Serious brake problem at 24,000 miles. Please Help

me27821 · Aug 26, 2007

I just bought an 04 GT a week ago. It has 24,000 miles on it. After a week of driving it every I noticed the brakes work perfeclty. I got in my car today, started the engine, and noticed a slightly different sound. Considering this car is new to me, I don't know if this is something I just didn't notice before, or what. When I stepped on my brake pedal though, there was a skweaking/grinding type of sound. It sounds pretty much the same as if you put a power sander on a peice of wood. (I spent a few days recently sanding wood with a random orbital sander, lol). So this sound only happens as you step on, and hold the brake pedal. The car was parked the whole time, and I never got it moving, or attempted to. Also, the pedal feels like it's twitching. Not a slight twitch, but a significant jittering. And it's random too, meaning there's no pattern or timing to it. Then the noise stops, and the pedal kicks back at you. That's pretty much it. I attempted pumping the brake lightly a few times, but nothing changed. From the looks of it, these brakes are stock, and I haven't done any work on them myself. No racing either, just normal day to day driving. Has anyone heard of this happening before?

joshjwc9 · Aug 26, 2007

Sounds like the pads are reaching the end of their life. Go ahead and pull off the wheels and look at which one has the most brakedust on it, usually those pads are almost done.

Or, it could be one of the slider pins (I htink thats what they are called) froze up and one side of the rotor is getting destroyed by your pads.

steve_stang2003 · Aug 26, 2007

me27821 said:
I just bought an 04 GT a week ago. It has 24,000 miles on it. After a week of driving it every I noticed the brakes work perfeclty. I got in my car today, started the engine, and noticed a slightly different sound. Considering this car is new to me, I don't know if this is something I just didn't notice before, or what. When I s

Brakes are shot and depending upon whether or not you made metal to metal contact on the rotors they may be shot as well.
Like the other person said, pull the wheels and take a look.

My lightly driven 2003 GT needed front pads at about 26k so you are not far off the mark.

If one side is worn more than the other then chances are the pins are binding against the caliper due to lack of hi temp grease.
If this is the case, clean them and lube them up with the proper grease. Also make sure to replace both sides of an axle at the same time even if the other side isn't worn out.

Lot's of good repair information here:
http://www.bullittarchive.com/index.htm

Oh yea, DON"T drive the car until you can determine the problem.

Good luck!!

'02SilverBullet · Aug 26, 2007

That doesnt sound right at all. I got an '02 GT and I have been driving the hell out of it since the day I got it with 33 miles on it! I had stock pads all the way up to 73K and I STILL didnt need pads then either! The only reason I replaced them was my rotors where SHOT (warped from doing 100 to 0 stops all the time) I replaced everything at once! I dont know WTF a "slider pin" is on the calliper but I would lean towards that. 26k miles is just WAY to low to be needing pads IMO. Best of luck to you though. Let us know whats up when ya figure it out!

COramprat · Aug 26, 2007

So the noise happens when depressing the pedal with the car not moving?

Heratik · Aug 26, 2007

I normally between 15k to 20k miles out of my pads so I'd say at 26k there is a good chance you need em. Even though they are costly I'd highly recommend going to the dealer and getting the Ford OEM pads. I've yet to find a pad that matches the low dusting, noise, and performance characteristics.

hotmustang331 · Aug 26, 2007

'02SilverBullet said:
That doesnt sound right at all. I got an '02 GT and I have been driving the hell out of it since the day I got it with 33 miles on it! I had stock pads all the way up to 73K and I STILL didnt need pads then either! The only reason I replaced them was my rotors where SHOT (warped from doing 100 to 0 stops all the time) I replaced everything at once! I dont know WTF a "slider pin" is on the calliper but I would lean towards that. 26k miles is just WAY to low to be needing pads IMO. Best of luck to you though. Let us know whats up when ya figure it out!

Yea BIG +1! How the heck are you guys going through pads in 25K???? My car has right @ 65,000 miles and I still have almost half the pads left on the front . They should easily make it past 100K. I just dont get how normal driving can eat up pads that quickly.
Maybe thats what the problem is TS...could be sticking and just eating up the pads.

COramprat · Aug 26, 2007

If I understand his post the noise is from depressing the brake pedal and the car is stopped. That isn't pads...

steve_stang2003 · Aug 26, 2007

'02SilverBullet said:
That doesnt sound right at all. I got an '02 GT and I have been driving the hell out of it since the day I got it with 33 miles on it! I had stock pads all the way up to 73K and I STILL didnt need pads then either! The only reason I replaced them was my rotors where SHOT (warped from doing 100 to 0 stops all the time) I replaced everything at once! I dont know WTF a "slider pin" is on the calliper but I would lean towards that. 26k miles is just WAY to low to be needing pads IMO. Best of luck to you though. Let us know whats up when ya figure it out!

