Bad Stopping Power

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David Tan

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Feb 1, 2006
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Hi Guys,



Just got the front end of my ST totalled when a guy spun out of control in the snow and went into my lane. I need to change hood, lights & fenders..



One of the things that got me ever since I got this car was the bad stopping power. Is there any way to aid this. I was thinking of changing tires. I still have the Original Wranglers on it. Any help appreciated....
 
Invest in some good brake pads. I prefer Performance Friction Carbon Metallic pads. You can get them at Autozone.



You also need to check your slides for the calipers. They can bind up causing only one pad to apply pressure. Check the calipers too. Make sure they are functioning.



What year is your Trac. Mine is a 2002. It came with rear drums, but I have since converted them to disks. Noticed better braking.



FWIW, the Trac had better brakes in 2001 then Toyota, Nissan, Dodge, and Chevrolet. It would stop much shorter then those cars. It wasn't until the ones I listed upgraded the current model.





Tom
 
Mine is an 01 4X4,



What has always bothered me is that the car would go from a slow down mode (not enough stopping power) to complete lock up ( or abs lock up )...



My feel is that there is not enough stopping power...

I will try the pads....should i change tires..



I contribute the recent acciddent to this factor...Even though it was the others guys fault. I believe that the car could have stopped sooner
 
You can up-grade to the 04 front brake pads. They are larger and will fit from what others have said. I had such a problem with mine that Ford bought me Experimental Brakes on my 02. End result, they gave me $7000.00 to stop a court case as well as life time brakes, front and rear with new hardware as well. The experimental brakes are now the standard 04 brakes...
 
Two questions:



Caymen:



Was the Disc Brake converision difficult? Is it an aftermarket coversion, or did you use the OEM equipment form the newer tracs?



Coastiejoe: Are the "experimental" brakes much bigger than the ones on my '01 trac? Can this conversion be done with just new rotors/pads and caliper brackets, or is there more to it?



Thanks, :D



Matt
 
The 04 pads will fit right on your exixting hardware. I have heard of one case where a member had to grind off a tab off the new pads.



The 04 pads are simply larger and have a different material in them according Ford.



If I had to guess I would say the surface of the pads are 25 percent larger.
 
re surface the rotors and install new pads, lube slides properly, lube the anti squeal shim also, the pad rides on this, And adjust the rear drums relay good .... If the rears are low, it will take time for them to grab, then send pressure to the fronts, delaying the stopping time and power......

Todd Z
 
I just recently changed my front to ceramic pads. Less brake dust and a huge difference in stopping power. There about $45 at autozone. I couldn't believe the difference.
 
Dave,

If I had your 2001 Sport Trac I would look at doing a major brake job on both the front and rears especially if you bought it used, since you don't know what the previous owner did or didn't do. That would include rebuilt calipers, and a carefull check of all brake hardware including the hoses.



Also, do a brake fluid flush as part of the overall brake job. Brake fluid attracts moisture and that water coverts to steam causing spongy pedal, poor braking action and deteriorate brake componenets like the calipers and wheel cylinders/



The 2001 Sport Trac's were given excellent ratings on their brakes, however many people have experience a lot of problems early on. I had a 2001 and the brakes performed very well for the 42K miles I owned it. I now have a 2003 Sport Trac and the rear-disk brakes make a very noticable improvement over the rear drum system used on the earlier models.



Rich
 
I changed mine last summer to Akebono ceramic. Man what a difference. Just look at the difference between the oem pads and the new ones and you can see why.

Dont turn the rotors unless you need to. Mine were fine.



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Roger,

That is not true. If your rotors do not have any scratches or grooves deeper than the thickness of a business card, then you do not need to turn the rotors. That's assuming you have no other brake problems except for normal pad wear.



The real problem is that today's disc brakes systems have gotten more sophisticated and require more precise tollerances to work well with the other components. Just replacing pads on some vehicles does not always give satisfactory results and many manufacturers recommend to always turn the rotors when replacing the pads.



I personally prefer to have a light clean =-up cut done on the rotors even if it's not deep enough to remove all the grooves. I also like to have the surfaces Blanchard ground so they have a non-directional finish which helps the new pads seat properly. By taking a light cut, you can get a lot more use from those rotors, perhaps 4 or 5 light turnings before they become to thin. I also prefer to install rebuilt calipers and flush the fluid with every brake job. That's just me, but then I always get 45K-50K miles to a set of brake pads and have not experienced any premature brake problems.



...Rich
 

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