Here's my story, so hopefully it will help others avoid this problem and to do routine checks of their front brake pads.
I noticed that my steering wheel began to have a wobble a week or so ago (maybe 2 weeks at most). I figured that the balancing weight on one/two of the rims may have come off, so I went to my friend's store yesterday to have it checked.
About a half hour or so after dropping it off, I get a call from him. "Sanford, I got some bad new for you." So, I'm thinking "Great, now what?" He goes on to tell me that my front passenger side brake pad broke, and I'm like "WTF?"
It seems Ford, in their infinite wisdom, designed the front brakes (Cobra/Mach/Bullitt) as so: the caliper itself doesn't mount to the brake mounting bracket; rather, the pin that usually holds the caliper to the bracket in other designs holds the PAD to the bracket. The only thing that "mounts" the caliper to the actual car is the pad. The pad, if you look at it from the wheel, only secures to the caliper via two 1" or so circular "star" mounting tabs. If you look at the caliper, you can see the two holes in the caliper, and inside those holes are the mounting tabs. Poor design, similar to the ones on Corvettes. Keep in mind that these pad were NOT old. I seached and found my receipt, and I purchased them in September last year. Yup, 4 months old, and useless.
Getting back to my car, it seems that the those two mounting tabs are merely held to the pad itself by two small rivets. Not exactly rivets, but the look like it. Now, the mounting tab dislodged itself from the "rivet," so the caliper was basically loose and flopping around the rotor. Since the only two points of mounting were now broken, the caliper was free to roam on its own. So in my case, the caliper was moving around while I was driving, and it knocked the wheel weights off the wheel, causing the wobble. I would never had known the pad was broken if I didn't take it in. There was no real indication of any failure as the brakes seemingly worked as usual, since the pad was still making contact with the rotor, just not on a consistent plane.
My story gets better. I call my friend at Ford, and he actually has a set of Motorcraft replacement pads in stock. I drive down there, pick it up and take it back to my friends store to put the pads on. I open up the box and behold, the NEW set of pads has the same problem---two broken mounting tabs. BRAND new, and defective.
I end up getting some AC/Delco ones, and didn't leave the store until I checked all 8 tabs on all 4 pads.
Moral of the story: If you own Cobra/Mach/Bullitt calipers, check to make sure your mounting tabs for the pads are intact. When you do a visual inspection, you will easily notice that the pad is not centered in the caliper, and the caliper is not centered within your wheel. Sounds stupid, but unless you really look at it, you honestly don't notice.
I didn't take any pics, but I could find some if necessary.
I noticed that my steering wheel began to have a wobble a week or so ago (maybe 2 weeks at most). I figured that the balancing weight on one/two of the rims may have come off, so I went to my friend's store yesterday to have it checked.
About a half hour or so after dropping it off, I get a call from him. "Sanford, I got some bad new for you." So, I'm thinking "Great, now what?" He goes on to tell me that my front passenger side brake pad broke, and I'm like "WTF?"
It seems Ford, in their infinite wisdom, designed the front brakes (Cobra/Mach/Bullitt) as so: the caliper itself doesn't mount to the brake mounting bracket; rather, the pin that usually holds the caliper to the bracket in other designs holds the PAD to the bracket. The only thing that "mounts" the caliper to the actual car is the pad. The pad, if you look at it from the wheel, only secures to the caliper via two 1" or so circular "star" mounting tabs. If you look at the caliper, you can see the two holes in the caliper, and inside those holes are the mounting tabs. Poor design, similar to the ones on Corvettes. Keep in mind that these pad were NOT old. I seached and found my receipt, and I purchased them in September last year. Yup, 4 months old, and useless.
Getting back to my car, it seems that the those two mounting tabs are merely held to the pad itself by two small rivets. Not exactly rivets, but the look like it. Now, the mounting tab dislodged itself from the "rivet," so the caliper was basically loose and flopping around the rotor. Since the only two points of mounting were now broken, the caliper was free to roam on its own. So in my case, the caliper was moving around while I was driving, and it knocked the wheel weights off the wheel, causing the wobble. I would never had known the pad was broken if I didn't take it in. There was no real indication of any failure as the brakes seemingly worked as usual, since the pad was still making contact with the rotor, just not on a consistent plane.
My story gets better. I call my friend at Ford, and he actually has a set of Motorcraft replacement pads in stock. I drive down there, pick it up and take it back to my friends store to put the pads on. I open up the box and behold, the NEW set of pads has the same problem---two broken mounting tabs. BRAND new, and defective.
I end up getting some AC/Delco ones, and didn't leave the store until I checked all 8 tabs on all 4 pads.
Moral of the story: If you own Cobra/Mach/Bullitt calipers, check to make sure your mounting tabs for the pads are intact. When you do a visual inspection, you will easily notice that the pad is not centered in the caliper, and the caliper is not centered within your wheel. Sounds stupid, but unless you really look at it, you honestly don't notice.
I didn't take any pics, but I could find some if necessary.
