just looked at discs for mine and spotted they also have vented rear discs at £100 each. Clicked more details and it says “Special usage for armoured vehicles” – cool!

Fronts are not too bad, £90 before the usual ECP discount to bring it down to the same price as others (about £55-60 each). Looks like ATE are OEM for merc. Worth finding out who Ford use..and then avoid them by the looks of it!

Set of front pads in a lightly loaded / driven van would probably manage at least 40 thousand miles. Discs probably double that.

To date my car’s done a bit over 50k, rear discs and pads had to be replaced (less heat in them, rust more of a problem, although I think the pads were quite worn). The front discs and pads are originals. I drive quite hard, and it used to get used around town all the time by the ex.

I don’t think the front discs have much life in them, they were showing some signs of being a bit warped when hot (descending steep things in the Lake District) a few months back, but still it’s quite possible the OP’s were not very worn after 30k miles, and they don’t look badly worn from what you can see on the pics.

10k is crap, but believable if you have salty roads etc. to deal with and it ends up sat around a lot of the time.

3 sets of pads is normal is it not? set of pads every 10 000 miles is not unreasonable is it?

3 sets of pads sounds about right. 10k to a set does not!

Think I’ve got easily 30k out my Mondeo on a set of pads, perhaps more, I’ll need to check. If I’ve not changed them then it’s over 40k. If your pads are wearing out that fast you either need to improve your driving technique or something is wearing them out fast (my back ones are just about down to the metal on one side of each pair after one handbrake cable outer popped and the other caliper jammed closed).

Need to measure the discs and see if they need done as well, was thinking Bosch would be a good bet.

Seemingly Ford OE parts are ATE[/URL] or else Bosch if original caliper. Also worth noting that only applies to original spec equipment and not Motorcrap which dealers have been known to sell as OE. Motorcraft IS a Ford brand but basically a farmed out product to be used on older models to keep costs down. If you can sell it as Ford then margins are higher.

Surely not all vehicles load the discs equally? A lightweight one will keep them good for longer, also driving style, like engine braking…

Gofastripes is right. My SMax went through rear pads and disks quicker than fronts. the fronts were massive vented disks, the rears were not vented and obviously much smaller but clearly the relative sizing of the systems meant they were not loaded up relative to the duty they were put under. But the rears were much cheaper.

Modern cars eat through disks much quicker…in the good old days of asbestos pads you got through two or three sets of pads for each disk, but now with modern metallic sintered pads the wear rate of pad vs. disk is much more even so not is basically 1:1. Also disks are not cast iron, they’re cast steel.

“engine braking”

Are you from the 1950″s? no need for engine braking now. Engine is for making you go, brakes for making you stop. Engine braking  was from the days that pre-dated power assisted brakes where you were more concerned with preserving your braking leg, also when brake fluid was crap so brake fade was a consideration…no need to worry about brake fade with modern day brakes. Cars are so over-braked compared to the 1950’s. Also they had cross-ply tyres which squirmed under heavy braking so engine braking prevented that, but with modern tyres they’re easily capable of taking the loads modern cars and brakes can throw at them without getting all out of shape and un-supportive. With modern day brakes there is no need for engine braking. Brakes are cheaper than engines so why push more duty onto your engine instead of your brakes?

With a high revving petrol engine and driving on large roads with big intersections I find myself engine braking sometimes, mostly as a way of being in the right gear to accelerate again 🙂

Evening all,

Thanks for all the thoughts. I have now been able to inspect the discs and I am not surprised that one of them failed, the ribs connecting the two braking services are really badly corroded.

The front RH disc failed and similar cracks are visible on the front LH disc.

While I can sort of understand the corrosion my main concern remains that the van was serviced and MOT’d in June and handed back to me with no comments or advisories. I even paid for a brake clean in addition to the service….

I will be contacting Ford directly to discuss further now that I understand the failure mode.

Drive safe out there guys and girls!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/164739786@N06/31163237278/in/dateposted-public/

Nasty, though I’m not sure how this would be spotted on an MOT unless there were visible signs of the cracking on the outside of the disk….they’re not going to crack test the brake discs.

Also what’s I involved in a brake clean and why would you think it was necessary? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Is it something you have had done before or regularly? i.e. a potential cause of the corrosion?

Good luck with Ford, though I don’t hold out much hope of them taking any interest…they’ll blame it on the brake disk manufacturer. I got no truck with them when the sidewall of my tyre split on a brand new car less than 6 months old where it was obviously not cut with a knife or done maliciously.

I even paid for a brake clean in addition to the service….

I’d be asking what was sprayed into the brakes.

