soon.

Here we are now 1 year later and I'm at 74000 being told I need new rear rotors and pads (dealer says rear rotors have very deep grooves in them and they wont be able to machine them). I find it very strange that my fronts have atleast 4mm of pad life left yet the rears are completely shot and down to 1mm.

I already ordered Motorcraft pads and rotors but am worried that this wont solve the problem. I plan on grinding all the rust and guck off of the calipers and caliper carriers prior to putting everything back together.

I had a 2008 Audi A4 before the Explorer and that car had its original pads go to 100000km prior to having new pads put in (rotors were fine and were just machined).

I strongly think that we should push for Ford to do something about the rear brakes in our Explorers since they still seem to think that there is nothing wrong with the way the braking system works on these vehicles.

The advisor at the local dealer where I take the car to for oil changes has told me that these cars have notoriously finicky braking systems. He told me that I should take the pads off and lube the caliper pins and replace the hardware at the end of each winter to ensure proper performance. Totally unacceptable in my opinion since if I were to go to the dealer for this "brake service" I would be looking at around 250 dollars to have the fronts and rears serviced and lubricated every year.

On a positive note, the car has been absolutely great otherwise

Welcome to the Forum albguy40.:wavey:
I picked up my 2011 Explorer in March 2011. I use dedicated Winter tires and in March 2013 when I was in to have them changed, the service advisor asked if I wanted to have the brake service done since all the wheels were already off. Since I figured it was a worth while preventive maintenance item I told them to go ahead. Front and rear brake service was done, $79.95 + tax.

Peter

eh cam said:

Hello Crystal
I have enjoyed my 2013 explorer sport but, when i brought it in to Donway Ford with 58000 kms to flag any warranty covered issues, the rear brake wear should have been brought to my attention, it was not, and the well documented caliper rust issue could have been flagged...

Click to expand...

Hi eh cam,

I recommend reaching out to my Canadian colleagues on this site: FordServiceCA. I know they'll want to do all they can to assist with your brake concerns. Here's a link to their profile: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/member.php?u=233337

Chaz1 said:

Had to drive for about 10 miles, noticed that the car decelerated very easily after taking foot off the accelerator. Got out and checked rear brakes and I could feel the heat coming off them just by walking up to them.... also had a terrible burning smell. The whole rim itself was extremely hot too...

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I'm glad your dealership will be checking this out, Chaz1. How many miles are on your Explorer currently? I'd like to see what I can do to help as well.

Crystal

Just set up appointment for rear issues. Making more noise now espically under braking This had better be covered!!!!!!

wheiss71 said:

Just set up appointment for rear issues. Making more noise now espically under braking This had better be covered!!!!!!

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I believe the warranty on brakes is 12k miles. Depending on what the issue is, you may luck out. Good luck.

Peter

peterk9 said:

Welcome to the Forum albguy40.:wavey:
I picked up my 2011 Explorer in March 2011. I use dedicated Winter tires and in March 2013 when I was in to have them changed, the service advisor asked if I wanted to have the brake service done since all the wheels were already off. Since I figured it was a worth while preventive maintenance item I told them to go ahead. Front and rear brake service was done, $79.95 + tax.

Peter

Click to expand...

80 dollars is a great deal! Most dealers around here charge $100 for each axle.
It's just silly that you are expected to do it at the end of each winter.

It makes me wonder what they are really doing for that $79.95... Their book time to get the pads out alone is around 1 hour on each axle... Without the pads out there is nothing that they can really do from the outside other than using a brush and some compressed air...

My 2012 Explorer has had this issue twice now. In the summer of 2014, I had to replace both rear rotors and brake pads due to the pads partially seizing while driving. My wife was driving and heard a high pitched noise and I noticed the burning smell when she got home. The dealer told me that it was due to the heavy salt & corrosion from winter.

This spring after another brutal winter, we started hearing a chirping noise while driving (went away when you hit the brakes). We decided to be proactive andhave the dealership investigate. They couldn't duplicate the noise or find anything wrong and said everything was fine.

Advance 6 weeks and we kept hearing the noise intermitently. After one particularly noticeable trip, I observed one wheel warmer than the others. I brought it back in and laid out all of the facts and my own research (including all of these posts that it is not a one time random occurance). This time they found evidence of heating and told me the pads were partially sticking due to corrosion. Nothing was covered under warranty, so I ended up paying for new pads and having the rotors turned.

I don't want to be paying for new brakes every year and I am starting to think that there is a serious design flaw that needs to be addressed.

Welcome to the Forum Boones681. :wavey:
One thing that would be helpful would be to add the model of your Explorer to your profile so it always show in the left margin.
I don't think the brake issue is specific to a particular model but it would be interesting to see if one has more issues than another.

Peter

Boones681 said:

This time they found evidence of heating and told me the pads were partially sticking due to corrosion. Nothing was covered under warranty, so I ended up paying for new pads and having the rotors turned.

I don't want to be paying for new brakes every year and I am starting to think that there is a serious design flaw that needs to be addressed.

