FYI Check your brakes!!!

[skyhawk1]

I posted this in the 2008 - 2009 Super Duty general questions of another forum yesterday. I thought it was important enough to be shared with everyone with a 2008.

I had 4 new tires put on this past Tuesday and noticed that my brake pads were getting close to being finished so I decided to go ahead and put new pads on on Wednesday. I started with the driver side front and before I took off the wheel and tire I tried to give it a spin. It took both hands and a good strong grunt to get it to turn! Turns out the inside pad was stuck solid. I got everything cleaned up and put back together and put a little anti-sieze on the ends of the pads. Went to the front pass. side next and exactly the same thing! I then proceeded to the pass. side rear and again exactly the same as the front. Finally moved over to the drivers side rear expecting the same but turns out worse! The pad on the inside was totally decinagrated! It fell out in chunks. Then the bad part, one of the pistons on the caliper wouldn't colapse so I ended up driving over an hour to a Ford dealer to get a new one (none of the local parts places had it). I have 42,000 miles on my 08 and I never expected the brakes to be this bad.

I would suggest checking your brakes, no matter how many miles you got.

I really believe this is where my 4 or 5 mpg's went. I've been driving around for who knows how long with all 4 brakes holding!
I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach Monday, can't wait to see how much my mileage improves (last fill up hand calculated 10.7).

 

[hdjeff]

just wondering, are these the same style as previous superduty trucks? Caliper mounted to mounting bracket with 2 bolts, the mounting bracket has the sliders on the back side of rotor and they always seized and are damn near impossible to break free?

 

[skyhawk1]

Jeff, not sure about your question (I never changed any brake pads on other model SD's) but mine were stuck at the top and bottom ears of the brake pad. There's a little metal clip on each of the ears and they just slide into the slots (about an inch wide) of the mounting bracket. Mine are working properly now though. I made the trip to Myrtle Beach and back and averaged around 16 MPG hand calculated. I'm am definately going to keep a check on the brakes from now on.

 

[MURR3061]

wow 42000 miles. do you do a lot of towing or around town driving? i though they were supposed to last a lot longer than that. especially to be disintegrated!

 

[skyhawk1]

Never towed or hauled anything heavy. The inside pads were stuck (wouldn't slide) so I guess they got really hot. All is well now though. Truck rolls freely now and I'm averaging 14.5 to 15.5 MPG around town and 18-19 MPG highway.