About a year ago I purchased lifetime ceramic car-quest pads for the front . I got a bad vibration when braking that has been driving me nuts. I figured the rotors were warped so I just replaced them with new Brembo's. Does the same thing . It's been vibrating like this for 6 months before I got around to replacing the rotors - Do I need to replace the pads as well?

Thanx,

jbrew

 

Hey , what gives ??? No opinions here?? LOL . Well, I've had some spare time this week to investigate further - Haaaa! , I thought it went way to easy ..After searching around a bit I know I got off easy. It took me 18 minutes to change out the rotors ( Lifted caliper and they leaned towards me and just about came off on there own) I was lucky I guess - I didn't feel like wrenching that day - works been slow and for some reason that tires me more than when we are busy (Oh , that makes sense )

Anyway , I read up on the horror stories that quite a few of you have with rotors freezing up on the hubs. Hell, I live in Michigan and put on allot of salty road miles - It's been 3 1/2 years since I did the rotors and they came off easy then as well - What's up with that ? Ford change the design in some way ? Can't find any info on that one..

Sooo , Long Post -sorry lol ..I cured the Vibration problem it seems . I pulled the Brembo's back off , Pulled those Car-quest Ceramics, took them over to the belt sander - fattened them all out , cleaned the calipers up good , reinstalled everything and it 's like night & day when I brake hard so far (I've only put 80 miles on since doing all that) But that really smoothed things out considerable - Taking a little off the pads and truing them up a bit.. There weren't scared or grooved, they seem to have one or two rolls to them. Those lifetime pads tend to heat things up a bit I gather.

Thanx to all who have posted in the past that had similar issues and solved them with this procedure.

jbrew

 

Well, similar problem when the brakes were gone, but not with lots of life left. I did have a baaaaadddd squeeling problem, 2 sets of Carquest "gold" pads, the most expensive. After 10 000 km's, they were pigs. Changed to "blue" pads, half as much $$ and love them, same warranty. Good to see you fixed your prob, mines always been noise.

 

Blue, in the past I have purchased the blue pads as well , I think they had the 2 year warranty but never had to use it, I never had dust or squeals from the blue ones or my first set Lifetimes (these are black and ceramic) I can't remember exactly, think they were in the $80 range for the front only . After a light belt sanding and a little brake cleaner I notice copper particles in the pads. I don't remember if the blues had copper in the mix. When you used golds , were they gold in color? Mine are black so , just curios ( :

They problem I did have with lifetimes that didn't occur with the blue's is that they warped my rotors soon after installation. I haven't put many miles yet, since installing the new rotors(brembo's) and sanding the pads. If I get warpage again, I will go back to the blues (I think they performed better)

Thanx for the reply and info.