jacques Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I noticed some weird creaky noises from my passenger rear brake and smelled burning brake pads. So I took my 2010 Fusion Hybrid in to the dealer who said that yes, the rear brakes had been hanging up, that they are not lubed at the factory. So they're replacing the rear pads and rotors. This vehicle has 40k on it and I thought because of the regenerative braking that the brakes were really only used for braking from 5 to 0 that the brakes would last forever. Apparently I was wrong?? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I noticed some weird creaky noises from my passenger rear brake and smelled burning brake pads. So I took my 2010 Fusion Hybrid in to the dealer who said that yes, the rear brakes had been hanging up, that they are not lubed at the factory. So they're replacing the rear pads and rotors. This vehicle has 40k on it and I thought because of the regenerative braking that the brakes were really only used for braking from 5 to 0 that the brakes would last forever. Apparently I was wrong?? You've had a malfunction. Something wasn't done right at the factory. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonoreTn Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) I noticed some weird creaky noises from my passenger rear brake and smelled burning brake pads. So I took my 2010 Fusion Hybrid in to the dealer who said that yes, the rear brakes had been hanging up, that they are not lubed at the factory. So they're replacing the rear pads and rotors. This vehicle has 40k on it and I thought because of the regenerative braking that the brakes were really only used for braking from 5 to 0 that the brakes would last forever. Apparently I was wrong?? The rear brake caliper slides on sealed, lubricated polished steel pins. The lubrication will last virtually forever if maintained properly and if they are lubed initially at the brake supplier company. I'll have to look at mine and see if they are the same as the old Fusions, where the parking brake operated through the caliper piston. On many new cars with rear disc brakes, the parking brakes are small drum brake shoes on the inside of the rotor hub. I prefer to work with those, because leaving the parking brake on by accident doesn't have any impact on your disc brake caliper or pads. Furthermore if you never leave your parking brake on when driving, those little parking brake shoes will last for the life of the car. If the parking brake is built into the caliper, then if you drove with the parking brake on for several to many miles, the calipers can get hot, and drive out the lube from pin area. I am NOT saying you did that, this is just conversation regarding the brakes. It is not likely you did that, because there would be a light on the dash when the parking brake is on. Edited May 31, 2011 by VonoreTn 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I had the same issue rear brakes and rotors at 41k my dealer told me "that's what we are seeing now with new cars, rear brakes replaced twice for each front brake job". No handouts, and outright refusal to acknowledge that there may have been some sort of defect with the rear brakes. Also no explination as to why the front brakes were still at 8mm of pad left, which is exactly what the rears happen to have brand new. So the back brakes were down to metal on metal, and the fronts in their words were "practically brand new" and they continued to say that didn't seem odd to them. Ford customer service was no help either. I do mostly highway driving, and have never had to replace brakes on a car before 60K. So based on the dealers 'expert' advice, I guess the fronts should be worn out by the next time the rears are, but based on my calculations of front pad wear, the fronts will last through the next 10 rear pad replacements. Maybe by the 11th time I have to replace the rears, and am stil operating on the original front pads they might acknowledge that something might not seem right... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I had the same issue rear brakes and rotors at 41k my dealer told me "that's what we are seeing now with new cars, rear brakes replaced twice for each front brake job". No handouts, and outright refusal to acknowledge that there may have been some sort of defect with the rear brakes. Also no explination as to why the front brakes were still at 8mm of pad left, which is exactly what the rears happen to have brand new. So the back brakes were down to metal on metal, and the fronts in their words were "practically brand new" and they continued to say that didn't seem odd to them. Ford customer service was no help either. I do mostly highway driving, and have never had to replace brakes on a car before 60K. So based on the dealers 'expert' advice, I guess the fronts should be worn out by the next time the rears are, but based on my calculations of front pad wear, the fronts will last through the next 10 rear pad replacements. Maybe by the 11th time I have to replace the rears, and am stil operating on the original front pads they might acknowledge that something might not seem right... What model Fusion do you have? The hybrid should have virtually no wear until 100,000 miles. Did the dealer show you the old pads? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 2010 hybrid. I'm curious to hear from anyone else who is 40k + miles... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 2010 hybrid. I'm curious to hear from anyone else who is 40k + miles... The Advanced Vehicle Testing Facility of the government has two FFHs on accelerating usage testing currently at over 70 K and 97 K miles. See the maintenance pdf's here: http://avt.inl.gov/hev.shtml There is no mention of any mechanical brake work. Unless you have an extremely lead brake foot, hybrid's should require little brake maintenance. A taxi operator who operated Toyota Corolla's and Prius in very high mileage usage said the brakes on the Corolla's lasted 6 weeks and the Prius , 1 1/2 years in heavy duty use. Prius have had brakes inspected at 100,000 miles and found no visible wear. Either a dealer is "churning" business or something is wrong with the car, in my opinion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thats what I thought for maintenance. I saw the pads, and heard the grinding the rear brakes made under heavy braking only. I am not heavy on the brakes, and only noticed the problem when stopping to avoid a collision in front of me on the highway. I then continued to brake a few times, trying to recreate the noise, and it was only audible with a good forceful push of the pedal, which also seems in line with what I though the brakes should work like, only applying the mechanical brakes under heavy braking, which would greatly extend the life of the pads... Not mine... I just hope that if there was a defect with the calipers, whatever service the dealer just did to them when changing the rotors and pads will free them up so if they were sticking, the new pads won't prematurely wear too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacques Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have never used the ebrake, so I know that didn't cause the hangup. As I said when I started this thread, several times