2000 Ranger, see my sig.

Just had to swap out the pads on my truck yesterday. The pedal was pretty mushy and I was getting shaking in the steering wheel when the brakes got warm. Shaking wasn't all the time, only after they had been used quite a bit - say after city use and the brakes had to be applied suddenly.

So I popped off the tires and swapped out the pads and replaced the brake fluid - flushed it.

On the driver side front, the pads barely had any real wear and the anti-rattle clip was all messed up. It was installed properly, but it looked like the pads had smashed into it. The rotor appeared to be warped, or at least out of round - but just barely. You could see it wobble slightly in one spot if you spun the hub with the caliper removed. The caliper itself was sticking slightly.

I didn't see any evidence of damage, the brakes flushed just fine although the fluid was incredibly dirty (because I haven't done it in a long while)

On the passenger side front, the pads were worn down to the level I would have expected given the mileage. The wear was even.

My question ultimately is this - is the out of round hub the culprit here? Might there be something else going on like a caliper problem?
Ultimately I plan on having the rotors surfaced - one of them certainly needs it and with new pads I might as well do it anyway.

 

Possibly.....Also make sure the caliper "floats" on the mount like it should. Wire wheel the area where caliper meets bracket and use some disc brake grease on it also.

 

If you are getting feedback in pedal then there are hard spots on the rotor. If you see a wobble then either R&R both rotors or get them turned to possibly eliminate the hardspots and true the rotor.

Also dont know about yours but new calipers are only about $25 each and are a good change if one pad is sticking with no wear and other has a lot so could be both are bad?

 

The caliper slide bushings must float freely, this is critical to relatively even brake pad wear and also to generate correct braking power.

Also clean any dirt or corrosion from the rotor and hub mounting surface before installing the rotors once they have been turned or replaced.

 

Passenger side front pads have always worn faster than drivers side on my 2002 Ranger. I do brake maintenance every spring and fall, including complete flush every spring.

 

I'll schedule to have the rotors turned. They didn't show any signs of significant wearing, so turning seems like the first step.

I relubed the pins for the caliper, inexplicably the Haynes manual mentions to in fact not do anything to the pins - "pins lubricated with gel that has no replacement at this time" or words to that effect. I ignored that and coated them with caliper grease. The pins were otherwise fairly dry when I removed them.

I made the mistake of putting on ceramic pads before - I'm wondering if that's coming back to bite me. I have semi-metallics on there now.