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Hi everyone

I've replaced 4 sets of disks over the last couple of years, on two civics and now a Ford Flex. I know this isn't the place to ask about fords but I'm used to here and probably the question isn't car-specific anyway.

The brakes have been pulsating for a while, and it got worse and worse. Eventually I took the front disks off and found they were completely destroyed, to the point that one the pads looked like a triangle.

I didn't make photos of that but it turns out the rear disks were almost as bad. And this is what they looked like:



You have got to be kidding me, how is this even possible? The car is driven nearly daily, it's 4 years old, and (supposedly) the dealer replaced the rear brakes (pads and disks) two years ago.

Do you figure it was crappy disks? Crappy pads? Something else?

We have lots of salt on the road here in Toronto but like I said I've replaced plenty of other disks and have never seen anything remotely like this before.

Hopefully after this my wife will never again trust the dealer more than me when it comes to fixing the car

 
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loose pads, wearing down first either the top, then the bottom, and then only the center of the pads were left?

very odd...

 
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It's just rust, rust is hell on brakes.
It's hard to get high quality rotors from any parts store, everything is made in China.

The rust worm never sleeps. Once it starts, it's hard as hell to stop it.

Once rust gets under a layer enough to lift the surface, the pad gets worn off there and the rust is free to keep creeping along. It's a never ending cycle. And the rust can cause some damn deep pitting, sometimes too deep to machine it out of the surface without going below minimum spec..

 
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Looks like rusty east coast brakes that sat for a while until they got pitted. I recommend replacement.

Drive the car more often, don't let it sit for so long.

 
Rep Power: 366

Holy cow...

True that the rust is harder than steel. Mamma Mia!

 
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He said it is driven daily.

Dealer should have used Ford rotors. Though lots of Ford parts are made in China. Everyone seems to be doing it.

The salt is really bad for cars. Do you wash the salt off when you can? If you can? I would imagine it snows a lot in Canada and could be difficult to get time where there is no salt.

 
Rep Power: 207

There I fixed it for you. It still must have sat for a little while to look like that. 2 years is a lot of opportunity to let it sit and rust for a month.

 
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Cool, thanks guys, I guess it's just rust, though I still don't understand why it's just this one car. Maybe these disks are from a particularly bad part of china

How would a pad come loose? I'm having trouble imagining it.

I think about it sometimes but I never do it. The closest I get is take the cars to the car wash after the winter, but I don't even know if that does anything. Do you know of a good way to do it?

I wonder if the ford pads are poorly designed, and collect salt on the parts that lift away from the rotors, and then keep letting bits in the rotor every time you brake?

That's the closest idea I thought of that may explain this. I always thought the pads clean the disk every time you apply them. So even though the disks aren't stainless - they essentially get polished every time you drive.

 
Rep Power: 517

I got an 08 van at work right now that needs a pair of rear rotors along with the brake job, but they declined to do the work.

Much like your pics in the first post, these rotors have about a half inch wide strip on the inboard side that looks somewhat smooth and ok, the rest of the inboard side is all rust.
Experience says it's safer for me to replace than machine them as the rust is deep and probably won't turn out clean.
Van has only 42k on it, original pads and rotors.