I took my truck to Pep Boys to have them install my new drilled and slotted rotors and pads that I bought offline. I only did this because I was having issues getting the rear ones off.

The brakes work wonderfully and I noticed about a week after the install, I pushed the brake pedal and felt it pulsing and then the caliber on the right front seemed to stick a little. I was able to unstick it by a few quick hits of the pedal. After doing this, the ABS light stayed on for a while until I shut the excursion off and then restarted it.

Since that time it has done it a few times again. Before I take this thing in to the shop, has anyone else experienced this? If so, what was the issue.

Thanks for reading and help!

 

The abs system will do a self test every time you start the truck. You will want to unhook the battery for a bit and that should reset the computer.
What I suspect might have happened when they were putting the new brake shoes on and opening the caliper up wider is push/dislodge something back into the brake lines. When you replace the pads it is always a good idea to open the bleeder valve and let out the back pressure that way instead of back into the line. You may want to bleed the brake system and hopefully that will take care of it. If the fluid is original it is probably a good time to replace the brake fluid any ways.
Maybe check the connection on that wheel sensor.

 

I plan on looking at the brake fluid and all but I am wondering if I dont have a caliber sticking.

Sometimes I hit the brakes and it pulls really hard to the right. Does that mean that the passenger side is sticking OR does it mean that the passenger side is working correctly and the drivers side is sticking? This is usually when the ABS light comes on.

Thoughts?

 

If it pulls to the right - it may mean you have an issue with your left caliper. Reason is the left side may either not be working or may be sticking and then your braking effort is all concentrated on the right side which will cause it to pull slightly.

 

The abs cable is separate from the calipers and the brakes per say. With the abs light coming on you would think it would be more something with the tone ring. With that thought tho could the sticking caliper slow that side down considerably compared to the other causing the abs system to show a code. Kinda thinking out in words here.

I would want to start with a code reader capable of abs codes and then look closer at the calipers.

I had a rear caliper freezing on me not long ago to the point I was getting a smelling from that side rear tire, and was hot to the touch, even with little to no braking. When I had taken the caliper off I hit the brake pedal and then saw that I had one of the two cylinders stuck. Even threw a clamp on that side to free it but couldn't. I ended up replacing that caliper, and all is well again. With the back there are no sensors on the sides but in the rear pumpkin, which would not throw a code for that.

I would take off the calipers one side at a time and do something similar to diagnose. Have someone step on the brake pedal with the caliper off, and do one side at a time so you can see if they are working properly. Even push the cylinders in, and try a few times. Again this would push me more to my original thought of something getting pushed back into the line while the caliper cylinders where being pushed in to allow for the thicker pads. How do I think so, because that is exactly what I did on one side last year when I was replacing the brake fluid in the system. One drain valve was stuck, that I didn't catch right away and ended up pushing old fluid and who knows what else back into the line. I ended up having to dissable my abs system, and ordered the AE software to help diagnos and solve things. After cycling several times the abs system, and on that side in particular it happened to dislodge what ever it was, and bled it out of the system. No problems now and close to a year, if not more.

Sorry for the long post, but just telling ya what I problems I ended up with.

 

Man I HOPE that it is not something like that. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of taking it back to pep boys because it DID NOT do this before I left it in there hands.

I am changing the oil and fuel filter tomorrow. So I will certainly be under there looking at it and PRAYING it is just something simple that they overlooked.

Should I just take it back to them?

 

How good are you friends with the manager?

Depends if you can look and maybe diagnos some yourself.

 

Thanks for the help. The excursion is at Pep Boys and I am waiting on that call....

I will update when I know what is going on.

 

Well as confirmed and believed, Pep Boys are idiots.

They call me back late Saturday to let me know that my truck was ready. The alignment was off and they fixed that and that is why it was pulling to the right.

What a bunch of MORONS. I got a free alignment though.

I will be taking it to a ford dealer to find out what is going on. I will update when I do this.

 

A common problem with Fords [may be others as well] is the brake hoses deteriorate from the inside. As they start delaminating on the inside of the hose they have a tendency to allow fluid to flow to the caliper [because of the pressure applied] but do not always allow the fluid to return to the master cylinder. I have been through this with my F-150. I changed pads, rotors and calipers before telling my friend [who is a diehard Ford man] about my problems. He told me about this issue so I replaced the rubber lines going to the calipers and all was good. The pulsing is another issue though. I hope you find out what is causing that because my EX is doing that. Sometimes it is just a little, but sometimes it feels like the front end is falling apart.

 

I took the excursion to the Ford Dealer today for the ABS issues. I just got a call that the "Tone Ring" that is on the new passenger side rotor is cracked. This is causing a break in the signal to the ABS system and creating my issues.

So I have already emailed the place that I got the rotors to get another one on the way.

I hope this information helps someone else that might be experiencing this same issue.

 

Good to hear that you were able to finally get to the bottom of this problem.

Kinda something that I don't think would have been to easy to determine by a back yard mechanic, or is it.

 

I am not sure. I am going to look at the stock rotor when I get home to see if I can see this ring and where it is. I believe that it is inside and there is nothing I can do to get to it.

I will let you know though.

 

Interesting, can someone expand on this tone ring?

 

When I got home last night, I looked at the stock rotors. On the inside of the front rotor/hub, they are all 1 unit, there is a gear on the inside. I am assuming that this obviously turns a gear on the front ABS sensor.

This gear is NON replaceable I believe because I did not see any bolts or anything holding it on the rotor.

It is raining like crazy here in Florida or I would get under the truck to look at it myself.

More to come.