This is a brake question but it's specific to the Super Duty.

2000 F350 SC v10. The brake rotors constantly warp. I don't get 5000 miles out of them before I have to cut the rotors. It drives me crazy. Feels like I'm driving a hunk of junk.

I recently did a brake job front and rear and changed the rotors and pads to NAPA's better grade as I heard they were good. I changed the front calipers and made sure all the slide pins were lubed. I changed the fluid. I torqued every bolt to factory specs. Including the lug nuts. The brakes are starting to warp again.. It's only been 3,000 miles yet touching the brake pedal at 55 or over and the truck starts to shake.

I like the truck but way too many people have a similar problem and so I blame Ford. But of course when I told the Ford service people about it (years ago) they just shrugged their shoulders. If the new GM and Ford(I heard they fixed the problem) trucks were out now I'd be at the dealer today but since the new ones aren't out I want to wait. But another year of shaking every time I hit the brakes is not something I look forward to. Anyone have a fix to this problem?

 

appliedrotortechnology.com

More expensive than the others but worth it in my opinion, I love mine.

 

I will make a few suggestions.You may have already did them.
First you can't cut fords rotors more than 1 time at all there just not hard enough to hold true under the heat of stopping a 8,000 pound truck and if you tow alot its worse.
When replacing your pads,did you replace the stainless shoe sliders?and use neversiez
on the part of the brake pad that contacts that slider?
If your caliper slide pins are worn even the slightest it will alow the caliper to get skewed and bind ,thus the brake pad will stay against the rotor causing heat (warp)
The only other thing I can say is your driving habits and location( city /highway)
Most of us who have had problems switch over to ART (applied rotor technology)
rotors. they are harder due to there manufacturing process.
There are other companies out there now.
Rich

 

Have you checked the hubs for play? Have you checked the hubs for excessive run out? If you have a hub that has a slight wobble, when you put your shiny new straight rotor's on, it now wobbles, as you drive the 2 point's of the rotor (1 inside and 1 outside) rub against the pads when you are NOT using the brakes and actually wears the rotor. This leads to thickness variation, which in turn gives you a pulsation. Have you ever tried having the rotors machined on the truck? In my shop we use an on the car lathe just for this reason, it works very well as it makes the rotor straight as it drives down the road, not as it sits on a machine. It might be worth a try.

 

Also check your tires. I had what I thought were warped rotors, but all my braking vibration disappeared when I replaced my original Firestones with Bridgestones. My alignment guy said that the Firestone belts had probably slipped or there was some other tire problem.

99 F350 CC V10 w 52,000 miles

 

You need to get ART rotors & pads. www.appliedrotortechnology.com.

I PUT ART ROTORS & PERFORMANCE PADS ON THE FRONT OF MY TRUCK,
( MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE).
THEY ARE SMOOTH,QUIET & NO MORE BRAKE DUST USING THEIR PADS.
IF YOU PAY $ 300.00 FOR NEW ROTORS & PADS AT THE LOCAL PARTS HOUSE, & THEY STILL ARE JUNK.
YOU MIGHT AS WELL SPRING FOR $ 50.00 MORE & CALL DEAN @ ART & GET THE ART ROTORS.
FRONT ROTORS & PAD KIT IS $ 300.00.
REAR ROTORS & PAD KIT IS $ 300.00.
BUY BOTH KITS TOGETHER & THEY ARE $ 500.00.
LEADTIME IS 5 WEEKS ON THESE ROTORS,
THE REASON, HE IS BACKED LOGGED WITH ALL OF THE SUPER DUTY OWNERS BUYING THESE KITS SO THAT THEY CAN SLEEP @ NIGHT.

 

jimb206,

We have been selling and using on our own trucks the Power Slot rotor and Hawk brake pads with great success. I use them on my 2003 which had the same problems as you are now, haven't had a problem since and I get much better braking performance as a bonus too. Call us if you want, we can get you set up with them at very good prices.

