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

[bigdude2468]

Is it possible they never removed the caliper slide pins for lubrication? My Ex with 65,000 miles I have faithfully once a year removed the clips and cleaned the brackets that hold them. Take the slide pins out and lube with high temp caliper grease. I have replaced the pads but they were not close to being at the minimum, probably 50% when changed. Rotors are smooth and show no sign or warping. FWIW we spend the winter in the mountains of Utah and drive down one of the steepest roads in NA that is tough on brakes almost everyday.

 

[Hidef]

The three sets before today were done at a Ford dealership so I would hope they were done properly and lubed. I could see the slide rail grease on them when they were replaced last year, but did not remove the pins to check them.

I used to change my own brakes and do most of the other work myself, but stopped when I bought my last two vehicles. I figured I worked on cars long enough. Maybe I need to start doing it myself again.

 

[peterk9]

The three sets before today were done at a Ford dealership so I would hope they were done properly and lubed. I could see the slide rail grease on them when they were replaced last year, but did not remove the pins to check them.

I used to change my own brakes and do most of the other work myself, but stopped when I bought my last two vehicles. I figured I worked on cars long enough. Maybe I need to start doing it myself again.

Have they been charging you for the pads? Ford Offering Free Motorcraft Brakepad Replacements To Customers

Peter

 

[Hidef]

Have they been charging you for the pads? Ford Offering Free Motorcraft Brakepad Replacements To Customers

Peter

The calipers, rotors, and pads were replaced under my extended warranty in 2016. I don’t think they charged me for them in 2017, I had tires replaced and some other work done at the same time. I would have to pull the paperwork to be sure, but I think I paid for them in 2015, but could be wrong.

 

[613GT500]

Is it possible they never removed the caliper slide pins for lubrication? My Ex with 65,000 miles I have faithfully once a year removed the clips and cleaned the brackets that hold them. Take the slide pins out and lube with high temp caliper grease. I have replaced the pads but they were not close to being at the minimum, probably 50% when changed. Rotors are smooth and show no sign or warping. FWIW we spend the winter in the mountains of Utah and drive down one of the steepest roads in NA that is tough on brakes almost everyday.

As part of my seasonal tire swaps from all-seasons to winters and back, I always remove the slider pins to clean the grease and apply new stuff.
But, that didn't prevent the caliper bracket from accelerated rusting causing the outer pad only to stick and wear out at less than 30K.

 

[Random]

As a matter of fact, I believe this very thing is occurring on our vehicle. The past day or two, the rear brakes have started groaning and sound like they don't release when you lift off of the brakes. Taking it in this week

Can anyone in Customer Service give us a hand with this?

**** I had this issue on my rear passenger side. It got to the point you could smell something burning when the calipers stuck. I could never get it to get stuck so mechanic could smell it. I was told everything looked good; months later I needed new wheel bearing, calipers, and brakes for both rear wheels. I think I got hustled into a 1k repair

 

[XLT16]

Ford dealer (who is in the process of replacing my left rear wheel bearing) says I should replace the rotors and pads on the rear at the same time. I have done maintenance on these every year, lubed the slider pins, took out the pads cleaned everything and applied new lube to the slides. The vehicle is just 3 yrs old. I did that because I read this thread, hoping to avoid this situation. Now I hear everything needs to be replaced at 27k miles. WTF? This vehicle doesn't even see the winter.
I looked at those rotors and pads just in Sept when I did the maintenance, they were fine at the time. One rotor has a small bit of scarring near the top. I will take them off when I get home in the spring and have another look. Either something is seriously wrong with the rears on the Explorer and their design or these dealers are just trying to raise their sales numbers on parts and labour. Not sure what is the case here. New vehicle ownership should not be this difficult, last year the throttle body had to be replaced on this vehicle when it went into limp mode just after we got down to Florida. Starting to not trust this vehicle.

