FlamingoGT

'04 GT w/ stock NON-ABS brake system w/ dual piston calipers (not cobra) in front.

On the fronts (haven't check the rears yet, but they are due to be changed too), the inside pad is wore down to nothing (literally) while the outside pad is still virtually new looking. The inside pad is also ramped, the leading edge still has some pad on it and the trailing edge is scraping metal. The outer pad isn't noticeably ramped, but I don't have a micrometer to verify that either.

In doing a search on here, I did come across a post that described this situation, and OP seemed to think he had heard of this before and why it did this, but he didn't remember and there was no answer posted. But this thread was over a year old, so I figured it was best just to start a new thread.

Thanks for any and all help.
James

SnakeConvert98

Sounds to me like the caliper isn't releasing,,,either the cal. is bad or maybe brake hose,,over time the break hose inner linner will start to swell up and when you push the pedal the fluid goes through but won't go back,usually that would be very pronounced,,meaning it would be pulling hard an you would smell brakes burning. as far as the unevenly worn pad,,,,more than likely caliper been hot and one piston pushing harder than the other, or , it isn't sliding back on the end where the pad it the thinnist, could just need good cleaning an lube on the slides before installing new pads. this is comming from someone (me) who has done his own brake jobs + all his family sence 16 now 45(almost) without a failure yet (knock on wood)!! NOT A PROFESSIONAL!!!!!!!! with a little luck on your side you can fix it!!!!!

Detailer_Dave

Is this on both front wheels or only one? It sounds like there is one piston sticking in the caliper, and it is cocking the caliper. Also check the slide pins for corrosion. But I am also questioning the NON-ABS. I think 04 all have ABS standard.

sv650lex

sounds to me like a sticking caliper. Pull the caliper and try pushing the piston back in with a c-clamp or large channel lock pliers. It should move in pretty easy.

If you need calipers get loaded calipers. They come with new pads in them and they usually aren't much more then just the calipers.

Make sure you clean and lube all the surfaces that the pads slide on and also any pins the calipers slide on.

FlamingoGT

Trust me, it does NOT have ABS. This has been the topic of many discussions already.

The above is the condition of the front passenger; finally got to the front driver and it was ramped, but nowhere near as bad. I don't remember which pad was which way right now, but one was ramped to the leading edge and the other was ramped to the trailing edge. about evenly between the two.

The pistons/calipers seem to be decent. The grease on the driver's side was in pretty crappy shape, but they still slid decently; the passenger's side was decent. One thing I did notice about the pads today when I was changing them is that I don't think the old ones were in the correct position. Two of the four pads have pins on the outside where the lower part of the piston would be... on the old pads, the 2 with pins were on the passenger side and the 2 without pins were on the driver side. So a lot of the problem may have been that the caliper/pistons wasn't sitting on the pads correctly?

cliffyk

It was option #552 ($730) on the '04s, I believe this included the traction control.

I have heard this was in response to a number of requests Ford received from hard-core enthusiasts who did not want the ABS or t/c--but more likely it was a way to keep the base MSRP as low as possible...