Front Brake Rotor Wear | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models
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Front Brake Rotor Wear

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blueoil1
  • Start date Start date
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My 2002 Bird has almost 21,000 miles. I picked it up from the dealer in Oct 2001.
I had the brakes and rotors inspected this week. I was told that the front break pads have 25% more life remaining, rear 70% remaining life. However, I was told that the front rotors need replacing due to wear, not warping.
I don’t push my vehicles; don’t drive them hard; don’t heat up the breaks more than average; have never had the anti-lock brake system activate. I keep my vehicles for a long time (at least 10 years). Over the last 40 years, I’ve only had to replace brake rotors once and that car had over 100,000 miles. At most I’ve only had to turn the rotors a time or two on a few of my vehicles.
Is it normal for rotors on the T-Bird to wear this quickly (21,000 miles)? I’d appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

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I have 32000 miles and had the 30000 mile check up and nothing was said about my breaks except that they were ok. They may have put how much was left, but I would have to did out the paperwork for that. 😛
 
Problem with rear brakes

Funny you should mention it. My 03 (22,000 mi.) started making a scraping noise from the left rear. Sure enough, it is metal to metal. I'm used to getting 35,000 to 50,000miles out of a set of brakes. This is not good. I'm pretty easy on it, too. Taking it to the dealer tomorrow to see about warranty. Anyone else with brake problems?
 
I had my front brakes replaced and the rotors had to be cut at about 30,000 miles. I was told the early brake wear was due to my keeping my 2002 Bird in D5/overdrive all the time. This causes the brakes to do all the slowing down and stopping of the car due to "free wheeling", where as in D4 the engine would cause a slowing of the car just by taking your foot off the accelerator. I can believe this because my '57 is 3 speed stickshift with overdrive and you can feel the free wheeling effect much better. The brakes work much harder in overdrive and the front brakes take most of the stopping power, so they wear out first.
 
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Replaced frt Brakes 15K

My Bird lives in stop and go fast traffic. All in Las Vegas. So the front Brakes pads and rotors are very worn out at 15,000 miles.

The Brake fld Resv. was low and the Brk light came on.
So I buy new rotors and pads cost $250, and put them on. I will have the old rotors resurfaced and use again when the brakes wear out. in 1 1/2 years.

Rear brakes looked 30% worn. Rotors not worn. But I drive with the Trac control Off. More fun.


The Flash
 
Brakes 03 Bird

I have an 03 and drive a lot of fast freeway to work and lots of braking at times. I had pads replaced and rotors turned on rear brakes at about 22000 miles. I was surprised it was the rear but the dealer said that it is due to the braking system. I now have 34000 and brakes just checked out as OK. I get my brakes checked every oil change to avoid the metal to metal problem.
 
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