 

[613GT500]

Ford dealer (who is in the process of replacing my left rear wheel bearing) says I should replace the rotors and pads on the rear at the same time. I have done maintenance on these every year, lubed the slider pins, took out the pads cleaned everything and applied new lube to the slides. The vehicle is just 3 yrs old. I did that because I read this thread, hoping to avoid this situation. Now I hear everything needs to be replaced at 27k miles. WTF? This vehicle doesn't even see the winter.
I looked at those rotors and pads just in Sept when I did the maintenance, they were fine at the time. One rotor has a small bit of scarring near the top. I will take them off when I get home in the spring and have another look. Either something is seriously wrong with the rears on the Explorer and their design or these dealers are just trying to raise their sales numbers on parts and labour. Not sure what is the case here. New vehicle ownership should not be this difficult, last year the throttle body had to be replaced on this vehicle when it went into limp mode just after we got down to Florida. Starting to not trust this vehicle.

Yup, looks like every model year from 2011-2016 has been affected and now we wait for 2017+ to chime in.

 

[XLT16]

I used to like this vehicle , no friggin way should I be dealing with rear rotors on a vehicle that sees no winter, has annual maintenance on the rear brakes done and still needs new rear rotors and pads at 27k miles because one has gotten stuck and scarred the rotor , burned out a bearing. That left rear wheel bearing burned out on our recent trip down from Ontario to Florida likely, no bearing noise before that. That pad appears released now, I can see the room between the pad and rotor. Despite all the preventive maintenance, my time and effort cleaning the pads and clips, the slides, greasing them with anti seize and putting high end silicone lube on the slides the last 3 yrs. Ford WTF is wrong with your design?

 

[Mbrooks420]

My guess is junk metal.

 

[bigdude2468]

Have you seen the pads and rotors and in fact do they need to be replaced? I trust my local Ford dealer but would be skeptical of anyone else.

 

[XLT16]

The left rear rotor was scarred , I noticed that right away when we got to Florida, the rear wheel was noisy as we pulled into the smooth roads of the development where we stay. So I had a good look at the brakes with a flashlight , trying to figure out if the noise was a bearing or the tires. At that point the pad was not touching the rotor, must have returned at some point. This is the same wheel as the wheel bearing that has gone bad. Makes sense, probably overheated the bearing on the trip here, about 1300 miles over two days. If I was at home in Ontario I would just bring it home and change them out myself but no option here.

Doubt a dealer would do just one side so let 'em do both , grin and bear it pay the bill. Just ticks me off that I took the time to lube and clean those brakes each year because of this thread , all for nothing. Just lousy design or pads , or both. I had an Acadia for 6 yrs before this Explorer , not a single bit of warranty work done on it. We did replace the front and rear rotors and pads on it but that was due to mileage. Last year I got to Florida and the throttle body failed, the tailgate goes up like it has a mind of it's own at times...the tires are end of life, suppose it could be worse but for a new bought vehicle now with 27k miles (mostly highway , very few miles in winter weather) this vehicle has been abysmal. I baby my vehicles, customers deserve better Ford. My last Ford was a Windstar in 1999, bought new, what a disaster, new engine put in one year in under warranty, then year three the transmission went, I dumped it then. Now I remember why we went to other brands.

 

[613GT500]

The left rear rotor was scarred , I noticed that right away when we got to Florida, the rear wheel was noisy as we pulled into the smooth roads of the development where we stay. So I had a good look at the brakes with a flashlight , trying to figure out if the noise was a bearing or the tires. At that point the pad was not touching the rotor, must have returned at some point. This is the same wheel as the wheel bearing that has gone bad. Makes sense, probably overheated the bearing on the trip here, about 1300 miles over two days. If I was at home in Ontario I would just bring it home and change them out myself but no option here.

Doubt a dealer would do just one side so let 'em do both , grin and bear it pay the bill. Just ticks me off that I took the time to lube and clean those brakes each year because of this thread , all for nothing. Just lousy design or pads , or both. I had an Acadia for 6 yrs before this Explorer , not a single bit of warranty work done on it. We did replace the front and rear rotors and pads on it but that was due to mileage. Last year I got to Florida and the throttle body failed, the tailgate goes up like it has a mind of it's own at times...the tires are end of life, suppose it could be worse but for a new bought vehicle now with 27k miles (mostly highway , very few miles in winter weather) this vehicle has been abysmal. I baby my vehicles, customers deserve better Ford. My last Ford was a Windstar in 1999, bought new, what a disaster, new engine put in one year in under warranty, then year three the transmission went, I dumped it then. Now I remember why we went to other brands.

On my EX, it was on the rear passenger side and only the outer pad was stuck.
Ford was willing to provide free pads, but I was on the hook for labor.
I ended up buying the pads and replacing them myself.

