I'm sorry to say, I am no longer a blue oval fan. I was as die hard as they came until I had my 99 F250 SD S/C LWB V10 5SPD. I had nothing but trouble from day one. THe tranny was changed 3 months after......anyways, I work in the oilpatch, so naturally, I'm always driving in mud, dirt and everything else nasty. The rear disc brakes were costing me close to $500(canadian) per month(not to mention my lease payment), the mud and dirt were annialating the rotors and pads. So be aware that even if you get the retofit kit on the rear brakes, driving them off of pavement will kill your rear brakes really quickly. My V10 was also nothing but trouble.
So anyways, I'm signing off of the superduty message board. I bid you all great luck with your trucks, as I KNOW there are some good ones out there!! I hope my new Dodge Cummins will not bring me as much trouble as my Ford did. Maybe in a few years when Ford decides to put a rear drum setup back in their units, I may try another one. Good luck!!

 

Hmmm.... I never heard anyone lamenting that they had 4 wheel disc brakes...and wanting drums!
I'm curious as to why you were only having problems with the rears? Did you ever take it to a mechanic, and if so, what did they say?

Sarhog in Guam
'00 F250 SD SC LWB V10 Lariat

 

Due to the conditions in which I was driving my truck in, according to Ford, large amounts of debris was packing in and around the pads and calipers. This was causing the pads to prematuraly wear down. This happens so fast that within one month, the pads were gone. Sometimes they wear so quickly that the pad will actually break free, or jam into the housing when you back up. Then, the piston on the caliper will extend out fully, rub against the rotor, and cause serious damage. All of this happens within 3-4 weeks.
Where I work, there is a mechanic on duty, and he has about 8 SD pickups he is constantly doing rear brake jobs on. They currently have 10 rotors on back order. Don't get me wrong, disc brakes out back are excellent, just not when most of your driving is off-hiway. As for why only the back, the front rotors do not get near the amount of debris that the back wheels get, as the front tires kick the mud up and back, not forwards. No amount of guarding or retrofit kits will help, because once all that cladding is in place, the rotors can't cool down fast enough, which in turn also wears the rotors down quickly. I know the new chevys are having the same problems I was experiencing, as some guys I work with own 'em.

 

Off means off. You can't sign off and then spend your time reading messages. www.dodge.com is the new place you should be.

 

Maybe the mechanic is the problem if what you said is true. See a real dealer, and maybe they's gonna fix it.

 

My local parts man said that he has heard of a lot of people complaining about the rear discs especially when it time for the replacement. I told him i liked mine and wouldn't have anything different. But then of course i don't take my truck off road like so many of the other drivers do. I was just wondering if his complaint was legit. Has anyone had any experienice with this so i can set him straight.

 

Try releasing the emergency brake.

 

The mud getting stuck and destroying the rear brakes is a problem. Ford has had a TSB out about the problem for some time now. They add a couple more shields to the rear rotors to try to help the problem but, there has been some question as to how well they work. It sounds as though 4rdgasm has already had the shields added by the dealer and that they don't work. He would be better off with drum brakes. Looks like everyone will need to find someone else to flame. I hope he has better luck with his new truck but, I think Dodge has also just recently switched to disc brakes in the rear like everyone else.

 

Good luck on your Dodge but I don't think you will be happy with it as it will fall apart on you faster than the Ford. As for the rear disk brakes being no good in the mud then why do most extreme 4x4ers allway convert from drums to disks. I actually thought drums would be worse as the muddy water gets into the drums and coats the shoes in mud. The newer shoes nowwadays are bonded to the metal backing and when they start rusting the lining pops off.

I'am from B.C. and alot of Fords are used in the bush (logging) bashing around the logging roads and it seems Ford is the only one that can take the abuse. These guys are in the mud and dirt all the time and the trucks don't come out of the bush from a month to a year.

Anyhow I haven't had brake problems on my disk braked F-450 yet but I sure do like the stopping power that disks provide.

 

The problem you speak of with your brakes is an easy fix. We had the same trouble with 4-wheelers and dirt bike around here.
Take the disks off the truck and give them to a mechine shop with an indexing table. Tell the mechinist to drill about 64 3/8" holes on 11.25 degree centers. Make one row of 32 inside and one row outside the center of the contact facing. The holes will give the mud and crap some place to go and the spinning forces will sling the stuff out and pull in cool air to help with cooling.
Thousands of race vehicles can't be wrong.
Hope this helps every one, even it you are a trader.
Terry

 

if you are buying a dodge good luck. I've had 3. 1 '95 1500 4x4, 1 '99 1500 2wd, 1 '01 2500HD. the first was junk so I traded for the '99 new. it went back for the lemon law. the '01 replaced the '99 on Dec 05, 2000 and it was just bought back for substaintial non-compliance( lemon with to many miles to be a lemon). 3 Rams in 25 monthes with a total of 137 days of repair. I personally know 8 other people with Rams('94 and up) and not one is happy with 'em. you need ANYTHING but Dodge.

 

Have fun with the infamous Dodge truck steering slop. I consult for the Dodge Cummin's message board site.... trust me they've got loads of problems....

Ken Payne
[img src="/dcforum/User_files/webmaster/usaflag.gif" valign=top align=left] Ford Truck Enthusiasts Admin

 

Hah, i had a 98 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad 4x4. It was a comedy of errors to keep it going. Got the truck, needed them to install the fog lights. Took 3 appointments till they worked right (40min drive to dealer sucked for this). 1st install, fog lights worked but it shorted out all my dash lights (great night driving). 2nd trip they couldn't find a problem, unplugged the fogs and made another appointment. 3rd trip, bent plug in the fuse box all works fine. Minor goofy problems untill 12500 miles, my breaks are shot. Not under warranty since its to 12k, then they want to charge me over $100 to resurface the rotors, screw that. Then my rear break light started to leak, took them a whole day to fix that and they refused to give me a loaner car.
Then my rear sliding window started to leak, same deal.. all day with no loaner. Oh and a bit after 13k it started to ping more and more, dealer said 'they tend to do that a bit'. Then a few plastic parts started to break on the seat moldings. Then one day with approx 600lbs of tools in the bed pulling out up hill the pinging became heavy valve chatter. Had to pull over on a heavy used highway and start out on the hill again SLOW. Still pinged like mad, hammered it and let it rattle.. work or bust.
Got to the cabin for a work weekend, one guy swore he smelled antifreeze at my truck.. was busy never checked under the hood till i got home. I lost almost 3/4gal of anti-freeze in a 300mile round trip. Truck now pinged no matter what i did under acceleration. Called dealership again about ping problem, was told to run 89 or 93 octane. Told the service manager to **** off since the manual says 87 only and 89 only under load towing.
Made appointment, told service manager NOT to do the TSB's related to ping problem since all it does is retard an already retarded engine which i was now getting 8mpg and didnt want to loose any more. Also told him not to call me back until the POS worked, left the lot and went truck shopping. 2 days later my truck is done, they finally did a pressure test and found out my intake gasket was screwed after all this crap. They also changed the thermostat (no visible leak) and wouldnt outright tell me where the antifreeze leak was...so i assume it was internal.

So now there has been a 2001 Superduty sitting in my driveway since exactly 2 weeks after that BS.

Hellrazor