Good evening everyone,

This weekend my dad and I replaced all 4 rotors on my 2004 F-150 FX4 with some slotted & drilled from RotorPros (eBay) and ceramic metal pads that came from them as well. It seems I am experiencing drag from the pads or the parking brake - which I'm not sure. It does seem to be coming from the rear of the truck. Right after changing I could hear a bit of a brake squeal which has pretty much gone now. They are hitting evenly against the rotors. I've driven about 120 miles or so since then and still have it. Basically we pulled the calipers off, the old stock rotors off, then put the new pads on and put everything back together. We depressed the brake calipers to put the new pads on rather than removing any lines so I didn't lose any fluid. We didn't bleed them since I didn't lose any fluid. The brake fluid reservoir shows about a half and inch above max. Any thoughts on this? Will it go away after more driving? Thanks!

 

Do you notice the wheels getting very hot with the drag? If they are you are going to ruin your new parts. If they are still tight I would take them apart and see what’s going on. Depress pistons again to make sure they are returning smoothly and check parking brake operation. I doubt they will loosen up, they shouldn’t be dragging to begin. When doing the job did a caliper accidently fall? That could have slightly crimped a rubber line internally. Just throwing an idea out there. And the brakes were working properly before the job - notice any hot spots, scoring, or glazing on the rotors?

 

most likely a sticking caliper, last time I did my brakes mine started sticking, I still havent fixed it

 

I'll cast my vote for a sticking caliper too. It might be as simple as the caliper sliders hanging up or it could be the actual piston hanging up in the caliper itself. It could also be a pad hanging up in the sliders too. Either way, you want to see if you're building up excessive heat in the rotor and / or if the rear brakes are building more heat than the fronts.

Based on my experience in 73,000 miles on my 2005, I'd say the brake parts in these trucks are a bit under-designed in both size and quality. I ended up replacing all 4 calipers between 61,000 and 71,000 miles. In the time I've owned the truck, I've replaced the front and rear rotors twice along with the pads. For somebody like me who used to get 50-60,000 out of front brakes, that's pretty disappointing.

 

ok so here's an update ... I spend a good portion of the night tonight checking things out. I lifted the rear end and put it in first to listen and then rears are pretty good - spin freely, all seems to be well there. The front seems to be where my issue was. I jacked up the drivers side and when I turned the tire with both hands and let go (a good spin) it would only move about 2-4 inches and stop and I could hear the brake pads against the rotors. Looking with a flashlight there's absolutely no space between the pad and rotor. Looking at my fluid levels I noticed it was a good bit above the max so I had my wife man the brakes and I bled both front lines until I was down midway between the max and min for the fluid. I took it out for a test drive and it seems to be about 40-50% better. I did some hard braking from 80 to 0 once and 50 to 0 about 6 times. I'm still not sure what could be done to fix it though. I agree, the brakes on these trucks aren't that impressive at all. It's the main reason I'm worried. I had to deal with the shudder from warped rotors since about 30k miles. The dealership 'supposedly' replaced them but it came back at 50k and I've got 88k on it now so I've been dealing with the shudder for about 2 years and am glad to have the new rotors on so I don't have to deal with the shudder. I don't know what to do about making the piston go back any more --- do I need to buy new calipers you think for the fronts? Thanks guys for all the advice and help!

 

After bleeding the lines and waiting and getting new tires everything is ok, just too much fluid.

 

Had a sticking front caliper on my 1998 f150. I replaced everything, rotor, pads, shims, slide pin/bolts with new high temp grease, brake fluid, calipers. and rubber flex lines. After less than 10,000 miles it is doing the same thing. With the 5.4l you can drive for a long time with out knowing your brakes are draging or that your wheel is red hot.

Brakes on this year range F150 suck bad. After doing the the same repair over and over again you start to associate horrible brakes with f150s. I've never had so many problems with brakes on any other car, truck, van or SUV.

I'm at the point now that I just take the calipers off and grease the slide pins everytime I change the oil. Even this doesn't seem to fix the problem.

The truck only has 88k.

Forever
On
Repair
Duty........

 

I just put new Wagner ThermoQuiets on front and back yesterday. I'm having the same rotor drag issue on the driver's front. The frequency of the grining/groaning sound (varies with speed) plus a very slight pedal flutter indicate a possible warped rotor. None of my pistons seemed to stick but maybe that's an issue that developed while swapping pads. One thing I didn't do was bleed the lines. The fluid level definitely rose with the new pads and is at the very top of the range. I'll try bleeding some out and see if that helps.

 

Where are the slide pins?

 

Never mind. I found them.

 

Flushed the lines with new fluid. Restored fluid level to middle of reservoir range. Brakes are back to normal.