Coincidence or not?

I let my mother borrow my truck to haul a tandom axle trailer with about 30 square bails of hay and a golf cart from near Tallahassee, Fl to Jackson, MS. About 436.55 miles one way. She had the truck for a week and I traded vehicles with her yesterday. On the way back my brakes begin to grab pretty bad at speeds below 30 mph and sounded like a tile/grout scraper on concrete with a grinding and pulling (more noticeably on the front right). I'm in the middle of taking finals right now (11 classes this summer term) and don't have the time to change pads. I bought a set of Carquest Blues for the front and just expected to have the front's changed. Mechanic calls me back later on to say it needs new rotors. He puts the rotors and pads on and calls me back and tells me that my calipers are stuck open! And he also says the backs are worn out too. I'm getting pads all the way around with new rotors, calipers, and pads in the front.

My truck is 2005 with only 38K! Is it normal for it to need this type of work this early? My stock pads on my 99 f-150 lasted almost 70K miles.

I think its more of a coincidence that it happened right after the trip or did hauling the load mention above lead to or cause this failure?

I know the brakes and rotors are considered wear and tear items, but how about the calipers?

 

In that case, I am a mechanic and your master cylinder needs to be replaced because it is stuck closed.

 

38k isn't bad for needed pads & rotors. As for the caliper situation... thats just hit or miss.

I did my own brakes all around at about 36k miles. I found out one of my rear calipers was cracked (phenolic piston), so I had to replace that.

The calipers sticking open or closed seems to happen to these trucks more than others though.

 

38 is not bad at all, mine went at 41K, these trucks are heavy, the trailering most likely didnt have anything to do with it. And I agree with shaunakadub, the calipers are hit or miss, if they put a little bit too little caliper grease on from the factory, that could have caused it

 

I'm at 60,000+ and my brakes are still wearing fine.

 

I already replaced my fronts and now needing to do my rears, I may be also if you do alot of stopping and going...

 

Ditto. I've only changed my pads so far. Rotors still seem to be working fine.

 

I haven't even changed pads yet.

 

I think there was a bad batch of rotors or something because My buddys f150 rides fine with 50k miles and never changed pads and I have 32k and I have changed my front pads and my rears now need it done as well.

 

If you do a lot of stop and go driving I can see it needing a brake job. The trailer towing sure doesnt help either.

Im suprised it needs THAT much work though, front and rears, new rotors. Your not getting jerked around or anything by that mechanic are you?


I checked out my brakes the otherday expecting to throw a set of pads and turn the rotors on the front due to the larger tires and my autocross driving style, but to my suprise I had about 50% pad life left and no problems with the rotors. Not a whole lot of stop and go driving for me though either. Truck as 29K on it....

 

brakes were probably on the way out...but IMO I think the towing was the coup de grace and accelerated the process.

but yeah, brakes lasting 30-40k miles is about right sounding to me. FYI guys, the rear brakes on these trucks go alot quicker than the older style rear brakes. Ford has these rear brakes pulling more of their weight so they wear out quicker

 

Thanks for the input guys. The mechanic definitly wasnt jerking me around. I saw the used brake pads they both were shot along with the rotors. He said he tried soaking the calipers to get them to close but they wouldn't budge. $550 later it brakes like a new truck. I'm gonna try to get some money out of my extended warranty because the calipers are covered. I wrote a letter saying that the Calipers malfunctioned causing the pads to malfunction which inturn ruined the rotors. I'll see how far i get

 

I did do some towing for awhile and the rears wore out at a little over 40k. The fronts I changed at around 10-15k to Carquest Blues to help eliminate some of the dusting. They are still kicking.

 

Wow, all that at 38k sounds like pure BS. Pads maybe, depending on how much towing and how heavy of a braking daily driving routine you have. Rotors, would need turned at most, I highly doubt you went metal to metal at 38k, even then I almost guarentee you can cut out the metal to metal marks at 38k no way would you have driven long enough to make the rotor unusable. Calipers never. In my 3 years in an auto shop I have seen maybe 4 cars need calipers, all of them were older and have had atleast 100-200k miles on them.

 

Semi worn pads + a woman towing = your brake problem.