I’m assuming a “brake clean” was just getting the pistons moving properly if a caliper was sticky

Hmmm, that can’t have corroded all the way through each fin simultaneously? Do you have a new disk to compare it to, do all the fins connect the two sides together ? Just trying to figure it out, but it looks like the two sides of the disk must have been detached for some time otherwise there’d be a clean-ish surface where the two halves separated?

And +1 for what’s a brake clean when you’re paying for it?

Isn’t a brake clean a squirt of WD40 on the rubber gators holding the pistons in? Just so they don’t squeak?

TBH the rear discs on my roadster look a bit rusty too, I have been thinking about replacing all discs and pads.. Myself 🤣💪

BH the rear discs on my roadster look a bit rusty too, I have been thinking about replacing all discs and pads.. Myself

There’s actually the same number of bolts on my Focus than there is on a mountain bike.

Bike:

Axle

6x rotor

Car:

5x wheel

2x calliper

How much of a faff the job is depend whether the disk sit in front of or behind the hub (or I think on some french cars the disk and hub are one unit!).

Yeah mine sit on the outside (I’ve changed the pads before) just wondering how much “haaarumph” I’m going to need to get the bolts undone 🤷‍♂️

Also, got to swing the callipers out of the way too .. but I’ve done that recently when I cleaned the surface and rubbers and pistons before putting the pads in.

That was easy.

I can’t ever remember a disc splitting in all the time I’ve been driving, and looking on the surface the OPs discs do look rather rusty for a recent aged vehicle.

Sure your van age is correct 🤣??

Its only the wheel nuts (and a tiny set screw) that hold the disk on to the hub with most fords (and many other cars as well) so if you’ve managed to get the wheel off you are 90% of the way there.

Are you from the 1950″s? no need for engine braking now. Engine is for making you go, brakes for making you stop. Engine braking was from the days that pre-dated power assisted brakes where you were more concerned with preserving your braking leg, also when brake fluid was crap so brake fade was a consideration…no need to worry about brake fade with modern day brakes. Cars are so over-braked compared to the 1950’s. Also they had cross-ply tyres which squirmed under heavy braking so engine braking prevented that, but with modern tyres they’re easily capable of taking the loads modern cars and brakes can throw at them without getting all out of shape and un-supportive. With modern day brakes there is no need for engine braking. Brakes are cheaper than engines so why push more duty onto your engine instead of your brakes?

Thats a great technique for burning through fuel, engine braking means more economy. Not sure how you figure it’s going to wear though, it’s getting the same lubrication regardless. Driving instructors seem to disagree with you as well.

Its only the wheel nuts (and a tiny set screw) that hold the disk on to the hub with most fords (and many other cars as well) so if you’ve managed to get the wheel off you are 90% of the way there.

Yeah… Then you’ve got to get the bloody things off because the last person didn’t understand what torque settings are for, reset the calipers (provided they’re not seized), potentially replace a nipple (because that was rounded), adjust the handbrake (my Mondeo helpfully has the adjuster under the heat shield above the exhaust centre section tunnel) and finally bleed the damn things (because yes, one was seized and needed replaced).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a difficult job but it’s a pain in the arse to get done if things start holding it up, took me the better part of 2 days arsing about to get it done but was my first time doing a change since I was helped about 8 years ago. A pad change turned into pads and discs and then a nipple and then a whole new caliper. So about £190 all in for the actual bits. Then a rewind tool (possible to do without), hose clamp, disc cleaner (for the factory oil finish), high temp grease for the pins (for the love of god don’t use copperslip! The Pagid stuff is good) and fluid. So that was another £65ish. Oh, and you’ll want a torque wrench, properly torqued bolts make a world of difference when you come to take them off.

I never bothered with the set screw. To be fair the person that last replaced them clearly never either. They’re just useful for holding the disc when building up, it does nothing otherwise.

Screws? You mean those countersunk screws are all that hold discs to the hub? 😳

I did wonder what they were when I took the wheels off.. so that’s made the whole process even easier then.

Mind.. £240 for a set of front discs and £90 for the rears 🤣 Quite why the difference when the rears are the vented types like the fronts, only smaller..

Awesome, thanks for that nugget on info chaps 👍

for the love of god don’t use copperslip! The Pagid stuff is good

It might not be copperslip, but EBC disk/pad kits come with a sachet of what looks like copperlsip.

But some people then say copperslip doesn’t work with ABS (but have no justification for that). And the ceratec grease should be used instead.

In the end I gave up, the sliders still had some grease on them and the pistons moved freely so I didn’t add anything.

Torque settings:

Wheelnuts “1 grunt” tight with a socket wrench

Caliper bolts same with a 7mm allen key.