Brake wear

If its the fronts and you do a lot of town driving yep its normal.

Changing brakes every 15000 miles is not normal in my experience. I sold my 2010 f150 at 86,000 miles with original brakes, still safetied.

jonsobi said:

Changing brakes every 15000 miles is not normal in my experience. I sold my 2010 f150 at 86,000 miles with original brakes, still safetied.

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Damien89 said:

If its the fronts and you do a lot of town driving yep its normal.

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Sorry, forgot to mention. It's the rears that I've had to change twice now.

Just seems a bit excessive, especially since the other two e-350 extended lengths get about 40k miles before even thinking about changing the brakes. Also, both get used more than the transit does and is running the same route as the transit.

TransitGA said:

Sorry, forgot to mention. It's the rears that I've had to change twice now.

Just seems a bit excessive, especially since the other two e-350 extended lengths get about 40k miles before even thinking about changing the brakes. Also, both get used more than the transit does and is running the same route as the transit.

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It has been suggested in another thread, that the rear brakes may wear if (we don't know for sure) they are actuated as part of the TCS, traction control system. And, your rig is the biggest, so may show more wear than others. I'm not saying 15k should be typical -- just adding possible context.

If its the rears then it is not normal.

I'm not sure how the parking brake operates on the Transit- some have a mechanism that operates the regular pads and and some have a separate set of pads or even a small drum.
I'd check to be sure the parking brake isn't hanging up or is being left on.

Another thought is some Fords in the past, not sure about the Transit, had a brake proportioning valve to direct more braking power to the rear when loaded. Normally more braking is directed to the front as more braking traction is found there, unless of course a heavy load is carried, then the proper split ratio can be change via the proportioning valve.

Is the van DRW or SRW? Again speculation on my part but the DRW may have more directed to the rear normally also.

I agree 15,000 miles for brake renewal is very low IMO, I'd be concerned about that as I've gone on 10,000 mile trips in one vacation- would be a big concern to have to swap brakes on the road.

According to my dealer it's normal for the rears on the Transit to wear faster than the fronts...it's set up for more braking power in the rear to prevent nosediving while braking. Although 15K seems questionable for pad life.

TransitGA... take a look at this link regarding Brake Force Distribution issues and premature brake wear on the Transit Connect. Seems that electronic BFD might have a similar affect on the big Transit:

http://www.brakeandfrontend.com/ele...can-cause-wear-problems-ford-transit-connect/

jonsobi: I'll check out the link, thanks.

I received a call form the dealer and they told me the brake pads themselves have a lifetime warranty. I don't know how true that is but he said whenever I need to change the brake pads to bring them in and it'll be under manufactures warranty.

15k sounds weird for rear brakes, but then I've never driven a 1 ton with a 5 foot overhang, so maybe it's in the range. That said, if it's the dealer telling you this, even though others have reported similar experiences, I'd get another opinion.

I had the same problem too.
Rear brakes were worn at around 15K miles, then again at 23K miles.
Dealer said they would change 1 free time. Ford claims I overload my van. They also changed the right rear caliper, which I believe disproves their theory.
I have an insulated refrigerated Hi roof extended dually.
We're checking brakes every oil change now. Let's see what happens.

So guys, my 18 seat bus needed new brake pads at just 8000 miles. All four corners needed replacing, the rears where more worn down than the fronts but they where all worn down.

Damien89 said:

So guys, my 18 seat bus needed new brake pads at just 8000 miles...

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Ouch. Reports do correlate to high weight hauling. I'm thinking the brakes were not built heavily enough -- likely due to weight shaving. On the positive side, at least no one has reported warped rotors! This is fresh in my mind because I've just changed out rotors on my 2002 Dodge Dakota, for the second time in a year. Consensus there, is that the rotors warp easily because they were designed too lightly, for weight shaving.

From what I have been told, the brakes, wheels & tires are the same on the 150, 250 & 350 vehicles. Ford didn't do this on the old Econoline vans or the Pick up trucks.

re: From what I have been told, the brakes, wheels & tires are the same on the 150, 250 & 350 vehicles.

Somewhere recently online I read that too, that the T150, T250 and SRW T350 shared the exact same running gear including the same size tires and brakes. I wish I could remember where I saw that? The DRW T350 running gear is different and heavier.

Greg Hayden
Vista, CA USA

The DRW T350 uses the same brake pads as the lighter Transits. The rotors of course are different because the hubs are 6 lug.
Not real confidence inspiring for a van rated for 10,360 lbs GVW to use the same brakes as the lightest T150 rated for 8600 lbs GVW.

Irony: Saw a multi car pileup on the freeway this afternoon. From what little I saw of it, the likely culprit (last in line, furthest off the road, most front end damage) was a pick up loaded with bed full of scrap brake rotors. Probably carrying too much weight to stop reliably, or maybe just had crap brakes.

alarmist said:

Irony: Saw a multi car pileup on the freeway this afternoon. From what little I saw of it, the likely culprit (last in line, furthest off the road, most front end damage) was a pick up loaded with bed full of scrap brake rotors. Probably carrying too much weight to stop reliably, or maybe just had crap brakes.

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Why does irony make me laugh? As long as no one died, I'm going to keep laughing.

alarmist said:

Irony: Saw a multi car pileup on the freeway this afternoon. From what little I saw of it, the likely culprit (last in line, furthest off the road, most front end damage) was a pick up loaded with bed full of scrap brake rotors. Probably carrying too much weight to stop reliably, or maybe just had crap brakes.

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Reminds me of how we used to joke about ABS when it was coming into the market. "You can always find the car in the junkyard that has ABS. Its the car with rear-end damage instead of front-end."