I wish I would have found this site last weekend.
Here goes:
2008 F150, 2wd, 4.6L.
Last weekend, I took a 5 hour road trip. When I arrived at destination, I neard grinding noise from front when brakes were applied. I looked at rotors and noticed gouging. Got the truck home and bought new rotors and ceramic brake pads. Installed per Haynes manual.

Tried to manually (by hand) turn each rotor. Passenger side is very hard to turn, drivers side isn't so bad. I decided to drive it worund the block and try to break them in. (25 mph, slow down to near stop, let off brakes, accelerate back up to 25mph, repeat 5 times.) Well, I got it home, and they were HOT! Jacked up truck, and no change in status.

I pulled everything apart, checking that pads were properly installed, re-compressed the calipers (using large C clamp), all torque specs were right, and that I hadn't screwed something up. Same thing...

Today, I triple-confirmed that I do have the correct parts, and then I tore everything apart and went with the assumption that I messed something up. I put the C Clamp back on the caliper and again, it "squashed" the caliper in about 1/4 inch andI torqued everything back down. Apply brakes (engine off) and they compressed onto the rotor and won't release. I even cracked the bleeder valves to see if that would fix anything. NADA.

I'm about to take this thing to the dealership (which I REALLY don't want to do $$$$$).

What do you think?

Let me know if I can give you any more information. THanks. Jesse.

 

Did you clean and lube the sliders on the calipers, if not this can result in binding of the caliper.

 

I think I figured it out. The passenger side piston boot didn't fully retract into the caliper when it compressed. Apparently it got ripped when I tried to take the caliper off (or put it back on.) Time to replace the caliper. Thanks for the help. I'll let you know.

 

well, I took everything apart, wiped everything down, laid it all out on rags, re-inspected, re-greased, re-installed, re-torqued everything (including new caliper).

Then, I looked once again at the fluid in my reservoir. It was slightly "rusty" looking. The DOT 3 fluid I just bought is clear, soooo....time to change THAT. I took my syringe and took out all fluid from reservoir, and filled back up with new fluid, and re-bled the entire system until all fluid coming from bleeder valves was clear.

Still, the front right grabs pretty hard, and the front left still grabs, but a lot less than the right side. Dealership said to break them in again. The truck drives prefectly. No noise, no sound, no pulling, shuddering, vibrating or ANYTHING to suggest something is wrong. I drove it to work this morning and when I got there, I felt the wheels and they were warm, but not hot. No "hot smell" or anything...

any thoughts? hoses? Should I just drive it, or take it in? I've never been stumped my disc brakes before. About at my wits end.

 

Yah, it sounds like you have a hung caliper, as in the piston inside the caliper is getting seized up not allowing for movement. Your brake pad is getting stuck against the rotor even when you let off, that's why you went metal to metal and they are getting hot now. Buy a motorcraft loaded caliper, make sure you grease the slide pins and brake hardware and bleed the system and that should fix your issue.

 

Did you replace the one side or both? As a rule of thumb, I guess you're supposed to replace both even if one's bad. After replacing both, enough old crap fluid will be drained to rule out bubbles and most of the old fluid or moisture. If that's all good, check the rear brakes and e-brakes too. Believe me, I've just replaced damn near everything associated with brakes, fixing one problem only to chase another. Never assume it's just one thing.

 

well your truck is only 3 years old but i just found out on here that if the rubber brake hose that attaches to the caliper is bad i will not release the caliper.....but i would think that opening the bleeder valve would have released the caliper....good luck