Brake Pad Oddness

[Diesel Scout]

My girlfriends truck was built in January 2003 according to the door sticker. The brakes have always been an issue with her truck, and for 4 wheel disc brakes it has never stopped like it should. Her previous BF had replaced front and rear pad and I had done the front pads once. Last week she told me it was grabby and binding, so I tore into it this weekend (my weekend starts on Tuesday). Upon inspection the inside rear pad was seized on the slippers and only the outside pad was providing stopping force. So, I pulled the pads out, having to hammer the pad free with a punch. I clean up the slippers and lubed them but it still didn't slide like it needed to, nor did the caliper pivot off the top and into place like it should. Not to be deterred I took a die grinder and made the pad work...I know STUPID! I checked the passenger's side next and found the same story. On this side however the pad was seized so badly it bent the backing and cracked the pad. I went to the autoparts store and got a new set for a 2003 Explorer Sport Trac. They were exactly the same as what I removed. We inspected the old and new pads and my Dad and the parts guy were questioning if we had the right parts. The prongs on the rear of the inside pad were too large to squeeze inside the piston and that the piston imprint didn't fit on the backing itself, or the pad was too narrow for the piston. The pad we had removed had the prongs smashed down to fit. So, we checked the next year up, 2004, sure enough the prongs were the correct size!!

I went home and everything reassembled just like it should, everything slipped like it should and the truck once again STOPPED like it should. It's like night and day!! The pad are even larger then the 2003 and fit the caliper much better.

So, my question.....why would a truck built in 01/2003 use the pad for a 2004 model year? It's clear the correct pads are the 2004's as the 2003's didn't work and never worked properly. Does it have anything to do with the truck being originally sold in Canada?

Readers Digest version: Truck was build 01/2003, but uses 2004 year brake pads....what gives? Is it because the truck was originally sold in the great white north?

 

[BigV]

That is a good ? My wifes 09 mariner's manual says that her oil filter is a 820s which is the same for 4.6l. I checked under the truck and it is not the same filter.

 

[jutgin]

Did they do an update with a TSB maybe after yours was built? I havent googled that yet...maybe they redid the design and starting with the new in 04.

 

[Diesel Scout]

Did they do an update with a TSB maybe after yours was built? I havent googled that yet...maybe they redid the design and starting with the new in 04.

TSB?? I am not familiar with that acronym.

 

[jutgin]

Technical service bulletin

 

[Willard]

The build date has nothing to do with the model year...In fact usually it would be built the year before the model year is.

My truck is a '94, but was built in '93. Get it?

 

[Diesel Scout]

Technical service bulletin

DOH!!! Geez, I use to work for a printer that printed IH manuals for truck and tractors. I printed thousands of those damn things! LOL, I can't believe I didn't get that

The build date has nothing to do with the model year...In fact usually it would be built the year before the model year is.

My truck is a '94, but was built in '93. Get it?

Yeah I understand that concept, but usually the new model year is released mid current year, so the change over occurs somewhere in the middle of the production year. To me, building a 2004 car in January of 2003 doesn't make sense, but I can see a manufacturer doing it!

 

[Squirrelmaster]

Keep in mind that depending on what part store you go to, their catalog of the correct parts can be wildly incorrect, which is what I am assuming is the case here as there is zero difference between the 2003 and 2004 brakes on the Sport Trac. More than likely the pads they list as "2003" model years are probably for the regular Explorer, but show up incorrectly on their database as also being for the Sport Trac (I have encountered this before at both Autozone and O'Reilly's, though for parts other than brake pads). The brakes on the Sport Trac were drum for 2001 and 2002, but in 2003 they converted to disc and changed nothing else through the end of the first generation Sport Trac in 2005.

Tom

 

[Diesel Scout]

Keep in mind that depending on what part store you go to, their catalog of the correct parts can be wildly incorrect, which is what I am assuming is the case here as there is zero difference between the 2003 and 2004 brakes on the Sport Trac. More than likely the pads they list as "2003" model years are probably for the regular Explorer, but show up incorrectly on their database as also being for the Sport Trac (I have encountered this before at both Autozone and O'Reilly's, though for parts other than brake pads). The brakes on the Sport Trac were drum for 2001 and 2002, but in 2003 they converted to disc and changed nothing else through the end of the first generation Sport Trac in 2005.

Tom

Ahhhh.....I think you are onto something!! It was Autozone where I purchased the pads.