96 Explorer Brake Pad Ejection

[FordNoob]

Let me start this by saying that I have done dozens of brake jobs and am beyond most people I know my age in mechanical ability. That being said, the majority of my experience is with GM, Mopar, and Toyotas. This is only the second Ford that I have worked on.

I got a phone call a couple weeks ago from a young female friend of mine saying there was something wrong with her brakes. Went over to take a look at it and found the brake fluid reservoir to be bone dry, the front passenger side missing one of the pads completely, rotor trashed by the caliper pin jammed against it, and the caliper pin had been worn down to practically nothing. Front driver side wasn't as bad but still needed new pads and rotors. Took a look at the back and determined it needed new pads and rotors as well.

Being that she was on a budget, got mid range autozone pads and rotors for the front, and went cheap for the rear. Pulled a caliper off of a same year/model from junkyard and installed everything. "New" caliper was leaking fluid from the connection at the line, so we replaced the the line and it held just fine. Bled the system and went for a test drive. Brakes worked great, though they were a little squeaky. Re-examined all components and looked fine. Did a bit of research and found that sometimes newly installed brakes squeal for a couple hundred miles until broken in, so told her to drive it for awhile and if it didn't go away or got worse to call me.

It has now been about 250 miles and she calls me yesterday saying that it did the same thing again. Took a look at it and, sure enough, it has thrown a pad, at the same spot(front passenger inside pad). I have never encountered this before. Have been trying to find similar situations online with little success. All I have found is to check wheel bearings and front end suspension components for wear. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Turdle]

I think the caliper brackets actually guide and hold the pads. The sliding ledge area must be damaged allowing it to slip out.

 

[bobflood]

+1 on Turdle's reply. Inspect the caliper bracket on that side VERY carefully; probably go ahead and replace w JY part. It may be cracked somewhere and/or the bolts that hold it in might be the problem.

 

[SoNic67]

This is happening because she didn't change the pads when they where worn and squealing. After that, they got so thin that the actual rivets (sometimes made from the same material) break and the pads get ejected during a hard breake.

 

[budwich]

nice post sonic67... but if you look at the OP... this is happening on 250 mile pads that he just put on... as suggested it likely the pad "slides" are damaged but it certainly is strange that you didn't see this during the "first change out".

 

[koda2000]

+2 on turdle's reply. as far as brakes being squeaky, even cheap pads now come with shims on their backs but you can still end up with squeaks unless you put brake-goo on the back of the pads wherever they contact the caliper and bracket. autozone loves to try to sell you this stuff and caliper grease (also necessary), because they're the only things in their stores that belongs to them and its got a 99% markup. i always use it and have never had any brake squeak and i've done more brake jobs than i can count.