Mark @ DPPI

 

One thing, before we all get bent out of shape (pun intended) - when the rotors are warped again (I know they are already doing it, but might be better to wait until they are really bad), take off the rotors, and have a machinist check them to see if they are actually warped, or just deeply scored.

If they are scored, and the score-marks are not the same depth all around the rotor, it'll feel like they are warped.

If they are truly warped, it sounds like your rear brakes are not working as well as they should.

Also, what loads/trailer are you pulling? If the trailer has any serious weight in it, does it have it's own brakes?

 

I have the recommendation as PeteC. I was having problems that seemed like warped rotors and was getting pretty pissed about it. But then, I got new tires. Problem gone.

 

I have had similiar problems with my old 2000 F350. The solution was not re turning but replacement of all disks and pads, alignment, new tires and shocks and ball joints. Only once I did the ball joints and align did the problem go away. Oh and a new steering stabilizer. The SD is very sensitive to this with such stiff and heavy front end, un sprung weight. Also, I was told but can't verify that holding the brake really tight at lights, hills ect can cause rotor to pad sticking and heat build up. It is kinda like resting the weight of your hand on the gear shift, over time it cause wear and tear. Once I spent all the 4 above and stopped hlding the brake so tight once stopped, the problem didn't recur with NAPA rotors and pads.

I was getting this issue only after 40,000 miles, I replaced all of the above after 102,000 Km or 60k miles. I still got pretty good wear and tear from tires, brakes, ball joints, shocks.

Got a new 2005 SD 6.0 Crew now. So far so good. No problems.

 

Rwilimo's Suggestion Of Using An On The Car Lathe Is A Very Good Idea. If You're A Do It Yourselfer Or If You Take Your Truck To A Shop That Turns The Rotors On A Brake Lathe Have Them Index The Rotors. In Other Words Have Them Reinstalled In The Same Position That They Came Off Of

 

Had the same problem and found some interesting things during replacement. I have the DWR so the rotors stayed mounted while the adapter is installed. I had the exact problem with the shuddering everyone else complains of. The previous owner just had the rotors and pads replaced 2000 miles before I bought it. I put a dial indicator to see how much warpage on the rotors and the answer was ZERO! Less than .002 per side and they were new (as less than >005. under standard size) and well under the amount of runout when installing the new rotors (they ran out ~ .004). I chose to install the cross drilled and slotted rotors (powerstop) sold by wheeler offroad (can be found onthe internet) and Kevlar/carbon pads. Ran the truck after installation and everything is smooth and perfect!

Seems like the theory that the brake rotor gets hard spots is true! What we all percieve as warpage may be something to do with the pad material and different hardness of the rotor changing the friction coefficeint of the rotor at different parts of the rotor as it revolves. Will let folks know how the new rotors and pads hold up once I ge some more miles on them.

Ross
99 f-350 DWR 4x4 CC

 

I to have had nothing but problems with brakes on my 2000 diesel superduty. I am going to try a pair of rotors by powerstop or ART next time. i looked at the ART website and it hasn't been updated since 2004, so i am leaning at the powerstop rotors.



thanks for all the valuable information.

 

I believe you will find out this problem mostly started when the government made everyone stop putting ASBESTOS in the brake pads, they started putting in, I believe more of a metal product which gets hotter and stays hotter where as the asbestos ran cooler and when it did get hot, it would get rid of the heat faster. Rotors hot, brake pads hot, warped rotors, buy new ones, always in your pocket.....

 

50jd60, there's lots of vehicles running around with non-asbestor brake pads and have no problems whatsoever...

Are you sure you guys aren't scoring the rotors, and the score-marks are not all the same depth all around the rotor, so that it SEEMS the rotor is warped but in fact it's not?

How badly scored are the rotors when this happens?

My '01 has only 22K miles on it, but had to do the front pads already - my rotors were pretty decent, they didn't even need a cut. But I've had other vehicles that scored the rotors (from sitting too long, usually and rusting) and acted like they were warped...

I've heard about "hard spots" on the rotors, but I'm beginning to wonder how scored the rotors were.

Just trying to get to the bottom of this.