T04SonicGT

Hi everyone. I'm new on here because I have n awful problem that many have had but no one can seem to explain it. I have an 04 Mustang GT and I've had brake problems. I let the Ford dealer redo my brakes a few years back and ever since then they haven't been right. I took it back twice and they kept telling me that nothing is wrong. Well I don't drive it much it only has about 55,000 on it so the "warranty" on their work ended long ago. So I was driving and my brakes went out! The pedal went to the floor like I had no brake fluid! Thankfully I was very close to home and got it into my garage. Well the rear passenger caliper was wedged into my rim. That is probably what was able to slow me a little. So my buddy did my back brakes...new calipers, pads, and rotors. (Side note: the caliper slide pin actually had a spider web inside of it. That tells me that the idiots at Ford either never torqued the bolt right or didn't put the bolt in at all and then they didn't bother to check it like they said they did.) well after new rear brakes were put on a few weeks ago, The brakes still didn't feel 100%. He is a mechanic and even though I'm unable to work on my car right now due to a bad injury I watched him do it. It all looked good to me. He looked at it again and couldn't find anything wrong. So I decided to take it to a shop to see what they said about it. They told me I needed new front calipers, pads, and rotors. They looked good to both me and my buddy but I thought that maybe with the back caliper failing it made the fronts go bad. They told me both fronts were stuck. They told me it was gonna cost $650!!!!! I said nahhh. So I again watched him do the fronts. Now the weirdness starts. When he took off the old calipers. They were stuck on there really bad. Like the worst I've ever seen. Again-I thought they were froze up. So we put the new rotors and pads on and the brand new caliper was VERY tight going on. The other side was even tighter going on. He had to persuade it to go on. And by persuade I mean he beat the caliper into place. When the calipers were off he checked the bearings and hubs and they looked perfect. Spun good, no damage or wear etc. but now before the brake lines were even hooked up, the rotors will not spin freely like they should. I went to advanced auto to talk to them and I looked at another set of calipers to see if they're the same and they were. Also, the old calipers that came off the car matched the new ones. And the pistons were all the way in they should be. I then went to Ford and looked at the OEM caliper they had (even though my old calipers were from the factory) measured the inside and it was the same as my new ones. Their rotors and pads were also the same thickness as mine. I've looked on tons of forums and it seems like lot of people have had the same problems but no one had a good solution listed. One guy did his and then took it to the dealer but it seems like they worked on it and told him they put a new caliper on and it's now "ok". But it didn't sound like he rechecked to see if his wheel would spin freely. I hope someone on here can help cause it's driving me crazy. If you have any ideas let me know no matter how unlikely it is. It might be something that we haven't thought of. Thanks!

T04SonicGT

I should probably add that he took it all apart to make sure rotors, pads, etc were all installed and seated right.

Derf00

Try adding some spaces in there next time It will be way easier to read.

The pedal going to the floor is typically a sign the master cylinder is bad or going bad. When the internal seals fail the fluid simply gets pushed around inside the cylinder instead of being pushed out to the brake lines.

As for the calipers being a tight fit....I don't see anywhere in the post where the caliper pistons were spread/compressed to their widest point before installing?

Just because you got new calipers doesn't mean you simply slap them on. Especially with new rotors. You typically have to compress the caliper piston all the way flush before installing them on the new rotors.

If you did try to do that, was the cap off the master cylinder? Otherwise you most likely didn't get them compressed fully since you would be fighting the hydraulic pressure of the brake system (Brake system pressure > than you with a C-clamp).

T04SonicGT

DERF00 thanks for response and sorry bout no spaces (I'm an F.N.G) he did spread the piston out when it wouldn't go on easily. He actually broke his spreader tool due to putting too much pressure on it. (It was already in all the way)

To make sure he then tried a c-clamp and it still wouldn't go in any more.

He didn't have the brake lines hooked up to the calipers yet when he tried to push the piston in.

The pedal only went to the floor when my back caliper fell off because the fluid leaked out of the old caliper that Ford didn't secure tight enough.

swarthyfellow

Is the hub cleaned of dirt or corrosion before the rotor goes on. With new pads and rotors the tolerances can be very tight, so just that little bit of gap from the rotor is enough to cause a headache.

302Travis

Here is a LONG SHOT idea, is it possible that the whole hub brackets(idk the official name but the steel plate that all your brake hardware mounts to as well as the hub assembly) could possibly be bent in one way or another? If it was bent by the dealer by some stupid mechanic ("derp ta derp i put every bolt back in with an impact" type of mechanic)and bent just a few thousandths it could I guess throw off the alignment of the pads and rotor enough to screw it all up.

Might be a long shot but maybe look into that. An impact can mess stuff up pretty bad and you'd never know it

T04SonicGT

That is a great thought. He cleaned everything really good but he is gonna take it apart again today because someone else just replied that something could be bent so he is gonna look at that too. Thanks for the help

T04SonicGT

That's a great thought. He is gonna try to look into that today. He agreed with you that it's a long shot but worth looking into. Thanks for the help. I'll let you know what happens.

302Travis

I hope it works! I had another thought that if you had driven it much after all this. The pads may have been worn down unevenly so if you got something that is fairly true and straight you could measure and see if the pads are hitting on the rotor unevenly by how they are wearing.

May not be 100% accurate but I would think it would work that way.

Keep me posted and I hope it helps

Z28KLR

What brand pads? I've seen quite a few complaints over the years where the scenario is some guy gets replacement pads from the local parts store and they are too thick.

I will say though that I've bought lots of pads for lots of vehicles over the years from Autozone etc and never had that problem, so when I see the above scenario I always have doubts that there's another issue such as the guy doesn't know how to compress the caliper all the way, but there have been a couple times where it was somebody I was pretty sure knew wtf they were doing and they reported having to sand the pads down in order to get a proper fit, or even comparing the pads to another stores brand and confirming that they were too thick.