 

[MJN]

I am also very disapointed with this vehicle. Have to replace pads every two years and clean everything otherwise you risk catastrophic failure.


Brake inspection at the dealer is useless. All they did was remove the tire and look around. You can't inspect anything by just taking off the tire.
Was told everything looked good and two weeks later the rotor is fried.
Dealer told me that I should have gotten a brake caliper cleaning but thats $200 every two years so basically I just change the pads/clips every two years
and do a cleaning so that vehicle is not a death trap. The rear calipers should not actually be trusted and should be replaced every two years as well (but who has money for that?)


Last time I did it, caliper was completely seized and had to be replaced. They get to the point that just compressing the caliper rips the rubber seal apart and then you have to replace the seal everytime.
In fact I bet 50% of the explorers out there have seized rear calipers that don't compress properly and driver is not even aware.

I thought maybe the Sport model calipers would help but everyone here seems to have same problem with them as well.

In my opinion the design flaw is putting disc brakes on the rear of a vehicle. Its a common problem. I see that other makers went back to drum brakes for this reason.

I have a hard time accepting this as the norm for any vehicle nowadays. If this is what you have to do for a certain make/model vehicle then it basically makes it unbuyable. Who would buy a vehicle if they knew they had to do this?

 

[613GT500]

I am also very disapointed with this vehicle. Have to replace pads every two years and clean everything otherwise you risk catastrophic failure.


Brake inspection at the dealer is useless. All they did was remove the tire and look around. You can't inspect anything by just taking off the tire.
Was told everything looked good and two weeks later the rotor is fried.
Dealer told me that I should have gotten a brake caliper cleaning but thats $200 every two years so basically I just change the pads/clips every two years
and do a cleaning so that vehicle is not a death trap. The rear calipers should not actually be trusted and should be replaced every two years as well (but who has money for that?)


Last time I did it, caliper was completely seized and had to be replaced. They get to the point that just compressing the caliper rips the rubber seal apart and then you have to replace the seal everytime.
In fact I bet 50% of the explorers out there have seized rear calipers that don't compress properly and driver is not even aware.

I thought maybe the Sport model calipers would help but everyone here seems to have same problem with them as well.

In my opinion the design flaw is putting disc brakes on the rear of a vehicle. Its a common problem. I see that other makers went back to drum brakes for this reason.

I have a hard time accepting this as the norm for any vehicle nowadays. If this is what you have to do for a certain make/model vehicle then it basically makes it unbuyable. Who would buy a vehicle if they knew they had to do this?

I disagree going back to drums on the rears.

 

[MJN]

I disagree going back to drums on the rears.

I am far from an expert on these matters but I am just comparing the service I do on my 2007 H3, Not one brake related issue. Just changed brakes pads second time since 2007. Both vehicles driven basically exactly the same. (H3 has rear drum brakes)

 

[613GT500]

I am far from an expert on these matters but I am just comparing the service I do on my 2007 H3, Not one brake related issue. Just changed brakes pads second time since 2007. Both vehicles driven basically exactly the same. (H3 has rear drum brakes)

Majority of the blame lies on Ford, as the caliper bracket is made out of cheap steel and rusts pretty much out of the lot.
I own several other vehicles, in which the other one is driven all year round also (snow, salt and crap here in Ontario Canada) and have never had issues with brake pads sticking or seized calipers.

 

[Mbrooks420]

I’ve never had an issue with them on my 3 second gens, or either Subaru. There’s nothing wrong with rear discs, it’s just the way they’ve done it. I refuse to buy a car without 4 wheel disc.

 

[XLT16]

Add insult to injury. My vehicle is still sitting with with Autonation Ford in St Petes, tomorrow will be 3 days they have had it. Still no commitment on when it will be finished.

Come on, I make an appt a week ahead , you diagnose it within 2 hrs and you can't fix one wheel bearing, swap out rear rotors and pads in 3 days. The service rep assigned is awful, I leave messages , takes hours to get back to me with status, no progress. Called the service manager left voicemail, still no call back.

What a cluster %$% this is just because Ford puts a crappy clip on their rear brake pads.

 

[Mbrooks420]

It’s not the clip, it’s the bracket the clip rides on.