alexpl
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- January 18, 2005
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- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 97 xlt
First post on this site. Absolutely outstanding site and a nice bunch of folks!
After 2 days spent searching the archives, I was unable to find an exact answer to my problem. **Long post warning**
First things first: 97 ex V8 5.0, 2wd w/ 4 wheel abs & w/ just a shade under 90k miles.
My wife noticed a grinding sound coming from her brakes on her ex and brought to my attention "uh oh, way past time for new brakes". Take it in to get new brake pads (I know, should have tried to do them myself, but have never done the brakes on a ex and time was an issue - decided to bite the bullet and just pay to have them done). Anyway, as you can probably guess, had to replace both rear rotors, brake pads all around and turn the front rotors. The shop told me that the fronts were right at minimum after being turned.
After the work is done (to the tune of @ $350) I noticed high pitched squealing from the rear when braking and some humming or moaning/rubbing sounds from the front (as far as I can tell, anyway) when braking & turning at slow speeds (10mph or less)(I think girleegirl nailed the description when she described it as a cow under her hood). I figure maybe the brakes are just getting broken in and this is (somewhat) normal. But, 700 miles later, the problem is not going away. I take the ex back to the shop and tell them I want it looked at - keep in mind, none of these strange sounds were appearing before they worked on the vehicle. Long story short, they tell me that the front rotors need to be replaced ("they must have already warped or something"
) and that the caliper is siezed up on the rear (left, I think) and that both need to be replaced - "because your such a good customer, we're only gonna charge you $350 for parts plus labor"...Needless to say, I was pretty torqued off because, as I said, none of these problems manifested themselves until AFTER they worked on the ex. I'm thinking they screwed something up during install . I told them to put the car back together and I'd be down to pick it up. To top it all off, when driving back from the shop, my abs light comes on. The light stayed on until I turned the vehicle off (about 5 minutes of driving) and has not come on since (don't know if this is significant). I'm not even going to fight with them about warranty work, fixing their work, etc - I'm not getting good vibes dealing with these guys and frankly I don't want them working on my vehicle. Am I off base about this?
From searching this site I think I've come up with some ideas- please tell me if I'm off in left field
Front: Replace rotors (I need to get ABS rotors, correct?)
Probably need to replace the front brake pads too? The ones on now only have 700 miles, but would there be a problem putting them back on a new rotor (btw, I don't feel any gouges or roughness on front rotors now)
As far as the humming, I've seen a couple of mentions of an abs sensor. could i test for that by pulling the fuse for the abs and then checking to see if the sound goes away? If not the abs, any other ideas on the cause (haven't gone and downloaded my codes yet)?
Rear: check caliper slide rails for proper lubrication. Any other ideas?
Apologize for such a god-awful long post, but I can't help but wonder if all these problems are related.
Appreciate any help I could get on this
After 2 days spent searching the archives, I was unable to find an exact answer to my problem. **Long post warning**
First things first: 97 ex V8 5.0, 2wd w/ 4 wheel abs & w/ just a shade under 90k miles.
My wife noticed a grinding sound coming from her brakes on her ex and brought to my attention "uh oh, way past time for new brakes". Take it in to get new brake pads (I know, should have tried to do them myself, but have never done the brakes on a ex and time was an issue - decided to bite the bullet and just pay to have them done). Anyway, as you can probably guess, had to replace both rear rotors, brake pads all around and turn the front rotors. The shop told me that the fronts were right at minimum after being turned.
After the work is done (to the tune of @ $350) I noticed high pitched squealing from the rear when braking and some humming or moaning/rubbing sounds from the front (as far as I can tell, anyway) when braking & turning at slow speeds (10mph or less)(I think girleegirl nailed the description when she described it as a cow under her hood). I figure maybe the brakes are just getting broken in and this is (somewhat) normal. But, 700 miles later, the problem is not going away. I take the ex back to the shop and tell them I want it looked at - keep in mind, none of these strange sounds were appearing before they worked on the vehicle. Long story short, they tell me that the front rotors need to be replaced ("they must have already warped or something"
) and that the caliper is siezed up on the rear (left, I think) and that both need to be replaced - "because your such a good customer, we're only gonna charge you $350 for parts plus labor"...Needless to say, I was pretty torqued off because, as I said, none of these problems manifested themselves until AFTER they worked on the ex. I'm thinking they screwed something up during install . I told them to put the car back together and I'd be down to pick it up. To top it all off, when driving back from the shop, my abs light comes on. The light stayed on until I turned the vehicle off (about 5 minutes of driving) and has not come on since (don't know if this is significant). I'm not even going to fight with them about warranty work, fixing their work, etc - I'm not getting good vibes dealing with these guys and frankly I don't want them working on my vehicle. Am I off base about this?From searching this site I think I've come up with some ideas- please tell me if I'm off in left field
Front: Replace rotors (I need to get ABS rotors, correct?)
Probably need to replace the front brake pads too? The ones on now only have 700 miles, but would there be a problem putting them back on a new rotor (btw, I don't feel any gouges or roughness on front rotors now)
As far as the humming, I've seen a couple of mentions of an abs sensor. could i test for that by pulling the fuse for the abs and then checking to see if the sound goes away? If not the abs, any other ideas on the cause (haven't gone and downloaded my codes yet)?
Rear: check caliper slide rails for proper lubrication. Any other ideas?
Apologize for such a god-awful long post, but I can't help but wonder if all these problems are related.
Appreciate any help I could get on this
