Non-Sport excessive brake pedal travel and weak brakes??

[Adrian Gitch]

I believe Peter is correct after the research I've done in the past. A '17 should have HD brakes. My wife's best friend had me do some work on her '13 xlt fwd with no towing package and it has HD brakes/rotors/calipers. My '15 has the HD also and the brakes feel about the same as her '13. With that said, I recently replaced all four rotors with new motorcrafts. I didn't replace the pads since they were in great shape but i probably should have. I had the dealer bleed the brakes for me but still have a little more pedal travel than I did before replacing the rotors. As someone mentioned above, maybe the pads need some time to seat good to the new rotors.

 

[metroplex]

The Ford parts guide shows non HD and HD front brakes for 2018 XLT. Order guide says rear brakes are SD. However, I have yet to see any XLT or Limited in parking lots with the vented hat front rotors other than the 1 Limited. Sports and Platinum all have vented hat front rotors. Are there 3 levels of front brakes? SD, HD, and vented hat front rotors?

 

[Adrian Gitch]

It’s definitely confusing. There seems to be various options for these brakes

 

[peterk9]

As I mentioned, if you look at the Ford parts site, the SD and HD parts appear to have the same part numbers. All 2018 trim levels have the same HD rotors according to the part numbers.

Peter

 

[metroplex]

I did look at the part numbers. There are 2 sets for 2018 XLT. SD and HD.

 

[metroplex]

I went out with a tape measure and measured the front rotors to be almost 14 inches. Nonvented hubs.

 

[metroplex]

Here are the rotors from the SHO (vented hub) and the 2018 XLT (non vented)

 

[J_C]

AFAICT, it's the terminology that changed. Back before HD rotors became standard on all, there was a smaller SD rotor? 14" (13.8" = 352mm) is the larger of the two IIRC. Once all had the HD rotor size, they became the SD rotors and the vented hat became the HD rotors?

Not having the vented hat rotors is not what is causing the braking issue, unless it was fade from overheating.

Is it possible you have ceramic pads but are used to semi-metallic? Oh, wait a minute... is it possible you have environmentally friendly, newer formulation copperless organic pads?

 

[metroplex]

Well I guess Ford got rid of the vented hat rotors. I saw a few 2018 Explorer Sports and their front rotors looked just like mine. That just leaves the rear rotors being different. My brakes are probably safe by Government standards but they just never feel the best if you know what I mean.

 

[KayGee]

Well I guess Ford got rid of the vented hat rotors. I saw a few 2018 Explorer Sports and their front rotors looked just like mine. That just leaves the rear rotors being different. My brakes are probably safe by Government standards but they just never feel the best if you know what I mean.

front rotors changed in my17.

 

[metroplex]

The Explorers seem to revert back to the cooling vanes grabbing cool air from behind the rotor (facing the engine) with a sealed hat, but the Fusion Sports still use the inverted vanes (but no venting on the hat).

 

[metroplex]

front rotors changed in my17.

Thanks. The 1 Limited I saw in the parking lot with the vented hat was indeed a 2016 Limited. The 2017-up Explorers all have the same front rotor. Perhaps the pads on the Limited, Sport, and Platinum are different and better than the ones on my XLT? Although it seems odd they'd skimp out on pads and rear rotors on a XLT AWD with the Towing Package.