2003 F-250 brakes.....arrrggg.....

My F-250 has 60K miles and is in need of its fifth (as in 5) turning of the front rotors. No one I know with this or a similar Ford has had anything like this problem. The front brakes start chattering within a heart beat; its 's not something gets worse over time. It has happened when going downhill pulling my 5th wheel, and has happen with just my ATV in the bed (appx 600 lbs). Mr. Goodwrench at the local Ford dealer sez there is nothing wrong other than I am improperly breaking. BS in my opinion. As a bit of background, when the truck was new (less than 10K miles) I had the ABS system light come on on two occassions, both times while just driving down the freeway and not using the brakes (or had not used them for a long period of time). Each time Ford said they could find nothing wrong, and reset the the on board error recorder to 0.

My non-technician solution was to get some high performance rotors and pads. The high performance shop is more than willing to sell me some, but it is their opinion that there is something going on with the ABS system or proportioning valve. Maybe the early on ABS light is a clue?

Anyway, since my local Ford dealer seems to know nothing beyond turning down the rotors again, and again, and again; it doesn't seem likely they are smart enough to diagnose a possible ASB problem. Is there a way I can eliminate or confirm there is a problem with the ABS syetm?

Reply to
Tom Minger
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Mechanics and dealerships are like any other professions and businesses. Well over 50% are sub standard. Keep trying different dealership service departments until you find a good one. If you don't find a good one, start looking at "other" auto repair places. Ask around, save yourself some time only try the places people give you a good review of...

Reply to
My Name Is Nobody

...and of course, the more you turn/true the rotors up, the more material you are removing off the rotors, the quicker they'll warp on you. I had the same problem on a different vehicle, but this was a known problem with the car. Every 25K the rotors would warp (and this was a passenger vehicle, never towing anything). I solved the problem after getting new rotors by replacing the pads when they were only half way worn down. Thick pads, thick rotors = better heat dissipation. Are both rotors warped equally, or is it more on one side or the other? As it's not a know issue with your truck, and if it's only one rotor that it keeps happening to, there is a chance you could have simply gotten a bad rotor (poor material/heat treating) and cutting it is only going to make it worse. Other than that, I'll let others chime in...

Good luck...

IYM

Reply to
<IYM>

If the rear brakes on your trucks are drum most likely what is happening is that they need to be manually adjusted so that they acutally do the percentage of braking they were designed for. I have driven about 5000000 km in 3 different ford E150 vans and every 4 to 5 months I have to do the rear brake manual adjust thing to get a proper feel in the pedal. For some reason no matter how much backing up I do the adjusters just don't work and since I have a set full of them from the first van and a set from the 3rd van that are interchangeable to my eye Ford never fixed this issue with an automatic adjuster that works..... It is a pain and takes about 1/2 and hour while doing a tire rotation but if I don't take the time I wind up burning through the front rotors and pads in no time because the front end is doing all the braking.....

If you have drum brakes lot into that if not I'm sure someone else will be able to help.

Reply to
JR

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