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OT That Taurus

H

Heyseed

Member
Had to replace the rear disc brakes on my daughters 2003 Ford Taurus today, all four pads were down to the metal. They were original equipment and the car only has 49K on it. Seemed pretty bad to me. Is that unusual for them or did someone drive this thing with the parking brake on. First time I have worked on a Taurus. It is a station wagon if that makes a difference. The original owners were older retired folks.
BTW I do not like the twist in caliper pistons, real pain without the special tool.
 
Many people depend on there brakes for far to much of there driving. Any body who hits the brakes for any small hill etc wears them out pretty fast
 
If the old folks were like my dad they may have used left foot for braking. I followed my dad several times and the brake light would lite up most of time meaning pads and shoes where making enough contact to wear them out.
 
Rear pads/shoes should outlast fronts by 2 to 1, or better, or that has been my experience. Were the pistons free in the calipers? It doesn't take much for them to drag. As you mentioned, the way a vehicle is driven has a bearing on the results. I have followed people who obviously used the brake pedal for a footrest as the brake lights would be burning constantly. But, then, that would cause undue wear on the front as well. My younger daughter had a Mustang that required front pads frequently, but instead of slowing down in anticipation of having to stop, she would stand the thing on it's nose when she hit the brakes. But if I remember correctly, the rear shoes lasted well over a hundred thousand. Your problem may be just one of those unusual instances. Just some thoughts.
 
While her car is not a wagon, I replaced the rear pads in my mom's Taurus a few months ago and I'm not sure if the front brakes have ever been replaced. If they have, I don't remember doing it. I had forgotten the tool that you talked about, and IIRC, I used a Channel Lock pliers to return the piston into the caliper. I think her car has something like 75K miles on it.
 
I had a customer who had replaced pads and rotors twice in less than 12,000 miles(Chevy did it once for free)I followed him down the hwy one day and the brake lights never went out.
 
I replaced the Original front pads on the Tundra at 50,000 miles. I bought Napa's best quality replacement pads; there4 is now 120,000 miles on the Tundra and the brake pads are still have 80-90% wear left.
 
Fifty thousand miles on brake pads is about right for city driving. Also, 50K is VERY LOW MILEAGE for a ten-year-old vehicle. 5K a year? I drive that much in less than two months. So it's pretty certain all those miles were short trips in town.
 
When I had my FedEx Home Delivery truck, the rear tires had to be replaced after 2 months-figured it was slipping on gravel-added a bunch of weight! Rear brakes wore out after 14 months-fronts were fine! Never could figure that one out! By the way, you don't want to know the cost of having Freightliner dealer do the brakes!
 
In 1998 my parents bought a similar Ford to a Tarus car the same year my wife bought a Toyota Corolla 1998
at around 70,000 when the engine conked it had had 3 sets of brakes and one set of rotors intalled plus numerous other work done.At 210,000 miles the Toyota has had 3 sets of brakes and 1 set of rotors only because new ones were cheaper than turning the old ones.Have installed 2 timing belts as preventive maintenance and thats it other then oil changes.I'd never buy so called Big 3 car .
 
Not to mention the guy behind them is so desensitized to seeing brake lights every time there's a strip of tar across the road, when they actually do stop he's a lot more likely to run them over.

I'd say there's an ABS issue, the rear brakes are hanging, or it's getting driven with the E-brake on.
 
I had the ft. pads and rear lineing wear out on a 78 Dodge ext van, "yoder toter" In a year. Was really po till I check out the miles, 75,000. Then I was not so po. lol. I slow down at the TOP of a hill and pull it down into 2nd gear if it's a long hill. Only Time My brake lights are on is when I"m pushing the brake pedal HARD. Not bad when I hauling 10 to 14 people. Helps if you use to drive tr, for a living.
 
Not normal for the rear. I would check the e-brake cable close. Seen quite a few that were pinched on a lift. A pair of vice grips will straighten the pinch weld and free the cable.
 
