Brake Pad Life Expectancy
Postmaster
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 3,818
Likes: 3
First off, welcome to the Aerostar forum on FTE!. Always great to have new contributors.
Pad composition, personal driving habits and the overall condition of the caliper/rotor assembly all affect pad longevity. Assuming a standard grade pad, 15,000 annual miles of "normal" driving, the front pads should last around 30-45,000 miles easily.
I gather from the tone of your inquiry you may have some issues with pads wearing out quickly. If you notice a lot of black dust and are wearing out pads quickly, the pads may be sticking on the caliper slides. Often a good cleaning and re-lubrication will solve this. Rear brake action only accounts for around 30% of brake action but the rear shoes are prone to being out of adjustment, leaving the front pads to carry neary 100% of the braking force and consequently increased wear. Have the rear shoes adjusted manually. The self adjustment mechanisms fail from wear and dust binding on the mechanism threads. Putting new pads on scored rotors will quickly chew up the new pads -the grooves in the rotor acting as a "cheese grater".
Hope this helps.
Pad composition, personal driving habits and the overall condition of the caliper/rotor assembly all affect pad longevity. Assuming a standard grade pad, 15,000 annual miles of "normal" driving, the front pads should last around 30-45,000 miles easily.
I gather from the tone of your inquiry you may have some issues with pads wearing out quickly. If you notice a lot of black dust and are wearing out pads quickly, the pads may be sticking on the caliper slides. Often a good cleaning and re-lubrication will solve this. Rear brake action only accounts for around 30% of brake action but the rear shoes are prone to being out of adjustment, leaving the front pads to carry neary 100% of the braking force and consequently increased wear. Have the rear shoes adjusted manually. The self adjustment mechanisms fail from wear and dust binding on the mechanism threads. Putting new pads on scored rotors will quickly chew up the new pads -the grooves in the rotor acting as a "cheese grater".
Hope this helps.
Lead Driver
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 7,019
Likes: 210
From: SoCal
I'd just like to add that you should inspect the pads on a regular basis if you suspect that they're wearing out too fast. Regular inspections will give you an idea of the wear rate, and allow you to better predict when to replace them.
If you catch them before they're worn down to the rivets or backing plates (this again varies among pads), you can usually avoid damage to the rotors, and replace just the pads. Of course, my pet peeve about the Aerostar brakes is that they're undersized, and the rotors will warp under heavy use. If you feel any pedal pulsations while braking hard, the rotors are on their way out, and should be repalced as well.
If you catch them before they're worn down to the rivets or backing plates (this again varies among pads), you can usually avoid damage to the rotors, and replace just the pads. Of course, my pet peeve about the Aerostar brakes is that they're undersized, and the rotors will warp under heavy use. If you feel any pedal pulsations while braking hard, the rotors are on their way out, and should be repalced as well.
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 403
Likes: 0
From: cincinnati hamilton
i seem to have yearly issues with brakes. front pads last avg 20-25 thou miles. the rear drum brakes were not working at all when i bought the van, after new wheel cylinders, then later new drums they are ...ok.. i still don't think the anti-lock mechanism works, but the van behaves better. probably a yearly check up would be good, from a reputable garage that wouldn't just replace stuff to increase your bill....... mho...
rick
rick
Freshman User
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
From: Surrey, BC Canada
Dido to what Aero said. Recently my rears were way out of adjustment leaving my front brakes to do all the work. This resulted in one front pad (year old) cracked in half and an ABS light that i'm still playing with to get rid of. Good Luck
-Andrew
-Andrew
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
jonathandennell
1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks
15
Apr 10, 2007 12:44 PM
