[torradan]

So she takes her Focus into the stealership this morning.. .she says its shimmying a bit when she slows down. Ok, sounds like brakes.

So, yeah, Ford says its the brakes. $325 for new pads & rotors. Told her to tell them to put it back together, and not touch anything, and I'll look at it myself.

SHE HAD THIS DONE ALMOST 2 YEARS AGO. In maybe the space of 15-16k kilometers, they're shot already?

Guessing either 1) they did a lousy job and charged her $400 for it last time she had the brakes checked, or 2) they're trying to take advantage of her because she lacks teh p3nis.

So it looks like my Saturday morning is pretty well tied up. I hope it doesn't rain.

[Flofocus]

front brakes? those should last longer than 20k. <_<

[hardk0re]

Could be she's just one of those people that comes up hot on someone and brakes at the last minute. I know when I had my focus I had all sorts of brake issues because I was real hard on them. My wife had a focus and never had any brake issues at all.

First time I ever had brake issues they quoted me something crazy for the brakes, I got ebc pads and rotors, they've been sweet. Handle my abuse much better than the stock stuff.

[torradan]

Nah she drives like an old lady.

Now *I* drive my focus hard and take it to autocross... and I'm still on my first set of pads & rotors after 23k Miles. Car was just in to have its 5k mile checkup, and they said there was no problem with my brakes. :wacko:

I should be the one having the problems.. hehe

[Focus man. Focus.]

2 years and 16K, sounds like they would get all rusty between usage. Could be wear due to under use. I would check for a stuck slider or excesive wear on one pad. Failing that the shimmy may be caused by a bad tie-rod. Just thoughts form my training and experience working at NAPA for 10 years.

[dlb]

Warped rotors ( steering wheel shaking etc ) are often times caused by the dealership or whoever way over-torquing the wheel nuts !! Just a point whenever you get your tires changed or they work on your front end and remove the tires. Remember when you get home to back off the nuts and properly torque them. In the end this will solve a lot of brake issues people have.

[hardk0re]

What solved most of my "odd issues" was doing maintenance myself. These kids they hire just don't care what they are doing sometimes.

[NefCanuck]

torradan,Nov 17 2006, 11:59 AM Wrote:Nah she drives like an old lady.

Now *I* drive my focus hard and take it to autocross... and I'm still on my first set of pads & rotors after 23k Miles.  Car was just in to have its 5k mile checkup, and they said there was no problem with my brakes.  :wacko:

I should be the one having the problems.. hehe
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Yours is an '05, is hers? Cause I know they upgraded the brakes for '05+ (Knock on wood, mine are still fine at 42,700km and my Focus was an ex-daily rental :rolleyes: ) maybe that explains it somewhat...

NefCanuck

[ANTHONYD]

I got 110k out of mine!

[Flofocus]

ANTHONYD,Nov 17 2006, 03:14 PM Wrote:I got 110k out of mine!
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80K on fronts, 117K on rears.

[Drivesthebeast]

I bought my car with 44,000 on it. It now has over 132,000 on it. I have NEVER changed ANY of the rear brakes yet, and I've only changed the front pads once, and the rotors 2x. Last time I did, they replaced a bunch of bearings on the car too, and it ended up costing me around $1200...

[torradan]

Well, got it all fixed up. Took it for a drive, and it was pretty bad, and made some horrible noises.

$130 & an hour later, had new pads & rotors on it.

Odd thing was, the pads looked pretty new. Rotors looked like, well, rotors.

Guessing the rotors were warped?

[reldridge]

Unless you have something to measure the rotors, it's hard to tell.

Actually, put them on a really flat surface. Do they lie flat, or are they up at all (gaps under the rotor)? If you put a straight edge on them, do you see any spots where the edge doesn't touch all the way across the rotor face?

Ryan

[habmann]

I got about 80k out of the stockers and 115k or so out of the rears.

On my EBC greenstuff pads and oem rotos i got about 45k. That was over the span of about 2 1/2 yrs. So i'd say getting less than 20k on oe pads and rotors isn't all that good.

[Mason]

My best advise is to take it to midas or where ever and get life time pads. Little more $ but you dont have to worry about them for a long time.
And if your wife just does normal driving in the car then this should be good.

[snorcus]

You could always go for a set of lifetime waranty pads from motorcraft for 99.95 . They are a preey good pad