I'm curious about the new electronic parking brake on the new F150's. Does anyone know if its a caliper-mounted motor or a motor operating a cable-pull or some other design?


My wife's Audi A4 needs new rear pads/rotors. I'm usually one to do this type of work...I quickly found out that the electronic park brake on Audi is a motor mounted to the rotor which engages and disengages the piston.


Long story short, unless you have a diagnostic tool to command the electronic brake to back itself out, you'll never be able to push the pistons in to gain clearance for new (thicker) brake pads.


Since I'm starting to look at replacing my '06 F150 at some point, this came up as one less thing I can do on my own....a bit frustrating.

 

So that's why the automakers are switching to that! I was wondering, because I haven't had an issue with a cable with anything less than 40 years old. If it's just a motor, I would imagine that you can just hotwire it. I found this on an old Forum back in 1935:

 

As I understand it, F150s with the electronic parking brake have a system like your wife's Audi. I haven't subscribed to the shop manual, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a procedure to compress the rotor without a special scan tool.

My mom's old Fusion had a mechanical parking brake that turned the pistons into the rotors much like the electrical systems do. You could compress the piston by rotating it with needlenose pliers as you pushed in.

F150s with the 9.75" axle have the conventional parking brake actuated with a pedal. Trucks with the 3.5L EcoBoost engine and everything with the heavy duty payload package have the 9.75" axle.

 

The Audi setup is definitely nice....and the fact you don't have to pry back the pad/piston is great...nice to have motors do the work.


The only thing I've come across is to "hotwire" the e-brake motor 12 volts across the connector pins to retract / extend against the pistons.


The "correct" way is to use a diag tool and go through a few menus and set their mode while you perform the maintenance. So far, no complaints though. I've been very happy with reliability on the Audi. And the brake job quote from the dealer is no less than I was quoted for my F150. So really, unless you're driving something crazy exotic, maintenance is maintenance...it all costs what it costs. Profound, right? :-)


I have no qualms about changing the tool set to meet new technology and methods. I guess I just balk a little at the price...and right now, there isn't much available for a shade-tree mechanic. Then, you have to find the repair manuals...another chunk of change. For example, you can spend anywhere from $500 and up for a diagnostic tool, but you still need a manual to tell you what code to use. For instance, to park the e-brake, you would set its mode to "6"...to set it back to normal use, enter code "7". No way to know that with out a repair manual.


Hopefully the Ford's will have this information/tools a little more readily available and a bit more affordable.

 

Turn the key to the on position then press the gas pedal down while pressing the break button hold and turn key from on to off and back to on. This will put the break into maintenance mode on the F150

 

Careful, quoting old forums is how WW2 got started.

 

How many miles you guys doing brakes have on them. My 13 had 40k and didn't need anything. The 2003 Honda Civic I use daily has 84k on it and still has the original brakes. Even my wife last car went 55k on front brake pads and still had the original rear drums at 15 yrs.

 

We only have ~~ 28K on the F-150, and they are original. The 2010 Tacoma has ~~ 75K and it is still on the original. I'm guessing they will get renewed on the next service at ~~ 80K.