I have a 2004 F-150 FX4 Supercrew that I bought new almost a year ago. With less than 8,000 miles on the truck I started having loud squealing, and grinding noises when I come to a stop. I also have a shudder in the steering wheel at times. I went to Ford and bought new pads and installed them. 2000 miles later the problem returns. I take the truck to Ford and they "deglaze" all four pads and Turn all four rotors. The problem returns in a matter of days. I take the truck back to Ford and they replace all four rotors and all four pads. The problem returns in a couple of weeks. Since then I have taken the truck back to the dealership Three times and they have done nothing but turn the rotors again. Is anyone else having these problems? Any suggestions on how to get Ford to do the right thing and fix the problem? I feel like if I was to replace the factory brand rotors and pads with after market parts the problem would go away but I have a huge issue with buying a $38,000 truck and having to come out of pocket with $600 to replace the brakes. Should I just bite the bullet?

 

If it costs you a few hundred to enjoy a $38K truck, I'd bite the bullet as it seems Ford isn't getting you anywhere. But that's me, I'd rather pay a little bit than muck around and waste my time.

I think Ford should make your truck right, but if they can't then you're sorta stuck: escalate this "up the ladder" and spend a lot of time/effort on it. Or "bit the bullet" and be done with it.

For what it's worth, I've had great luck with aftermarket rotors/pads. Much better braking feel than the stockers. But I have a 97 Expy not an 04 F-150...

 

If it's any consolation to you, I just redid my brakes on 04 FX4 too. I was getting the loud squealing and brake dust off the stock front pads, so I replaced the front pads with ceramics from NAPA. Learned my lesson, too. Within a couple of days, I had even worse squealing with the new pads. Turns out, the spring clips NAPA supplied with the pads were much smaller than the stock clips, and when I tried applying brakes, the pads crushed one of the clips. A quick call to the parts department at my dealership, and I had a new set of clips for free. 45 minutes later, I had the new clips in, the pads bedded with Quiet Brake from Advanced Auto, and not a sound coming from the front end.
The only thing I can suggest is check your build date...some of the guys have reported soft rotors needing to be replaced, depending on build date. Ive seen replacement rotors as cheap as $70 on up to $200 a piece. Whatever you do, don't skimp on them...the last thing you want to do is get substandard parts and crash that $38k truck because you can't stop...