shumax Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Our 2007 AWD with 115,000 miles starting making a rotational grinding noise when coming to a stop. I looked and the inside of the drivers front rotor is scored rather badly. Plenty of meat left on the pads, to my surprise. I'm on OEM brakes in the front, so I ordered new OEM Motorcraft rotors and pads for the front. Hey, if the OEM set went 115,000 miles, I think I will replace with the same thing. $200 later, they arrive at my front door from Rock Auto. I unpackage the rotors thinking I would see shiny rotor surfaces. Nope. They are entirely grey. Think primer gray. Is that the new "normal?" Please tell me I don't need to have these "turned" a bit to get the primer off? I am hoping the new OEM pads will grind through that and allow the shiny mating surface of the rotor to come through. It's been a while since I replaced pads/rotors, so I was taken back by the primer color of the rotor surface where the pads would "hit." Is that normal now? I am installing everything tomorrow at noon. Look forward to some input. Thanks, Shumax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autom8r Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Shumax: It's normal. They put the primer on to keep the rotors from rusting in the warehouse, shiny is one thing, rusted and pitted is something else. Wipe the rotors with brake cleaner before you install them on the car. This will get rid of most of the primer. Bedding the pads will burn off the rest. Have fun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma-2 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 (edited) Bedding the pads will burn off the rest. Is "bedding the pads" the same as "burnishing"? (A few hard stops from 45 mph?) Edited February 17, 2016 by enigma-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbwt Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 You don't even need to clean them just install them the remaining coating is zinc and will help prevent them from rusting on unused sections. Pretty common now. Mine were coated black and the instructions said just install and drive. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 If the products need a specific bedding procedure (i.e., mating the pad to the rotor properly), the instructions are usually included. Otherwise, a few hard stops as enigma mentioned should work well enough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autom8r Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Is "bedding the pads" the same as "burnishing"? (A few hard stops from 45 mph?) I am unfamiliar with "burnishing". I "bed in the pads" by stopping the car from 10 mph and then from 20 mph and then from 30 mph, 40 mph and finally from 50 miles per hour stopping in as short a distance as possible without locking the brakes. Others may do it differently. I borrowed this procedure from a BMW independent mechanic. Here is what TireRack says. Evidently, manufacturers of the brake pads differ on the procedure. http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishx65 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 115,000 on the original brakes sounds amazing. Did you just steer around everything and never use the brake pedal??? Factory brakes are still kickin on my 2011 but I'm gonna change them out in the spring even if they still have a decent amount of pad left. Road salt does bad things to brakes but I'm hoping to get away with just pads and rotors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shumax Posted February 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 Thanks for the help, everyone. I put everything on today and it went smoothly. After flushing the brake fluid, too, the pedal feel is more firm and there is far less travel. Stops well and no noises or odd vibrations. Very happy with it. 115,000 on original brakes is amazing! My wife drives the car and is very easy on it. I'm not sure it's been above 4k RPM before! The rear brakes were replaced at 65k and I suspect they will need it again before long. We paid the stealership to do it then; I will try it myself this time. Are there any good tutorials out there on the rear pad/rotor replacement procedure? As it is, when she backs out of the garage in the morning, the rear brakes HOWL like a cat with it's tail cut off. It's horrible. Not a squeak, but a loud howl. Thanks again, all!Shumax 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbwt Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 shumax, Unfortunately I only installed one set of brake pads and rotors on my Orange Crush 2008 Ford Edge. The first set on the front went 175,000 miles and the rears went for 225,000 miles. This was before I started making video's. Anyway as far as the rear brake noise you can install these low frequency noise dampeners on your 2007?2008? forget which you said you had. I do know the rear brakes are more conventional in the 2007-2010 model then in 2011 they integrated the emergency brake into the caliper. Just click on this video and then go to my channel and you will find about 80 plus Ford Edge repair videos with a strut video being made this weekend. Thanks for the help, everyone. I put everything on today and it went smoothly. After flushing the brake fluid, too, the pedal feel is more firm and there is far less travel. Stops well and no noises or odd vibrations. Very happy with it. 115,000 on original brakes is amazing! My wife drives the car and is very easy on it. I'm not sure it's been above 4k RPM before! The rear brakes were replaced at 65k and I suspect they will need it again before long. We paid the stealership to do it then; I will try it myself this time. Are there any good tutorials out there on the rear pad/rotor replacement procedure? As it is, when she backs out of the garage in the morning, the rear brakes HOWL like a cat with it's tail cut off. It's horrible. Not a squeak, but a loud howl. Thanks again, all!Shumax 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishx65 Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Did you guys notice any strange wear on your front pads when you changed them? I just did mine today and the inside pads on the fronts were almost gone but the outsides were OK. The drivers side outer pad looked brand new. Thought it was kinda strange because nothing was seized when I disassembled them and the pistons went in just fine. I ended up having the rear rotors turned but went with new ones up front. Mac, thanks again for the info on how to remove the rear sound dampeners cuz it probably saved me some stripped bolts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbwt Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Grease the ears on the brake pads good along with the sliders. Mine are wearing fine with over 40K on them and actually look nearly new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishx65 Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Grease the ears on the brake pads good along with the sliders. Mine are wearing fine with over 40K on them and actually look nearly new. I put a film of caliper grease on the slides and ears because it's the way I've always done it. I almost wonder if greasing the slides is a good idea because of the sand and dirt attraction factor. It wouldn't take much time to clean them up once per year so I'll probably just make that my game plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWWPerfA_ZN0W Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Greasing the slides really isn't optional in the salt belt IMHO. Better to have to clean them routinely than to have them rust & stick & ruin your pads/rotors+ ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishx65 Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 Not sure why but my Edge now sounds like a 747 coming to a stop after the new brake job. I used Wagner Thermos all around and Wearever rotors up front. Not a huge deal but I've always used Thermos and never heard brakes sound like this before. I can only hear it just as I'm coming to a complete stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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