It depends upon the kind of driving you do.
Highway vs stop and go makes a huge difference.
Also the vert is a couple of hundred pounds heavier than a coupe.
FWIW my pads still had about a 1/4 of their life left when i replaced them.

shook0002 · Aug 26, 2007

Check the power steering fluid- These cars are a hydroboost brake system which depends on the power steering pump for pressure. If the fluid is ok then you need to dig further into the hydroboost unit starting with checking all the lines for leaks including the pump to rack lines. If air gets in the sytem from a leaks it could cause a problem.

Superhereaux · Aug 26, 2007

shook0002 said:
Check the power steering fluid- These cars are a hydroboost brake system which depends on the power steering pump for pressure. If the fluid is ok then you need to dig further into the hydroboost unit starting with checking all the lines for leaks including the pump to rack lines. If air gets in the sytem from a leaks it could cause a problem.

exactly what i was going to post

to verify this problem next time you press the brakes and it makes the noise turn the steering wheel left to right, see if the noise increases or goes away. if it does then it's definetly the hydro-boost and not any specific part of the brakes

add ATF if it's low and check for leaks

me27821 · Aug 26, 2007

Yeah you're right COramprat. The car was making that sound while NOT moving. As I stepped on the brake pedal getting ready to leave my parking space, it started the sound. I never got it out of the parking space. I don't see how it could be anything along the lines of pads or slider pins. Like I said, the brakes worked perfectly for a week. No strange sound, no nothing. Then suddely last night, it started with that power sander like sound. I forgot to mention that the sound is coming from the engine bay. I'm gonna look into it now to see exacly where.

steve_stang2003 · Aug 26, 2007

COramprat said:
If I understand his post the noise is from depressing the brake pedal and the car is stopped. That isn't pads...

+1
I missed that part...sorry..

steve_stang2003 · Aug 26, 2007

shook0002 said:
Check the power steering fluid- These cars are a hydroboost brake system which depends on the power steering pump for pressure. If the fluid is ok then you need to dig further into the hydroboost unit starting with checking all the lines for leaks including the pump to rack lines. If air gets in the sytem from a leaks it could cause a problem.

Excellent point!!!
Kudos!

Steve

me27821 · Aug 26, 2007

So I just went out to my car and looked around. The power steering fluid was just slightly below the low mark, while the engine was cold. I turned the wheel all the way to the left, pressed the brakes a few times, and the noise stopped. I put it in reverse to take a spin around the block, and then I noticed the wheel is very hard to turn. I drove around the neighborhood on empty streets, made a few turns, and still, it's hard to turn. Then when it came time to breaking, there was no power behind it. The car rolled to stop with a lot of pressure on the pedal. With that much pressure in the past, the car would have stopped on a dime. So I now have a car with no brakes or steering, and I bought it a week ago. I wonder if the dealer will pay to have it towed back to their service shop, since they have a 30 day safety coverage thing.
Now I mentioned I didn't do any work on the brakes, which is true. But, thursday night I disconnected the battery, and installed an FR500 wheel. On my first attemp, I disconnected the battery, and used a steering wheel puller to get the stock wheel off. One of the bolts snapped on the puller, before I even wedged it loose. I put the retaining bolt back on, drove to pepboys, and got a 3 prong puller. Then disconnected the battery again, and got the wheel swapped. Reinstalled everything, reconnected the battery, and went to sleep. Yesterday, when I heard the brake noise was the first time I attempted to drive the car since I swapped the wheels.
Now this makes it look like my fault, but how could it be? I didn't bang on the wheel, I didn't try to jerk it off, I didn't use a hammer either. I did it the way every set of instructions says to do it, with exception of the 3 prong puller.

I'm starting to think now I should go put the original wheel back on, before calling the dealership on this.

COramprat · Aug 26, 2007

Did you add fluid?

me27821 · Aug 26, 2007

No I didn't. I just swapped to the FR500 wheel and that's it.

mransr · Aug 26, 2007

me27821 said:
The power steering fluid was just slightly below the low mark, while the engine was cold.

sounds like you need to add some fluid

Superhereaux · Aug 26, 2007

Superhereaux said:
add ATF if it's low and check for leaks

+1

hotmustang331 · Aug 26, 2007

ABS light should be comeing on if your power breaks AND power steering is shot.

Dumb question, but is your serpentine belt still on? A short drive wouldnt let the car overheat and it would cause the problmes your talking about...just a thought.

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