I took my truck out the other day and heard noise when braking. Ends up the rotors were rusted to the max, actually rotted. The mechanic said he's only seen this in vehicles involved in floods. It sits outside, but on an asphalt driveway. I bought the truck new and it only has 29,000 miles on it. What gives? The warranty is long gone, and wouldn't have been covered anyways. Anybody else seen this? Does it even pay to write to Ford?

 

The type of metal that rotors are made of rusts quickly. My 2000 has spent most of its winters up north where the salt on the roads really caused the rotors to rust. Due to my long road trips between N.C. and the frozen north, I got 80k on my front brakes. When I used the BFH to get the rotors off the 4x4 front, there was a large pile of rust on the driveway afterwards.

Something else that rusts quickly I noticed is the cover on the rear diff. When I took my cover off to change the fluid, I wire brushed it and sprayed it with black rustoleum to help slow down the rusting. It appears that if you ignore it, it may get bad enough that it will leak.

I just started working in Wisconsin.

 

Don't waste your time writing Ford. Your environment, usage, and easily rusting metal all contribute. If your brake pads don't keep the rust scrubbed off, they'll pit, then continue rusting deeper where the pads don't rub. You can wash your truck and let it set wet and come out the next morning and see rust in some environments. I once stored my 2000 F-150 in a very low humidity area of the high plains for 18 months and the rotors looked shiny and rust free afterwards.

 

The rotors rust like crazy in the vent holes between the two pad surfaces. that is where the rust fell out when I beat on mine with the BFH.

 

I drove my '99 very little the first 6 months that I owned it, and it did just that, my rotors looked pitted and terrible in no time.
Far worse than one would expect.
Better off driving it every day, or storing it inside in low humidity.

 

29k!!!! Geez..you got 5k more then i did and this was after they got cut at 12k. I know I am hard on brakes so I don't b1tch too much about it.

My 2nd set that I had put on around 24k was raybestos heavy duty rotors and the QS (quiet stop) ceramic pads..wait till I post pics of what shape these ****'s are in at 61k...they are a mess.

I just bought brembo cross-drilled and hawk HPS pads..can wait to get them installed!