At what point is a brake pad bad? Is it when the rivet grinds on the disc or what? My truck is getting close to the warning tab and when my brakes warm up they grind on the rotor because of the softer brake material on the rotor (what the dealer said). My point is that if their is still pad why wont ford replace it under warranty for being a faulty pad. it is like going to wendy's and only being able to eat 3/4 of the burger and wendy's saying too bad and by the way that will be $35 for telling you that its bad.

 

The main thing with pads is that you want to repalce them before they damage the rotors. That way, you just replace the $50 pads and not the $100+ rotors. If you are already at the point of grinding the rivets on the rotors, you also should change them quickly for safety's sake. However, expect to repalce the rotors as well.

 

My Haynes manual recommends that the pad be no less than 1/8 of an inch.

Another easy to go by guide is to compare the pad to the thickness of the backing plate. If less, replace the pads. This idea is from a guy at Autozone. Personally, I like the measurement test better.

Hunt4Fun

 

First off most new modern pads don't use rivets anymore.

If your wear indicator is not rubbing yet you should be o.k. The grinding noise you get when you apply your brakes is most likely imbedded dirt. There is no way to remove the dirt. The wear indicator ONLY makes noise when you are NOT applying the brakes.

In most cases if your pads are wearing evenly (I hope they are) once the wear indicator starts to rub you should have 5-10k to go before the pads give out and start really chewing up the rotors.

OEM Brembos are 40 bucks each and a good set of pads will be 50-80 bucks.

 

One thing to be careful of with the wear indicators is that they break off. When I recently put on new pads my wear indicators were gone and my pads were dangerously thin. I used Bosch Pads. They are comparable compounds to the OEM pads but have Stainless Steel shims and a lifetime guarantee. In three months I have noticed no increase in brake dust and stopping performance seems better than OEM. I have been making regular sudden stops when backing up to keep the rear drums adjusted as well. (Helps the mushy brake feel)

 

Bervinator...keep an eye out for the adjusting lever at the star wheel cutting a slot in it..I had a ,97 and it did it on 1 side and it caused me a lot of grieve ,till I found it...Ford has a replacement kit for those and it contains both sides (think Ford knows something?)F75Z-2A176-AA ..FYI

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Next time I rotate the tires I'll pop off the drums and take a look. THe slot is actually cut in the little star thumb wheel looking portion?

 

I've noticed when the brake pedal is past the gas pedal during a normal stop, or just while at a light in gear, it's time for pads.