Highest mileage transits

86,000 miles and it's time for rear brakes. With the amount of highway mileage this does, I'm a bit surprised. Our price at NAPA for the Ultra Premium, Severe Duty pads was $.30 less than the dealer, but, NAPA doesn't have them in stock so they would have to be shipped in with freight. At Ford, they are on backorder but for a nominal fee of $10, they can expedite them. Still a better deal.

NAPA didn't even list the rotors and because of the design, I doubt they can turn them for less than the $47 ea. I'll pay at Ford. Of course the rotors are next day available but not the pads. That doesn't make sense, but it is what it is.

I'll take the used rotors down to the machine shop and see exactly what it would take to turn them. If it's reasonable, I may just have them do it and stick them on the shelf for next time which will probably be late next Summer.

Moral of this story is really keep an eye on those pads so you hopefully never have to buy a rotor.
As for high rear brake wear- Ford supposedly has done some kind of weird brake sequencing where the rear brakes are the primary stopping mechanism on the Transit- when the computer senses they are nearing lockup then the computer applies more front brakes...something about improving vehicle stability and reducing front end dive.
Every other vehicle I've ever owned wears out front pads at 3-4X the rate of the rear pads.
So since the Transit uses the rear brakes more- lets put the smaller rotors on that end just like we did when the front did most of the braking...



BTW my 96 F350 front disks require the 4x4 locking hubs and all the bearings etc to come off to get the rotor off, which is inboard of the hub, instead of on the outer side like most.

alarmist said:

Yes. Easy though. You mark it so it gets put back the way it came out, then pull the five bolts which also hold the rotor. duallies are slightly different, with additional bolts holding the rotor. You also get to buy all new bolts.

Click to expand...

For a part that is subject to routine maintenance, that has got to be one of the biggest bonehead designs that I'm familiar with.

It must be designed that way to retain the rotors on the axle assembly in shipment (in transit? ) from the vendor to the assembly plant.

How does it just "come right out"? No slide hammer required? I'm guessing that the axle bearings are in the part that the outer flange bolts to? Almost like a "full floater" axle design?

In my experience, once a set of pads is worn out, there isn't enough material left on the rotor to last through another set of pads.

I would guess that the axle seals would need to be replaced too, unless the outer flange is a gasket surface.

And people think that brake jobs on the Sprinter are expensive... at least the rotor comes off without pulling the axle

Sprinters are easy.

As to the rotors being worn out with one set of pads, sometimes that is true. Sometimes because the rotors are thin and cheap, sometimes, because the pads are so hard. But most times, they can be turned. I do a couple of brake jobs a month so I get a pretty good idea.

Why the rears first? I'm sure Budsky has it right. VW does the same thing, but it's not as dramatic on my Jetta which the fronts had maybe 10,000 more miles on them than the rears. I know that with VW, under light braking, most of the braking is at the rear, but when you really need it, the bias shifts to the front. Assuming that this is the same on the Transit, our drivers are pretty careful drivers - especially with passengers - so most of the braking will be light braking. The fronts on our Transit have at least 1/2 if not 3/4 life left. And since the fronts are more important under heavy braking, I can understand why it would be important to have the bigger brakes on the front. When you need them RIGHT F'N NOW, the front will do most of the work so you want the big ones up there. Under most driving conditions, the rears will do just fine. Even with seals and bolts, I'll still only be into it for about $200.

I went out and measured the axle flange and measured the inner part of the brake rotor and sure, enough, the axle has to come out. So there is one O-ring sealing the flange. Poop those flange bolts out and it'll come right out since it's a full floating axle. Alarmist, which bolts are you saying that I will need. Nevermind... I just realized that I have the repair manual available to me through the county Library. It shows that I will need the caliper retaining bolts as well as the rotor bolts.