Brake problem

I had to replace rear pads on wife's 2003 sport-trac. They were only just over a year old and she doesn't pull anything. the drivers side rotor was eat-up pretty bad also so I replaced it. Passenger side pads and rotor was good but I repalced the pads. drove about an hour away to go shopping, got out and drivers side rotor was red hot and smoking! I'm guessing bad caliper............that would explain the wear on just one siide and not the other. Could anything else cause this?

i had to replace a factory caliper on my explorer because it seized up. first it was hyper extended and we fixed it, but then it hyper extended again and i had to replace it.

Were the inner and outer pads worn evenly?

If the pads were worn evenly, then I'd suspect possibly a bad brake hose. The hoses can act like a one-way valve, preventing the fluid from going back to the master cylinder so the caliper remains extended.

If the inner and outer pads were not worn evenly, then you may just have a set of slide pins that are seized rather than a rotor issue.

-Rod

They were both worn BUT the outside pad was a lot worse than the inside. (BEYOND the rivets!) This was on the drivers side. The passenger side was fine (both sides). I drove it several times yesterday and checked the rear drivers wheel to see if it was heating up more than the others and it appeared fine! (although these were relatively short trips in comparison to the trip to charelston Saturday night)

By the way....................I just thought about it but I DID drop the caliper while putting in the brake pads. would that be enough of a jolt to put a kink in the brake hose and not allow the fluid back into the MC.

It's possible the drop could have compromised the hose, but since the inner and outer pads are not wearing evenly, it sounds like a problem with the caliper slides rather than a problem with the hose or caliper itself.

You may want to pull the slides out, clean them up (wire brush usually works well, expecially when on a bench grinder) and use some high temp silicone brake lube when reassembling.

-Rod

I'll check them tonight.

Thanks for the info.

Just an FYI - apparently the sport-trac is famous for the calipers freezing/seizing and needing replacement. I am sure if you do a google search you will find this is a common problem with this vehicle. Just a typical bad part on this particular vehicle.

Good call there Rod!

I did what I probably should have done to start with and called my wifes' younger brother who happens to be the Service Manager for a large Ford Dealership. He said 90% of the time this happens that it it just the slides! what his guys do on all brake jobs now is take some emory cloth to the caliper bolts and polish them up, then they use the emory cloth and polish the area on the caliper mounts where the brake pads rest. Then they take a fine file and smooth out the notches in the end of brake pads. Add a little silicone grease to those areas during re-assembly and they're done!

He said he's seen many vehicles come in where the customer had replaced the caliper thinking it was bad and it was still overheating. turned out the problem all-along was just that the pads were binding on the slides.