First of all I want to say I posted this over in the Brakes forum, but this does concern an Expedition and I trust us Expedition guys, I think most of you know what your talking about. Ok here goes. This weekend I'm changing the front pads on my 2000 Expedition 2WD w/ 45,000 miles. The truck still has all original pads and rotors. I took the wheels off yesterday to check the condition of the rotors and saw that the rivits on the inside pad on the left front was just beginning to dig into the rotor. Not very deep yet, probally something that could easly be taken care of at the machine shop when turning the rotors. Ok, now that you have the background, here are the questions. First, should I just go ahead and replace the rotors? The reason I ask this is because I figured that if I have the rotors turned and they have to take alot of surface off of them, then they would be prone to warping easily. What are your feelings about this? If I do replace the rotors I would probally want to upgrade. Do you have any suggestions? I dont need the top of the line Brembos, but wouldn't mind spending alittle extra for cross-drilled or something if they are worth it. Do you have any rough ideas on what would be the cost of upgrading rotors? Keep in mind this is a daily driven X the never sees any hard (off road) driving. Next, when I compress the piston in the calibur, should I open the lid on the master cylinder? Should I have to bleed the brakes? Are there any special steps or precautions I should take since this is an ABS brake system? I havent done a brake pad replacement on a vehicle in about 10 years, and that was on a '86 Oldsmobile, so I'm abit rusty but would rather do the job myself. If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading my whole post and thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

 

Oh, one more thing, I plan on using Raybestos Cermaic pads? Comments on this? Thanks again.

Alan M.

 

Alan,

This is the one thing I had the dealer do. I got into my front left rotor pretty good. The dealer was great. The were able to save the rotor and just turn them all. OEM pads and they stop straight as an arrow and solid as a rock. If I hit them hard I have to back off. Oh, and no dust that people complain about with OEM replacments.

I was very pleased to have actually had a good dealer experience for the first service work on mine.

By the way, I had my brakes done at about 44-45k also. I guess that's not too bad.

Oh, another by the way, it was $140 per axle including repacking wheel bearings, turning rotors and pads. They gotta make some money somewhere.

 

Wow, $140 aint bad. It's sorta ironic about your milage, I just turned 45,000 last week, so we were in the same range. I'm glad your not getting the dust with your replacements. I dont know if the dust issue is sporadic or maybe some people are more sensitive/**** to it than others, but it drives me crazy. I often drive the truck from Tulsa to OKC (about 100 miles) and by the time I get there my front wheels are BLACK and I had just washed the truck before I left town. It is amazing that my pads have lasted this long. Seems like after i drive the truck a couple hundred miles the damn things would have been toasted and all over my wheels in the form of dust. I went ahead and got my parts together today. I bought the Raybestos Cermaic pads and Raybestos replacement rotors. I decided to do this because I am worried about warping my rotors after having them turned. This is the first vehicle that I have ever owned that the rotors have not warped. Maybe I'm too superstitious, but I seems like I might be streaching my luck to have them resurfaced and try them longer. Parts ended up costing $73.99 (ouch!) for the pads and $40.18 each for the rotors. So w/ tax and all my bill ended up being under $170, and I have to put them on!! Sounds like you might have got the better deal. I'll let you know how the install goes and the results. To be honest, I dont expect much better feel/performance than OEM, maybe I'll be impressed, just excited to get rid of my black front wheels.

 

Doing brakes on the Expedition is pretty simple. Here is a link on how to do it.

http://www.fordf150.net/howto/brakerepair.htm

As for cost. I replaced both rotors at a cost of $28.00 each and brake pads for $39.00 (I could have gotten the rotors and pads cheaper if I had done it before the weekend and went to the wholesaler). Total cost was $96.00. If I had the rotors turned it would have saved me $36.00 and a total cost of $59.00. I think on a vehicle as heavy as the Expedition, new rotors were worth the investment. If you do some heavy duty towing, then slotted rotors (cross drilling can sometimes weaken rotors but I haven't had any experience with them) would be a benefit, but expect to pay a pretty penny for them. Maybe somebody else on here can make some lower cost suggestions than the Brembo's. Good luck on what you decide, but don't be afraid to tackle the job if you have some decent mechanical ability.

 

Alan,

I just saw your post on brakes. I guess the majority of us fell into the 42-47K window. I also went with the ceramics, but went ahead and went all the way around. Had the rotors cut and did the install myself. Very happy with the pads. Also nice to see clean rims most of the time. Let me know how you like em.

Keith

 

I replaced all my 4 rotors and pads, not because I needed it I only have 25,000 miles on my Exp.
I did for the performance and also because I have 22's

I went with Power Stop $100.00 cross drilled rotors. Affiliate of Raybestos.
My Expy has better stopping distance, especailly under rainy conditions.

Check out my gallery for pictures of the rotors.

 

Hey Alan, nice X, I have a white one just like yours. I like the black, but I have had two black cars before this one so I wanted either silver or white, white is the only new 2000 they had when all the 2001's showed up, so I had no choice, but I am not upset at all.

 

My 2000 Exp has 44k on it and it's time for my brakes to be changed as well. I haven't decided on new rotors or find someone to turn mine. The last time I had some rotors turned, they got screwed up and I ended up having to buy new rotors anyway. It's getting hard to find anyone that will do it now and do it right.