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Personally I think it is more dirt and sand getting in there than corrosion. When you are up close to it you can see that the rattle clips prevent the caliper bracket corrosion from getting to the channel. I guess the tab on the pad could corrode, I have not seen that. What I have seen is stuff the gets kicked up there get in and jams it. At this point though I can pull the calipers and pads, clean the rattle clips, lube it and put it back together in five minutes. So you learn to adjust.

Brakes dragging, I think yes

So we've complained of this issue since we bought the vehicle (it was a demo with 6,000 mi.) We had very noticeable rotor warp early on and I suspect it had much to do with dragging brakes heating up the rotors. The Dealership's solution was to turn the rotors and send us on our way. My wife is the primary driver and while I know she can be a little heavy footed at times, her commute is relatively close (~10mi. daily) the rest of the miles are highway miles. We've complained of the issue every time it's been in for service. The vehicle went in Wednesday and I was told it needs new rear brake pads at 32,000. I can't help but think that if the rear pads wear out before the front it is a mechanical failure - proportioning valve issue or as this thread suggests pad retainer/slide malfunction. However, I was told Ford designed the rear pads to wear out before the fronts; WTF Ford? thanks for designing a brake system where pads "wear out" and do so prematurely (more likely the service manager was feeding me a line of B/S). In which case the parts should be replaced under warranty (the faulty parts and the pads which were destroyed due to malfunction). I asked for pictures and was denied. I told the service manager not to put new pads on and after reviewing this thread, I'm not sure the best course of action, but I can't help feeling like I'm being taken advantage of by ford for not correcting this issue and by my local dealer by not making things right and blaming owners' driving behavior for premature brake wear. The rears measured out at 4mm on one side and 6mm on the other both fronts were at 10mm. The service manager indicated that driving conditions and style can cause premature wear, if that is the case, why such a variance between pad wear? For a practically brand new car, this one has seen the service bay far too much. My Toyota Corolla sees bumper to bumper traffic every day and my front pads lasted well over 150K on the front and have never replaced the rear pads.

I've got a 2013 Sport and when we brought it in for its first oil change (which included a however-many-point inspection) they noticed both rear brake pads were cracked and replaced both under warranty. Not sure if this is a related issue but thought I would point it out!

LG_Oner said:

I've got a 2013 Sport and when we brought it in for its first oil change (which included a however-many-point inspection) they noticed both rear brake pads were cracked and replaced both under warranty. Not sure if this is a related issue but thought I would point it out!

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Welcome to the Forum from a former Londoner. :wavey:

Peter

LTDExplorerIL13 said:

So we've complained of this issue since we bought the vehicle (it was a demo with 6,000 mi.) We had very noticeable rotor warp early on and I suspect it had much to do with dragging brakes heating up the rotors...

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LTDExplorerIL13,

Thanks for reaching out to me, and I replied.

LG_Oner said:

I've got a 2013 Sport and when we brought it in for its first oil change (which included a however-many-point inspection) they noticed both rear brake pads were cracked and replaced both under warranty...

Click to expand...

Welcome to the community, LG_Oner!

My name is Tricia, and I’m the U.S. Ford Customer Service Representative on this forum. I'm glad the dealer resolved your concern!

Since you're in Canada, don’t hesitate to contact my FordServiceCA colleagues here, if you have any question or concerns in the future.

Tricia

FordService said:

LTDExplorerIL13,

Thanks for reaching out to me, and I replied.


Welcome to the community, LG_Oner!

My name is Tricia, and I’m the U.S. Ford Customer Service Representative on this forum. I'm glad the dealer resolved your concern!

Since you're in Canada, don’t hesitate to contact my FordServiceCA colleagues here, if you have any question or concerns in the future.

Tricia

Click to expand...

Replied, thank you for reaching out - still hoping for help from Ford on a real solution. Replacing pads every 30K mi. is not "normal"

Attn ford legal: Wake up!

Greetings LTDExplorerIL13 and others who have arrived at this place online, unfortunately, not by mere coincidence. Sure, we've all been telling Ford that their rear brakes are garbage. Normal wear and tear they say. What astonishes me is a legal concept known as Notice that does not prompt resolution on Ford's nickel instead of those like myself and likely anyone else on this site who has absorbed "repair" costs out of their own wallets as well. Does anyone remember the Pinto? Does Ford recognize that my brakes completely failed? Does Ford know that only my driver's side rear brake was seizing, yet this is 'normal?'

I have a picture of my Explorer, driver's side, equipped with Sport trim wheels. As they say, a pic is worth a thousand words, so I'll post soon, next few days, as am buried in work right now but guess what? (Remember seizing brake on driver's side, rear)- Front wheel nice, clean, sweet contrast between aluminum and black. Rear? Muddy brown, from everything burnt up. Normal wear and tear, right?

I hope some kid doesn't get killed by bad brake systems before they're forced to make some changes. Again, legally, it's called NOTICE. Thank you.