Replaced the front brake pads with Wagner Thermoquiet ceramics last week on the wife's 2007 F150 FX4. She had been complaining of poor brake performance and a vibration. The old pads didn't look that bad, maybe 40-50%. I took her truck to work that day, still seemed to have poor braking performance but it was smooth and quiet. Got new rotors today and my one man bleeder kit came yesterday. She calls me today after coming home from work and tells me she can smell the brakes and the wheels/tires are really hot, especially the passenger side. Gonna take them back apart in the morning and put the new rotors on and bleed but the fact that they were getting that hot has me nervous. Any advice/comments?

 

sounds like one or both of your calipers are sticking

 

Yeah, really hoping that I don't need to replace the calipers. No issue (that I know of) before putting the new pads on and it's been driven for a few days. Now today they are hot. Used a proper piston tool to push them back in when putting on the new pads and everything seemed to go smooth.

 

sometime when you move the piston past where it's been you get crud around the piston and it starts to hang up.

 

So if I take the caliper back off, pump the brake pedal pushing the pistons out, and check for dirt/clean it?

 

yes you can pop the piston out of the caliper and clean it but you will probably need a new seal kit for the piston

 

One other thing I've learned to keep those new rotors smoothe, I take a sheet of 100 grit drywall open pore sandpaper, lay it on a flat surface, and rub each pad back and forth on it about 6 times to ensure you have a nice flat pad to start with. When you take off the old pads, and either the inner or outer (usually inner) the caliper is sticking, rebuilts are cheap, not worth messing with..
If you are replacing the front rotors, don't forget to replace the spindle nuts,...

 

Put the new rotors on and still had the same problem. Replaced the calipers and it's good to go. Seems like the pedal is really soft though even after bleeding twice. Might try the master cylinder/brake booster adjustment I read in another post. Thanks for the help all!

 

The ceramic pads might give you a softer pedal until the pads are heated up some. I put ceramic pads on mine and that's what I experienced. Once I get heat in the pads the pedal is normal. Another thing to pay attention to on these trucks are the caliper slides. I lubricate them every brake job with extreme temp lube.

 

How did you torque the new spindle nut?

 

390XR7 is right...I had that EXACT same problem a few years ago and I took the calipers all the way apart, cleaned them and resealed them and then they were great. Sometime easier to just replace like he did.

Nothing like working on old brakes! Especially rear drum!!

 

It's 4WD, don't need to remove it like the 2WD.