poor braking HELP

[river13]

can anyone help, have bought a 98 xlt which recently had new front/rear discs pads and shoes ,problem is you can hear them rubbing when applied and the braking is awful my ford dealer isnt intrested despite charging me over a grand for the work also the handbrake feels dodgy and has to be lifted to almost full this was also done are all explorer brakes this poor

 

[Howard]

Well firstly no they aren't. The handbrake probably need adjusting. The adjusters are under a rubber plug on the inside at the bottom of the back plate. It sounds like the slides are not working as they should be for the disc brakes or the pads/discs have been fitted incorrectly.

 

[kevin p]

First, if you've been charged over a grand for the work and you are not happy take it back to your dealer. I'm afraid that I'm of the opinion that the Explorer brakes are not up to the weight of the car. I've tried everything possible to improve mine and I'm now going to order some drilled and grooved discs to try and improve the 'feel' of mine.
My pedal has always had excessive travel despite trying every bleeding process possible. To bleed the brakes properly,the ABS module has to be plugged into a diagnosis machine to open the ABS valves to get rid of all the air.
The noise you are hearing might be a coating on the pads that is meant to 'bed-in' the discs.
I've got to know the foreman at my local Ford dealer quite well, and he let me have a go in an Ex to compare the brakes. It was 3 years younger than mine and they were crap.
I really feel for you, because I'm dissapointed with mine and hope you get them sorted.