My son worked on cars for 15+ yrs. He always told me if you use your parking brake, use it every time or never use it. The reason being the screw type caliper/piston (where the screw piston applies the pads for park brake) are notorious for sticking and dragging. Newer styles have drum brakes inside the rear rotor for the parking brake which is better, but the cables can still hang up, causing dragging brakes. It may be so slight that you may not feel it, but they can drag. Consistent use helps keep things free and in working order.
Shadetree Rat is correct : fronts should wear out 2x before the rears. Small vehicles have 70% front braking, 30% rear. Their fronts are the primary stoppers; the front pads are larger. Class 7 & 8 vehicles(big trucks) have the primary braking done by the rears, where the weight is carried.
If the rears wore out 1st on your car, something is causing them to drag, and needs repaired. My son said he usually always replaced the screw pistons because of this. Poor design. Mark
 
Did you check the parking brake cables to see if they moved freely? Cables that are frozen is the most likely issue. Like someone else said, use the parking brake every time or don't use it at all.
Next would be the pistons frozen in the caliper, or at least gummed up where they don't retract properly.
I'm not familiar with the caliper set up on the Taurus. Some types of calipers or brackets get rusty and don't slide properly.
 
Some cars will wear the rears out faster than the fronts, it is not that unusual. Those rear Taurus pads are tiny, look like they belong in a motorcycle. The biggest cause of trouble in brakes is rust, especially here in the salt zone. You have to remove the rust so the pads can move freely or you will get premature wear, pulling, or warping.
 
My wife says I drive like an old man!! Only 68 years old??
Anyway, I do all my own repair work and I drive a vehicle like the brakes were going out.
When approaching a signal light that is red, I let up on gas and try to time it to make the green light when possible to do this-- SAFELY! It is difficult and unsafe to do this on a two lane road but pretty safe on uncluttered four lane.
Many cars pass me and have to apply brakes heavily to stop, and I usually just go around them at light and not having to stop.
My wife has a habit of applying brakes going down a hill and then pressing the gas to climb the next.
Wife is a very good--safe driver, just doesn't drive like I do.
 
Oh like my wife did when she first got her new to her car. She left he e-brake on and could not figure out why the brakes where acting odd. LOL She drove it far enough that the rear brakes where starting to smoke and you could smell them before you got 10 feet from it
 
I have and most of the time it is because the e-brake is not being released or it does not release as it should. Did brakes on a ford ranger this summer and found both e-brake cables where rusted up so the brakes did not release
 
I have almost 90K on my 97 Ranger with the original brakes. Put a clutch in every 20K until the last one it's a heavy duty one not from Ford it has almost 50K now and going strong.
Walt
 
Dick2,
That's incredible that you replaced pads at 50,000 and now have 120,000 miles on the replacements and have 85% left. If my math is right, that means you will get 466,667 miles out of that set of pads. Deducting the 70,000 miles you have on your current pads, you have 396,667 miles left on your current ones. That's fantastic. I only get about 10% of that.
 
As a Ford dealership tech, I can say the calipers on this car are not known for sticking. 4 things come to mind in no particular order. Somebody drove with the parking brake applied, the cables may be sticking, the caliper brackets are rusty and cause the pads to bind, or rusty rotors.
 
I did it with a powerjoke once. Needed it for work so I took my truck to the dealer to get it, started up the hill out of town, dang, this thing is gutless!!!! Don't know why but the chime finally went off and I looked at the dash and saw the brake light. DUH!

The only time you really noticed was going up a steep hill and while shifting.

The dealer set the brake when they parked it. Probably the first time since the last time it was in, since the last time it was in, since it was new.
 
I've owned 4 Taurus and ran 100K+ on everyone of them - never replaced the rear brakes on any of them. As said below there's a real good chance it was driven with the E Brake on. They are basically a good car as long as it has the AX4N transmission and it receives a reasonable amount of care.

With the run up in used car prices these things have made a comeback in value. Back in 2004 you could have bought that Taurus for just under or right at $10k, they were being dumped by fleets by the thousands every year. With only 50K miles on it its probably worth $7K today.
 
I had a 2005 Taurus with 195,000 miles before it got wrecked. Best car i ever owned and never had to change a timing belt. Doesn't Toyota have problems with rusty truck frames?
 
I have it worked out to where I can let go of the throttle into McCook, coast past the 45 sign at 50, and be at 35 at the 35 sign. Similar going west into Indianola. Often have someone riding my bumper into town, but they are usually there before I let off the throttle anyhow.

There's a lot of places that if you stay at, or 5 under, the speed limit, the lights will stay green, but if you get over the speed limit you will trigger red lights, especially in a truck. 31 from Indianapolis to Kokomo is like that, as well as 23 south of Columbus, OH. 19 in West Virginia was like that to an extent. The Summersville cops would tend to let you have a few extra MPH at the bottom of the hill as long as you kept your speed down til it was certain the lights would not change on you.
 
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