when getting out of the car after driving some distance, I smelled hot brakes and thought I had a caliper hanging up. There was no difference in how the brakes behaved, but I figured I'd get it checked before I had a problem. Every oil change at 10,000 miles I get the tires rotated and figured anything going on in there would be noticed. We'll see if it recurs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonoreTn Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have never used the ebrake, so I know that didn't cause the hangup. As I said when I started this thread, several times when getting out of the car after driving some distance, I smelled hot brakes and thought I had a caliper hanging up. There was no difference in how the brakes behaved, but I figured I'd get it checked before I had a problem. Every oil change at 10,000 miles I get the tires rotated and figured anything going on in there would be noticed. We'll see if it recurs. I just checked my rear break pads at 39K miles, and the pads look like they did new, over a quarter inch of thickness on the inner and outer pads. These rear brakes are the kind that integrate the mechanical parking brake into the caliper piston movement, and thus if the parking brake is left on, it will wear out the rear pads. This is unlike about half of current vehicles where the parking brake is separated from the rear disc brakes by using small brake shoes inside the rear rotor hubs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 There is an alarm if the parking brake is left on, I'm positive that is not what caused the wear. I do however use the parking brake daily. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buster1 Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 (edited) There is an alarm if the parking brake is left on. No, just a red dashboard light. Edited August 29, 2011 by Buster1 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 There is an alarm if the parking brake is left on, I'm positive that is not what caused the wear. I do however use the parking brake daily. [/quote The parking brake alarm light seems to be OK in that it is on before the first latch point in the mechanism. This is a concern, however. Many don't use the parking brake at all as the "P" transmission function has been pretty reliable. The "P" will lock the front wheels in the FFH and the parking brake the rear wheels. I now would suspect the parking brake to be the culprit in your problem. What pulls the pistons away from the discs after the brake handle is released? I think disc brake pads used to be pushed away from contact by slight eccentricities in the discs but maybe there are new mechanisms now. The failure of the piston to freely move away from the disc is the most likely cause of the excessive wear. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 What pulls the brake away when I push the pedal? Use of the parking brake daily, helps ensure the cable doesn't rust, relieves stress on the parking prawl, and cv joints, and drivetrain as a whole, which can actually prolonging the life of all drivetrain components.. I'd rathe buy pads every couple of years then replace the transmission. Most manufacturers recommend use of the parking brake whenever parking the vehicle. I'm not here argue driving habits... But the original poster with the same premature brake failure indicated he had never used the parking brake so I doubt that was the problem. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonoreTn Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 What pulls the brake away when I push the pedal? Use of the parking brake daily, helps ensure the cable doesn't rust, relieves stress on the parking prawl, and cv joints, and drivetrain as a whole, which can actually prolonging the life of all drivetrain components.. I'd rathe buy pads every couple of years then replace the transmission. Most manufacturers recommend use of the parking brake whenever parking the vehicle. I'm not here argue driving habits... But the original poster with the same premature brake failure indicated he had never used the parking brake so I doubt that was the problem. I'm not saying jacques drove with his parking brake on. I think his wife did. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdii Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Drive a Hybrid like a normal car and the rear brakes will wear like any other Fusion. The parking brake is integrated with the rear calipers. 40k sounds about right too. I had the same issue with my Sport where the left rear hung up when it got hot. Still had a lot of front pad left too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolder Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 No they won't wear like a "normal" car. An engineer told a FEH owner to put a heavy book in the passenger seat and if it didn't fall off while braking, they weren't using the pads. The FFH is even more reliant on regen braking than the FEH. At higher speeds there is a lot of regen braking available. If you roar up to a stop and use a lot of braking at the end and low speed, you will use the pads and maybe you don't want a hybrid. Brakes can have a malfunction and drag and people can leave the parking brake on. Numerous people have measured hybrid pads at 100,000 miles and found lots of life left in them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfruth Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I've never needed brakes at 40 K & don't plan to start now 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdii Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 No they won't wear like a "normal" car. An engineer told a FEH owner to put a heavy book in the passenger seat and if it didn't fall off while braking, they weren't using the pads. The FFH is even more reliant on regen braking than the FEH. At higher speeds there is a lot of regen braking available. If you roar up to a stop and use a lot of braking at the end and low speed, you will use the pads and maybe you don't want a hybrid. Brakes can have a malfunction and drag and people can leave the parking brake on. Numerous people have measured hybrid pads at 100,000 miles and found lots of life left in them. Drive a Hybrid like a normal car and the rear brakes will wear like any other Fusion Miss that part? If you press hard on the brakes it will bypass the regen and go right to hydrualics. If you are a driver who coasts to a light and then hits the brakes to slow or stop, you can wear the pads sooner in the Hybrid. Not everyone who owns a Hybrid, drives it like a hybrid. I have had two Toyota Hybrids and know full well how easy it is to go from regen to hydrualics when stopping. I have seen Hybrid owners wait till the very last moment to step on the brakes when coming to a stop light. The brakes on my Fusion Sport needed replacing at 40k, more on the rear than the front, I could have easily gone another 10K on the front, but the rears were done at 40k. It is not unusual to replace pads at 40k on any car, but on a properly driven Hybrid they should last a lot longer than that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctpb Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 My whole concern was the drastic uneven wear. In the dealers own words, the fronts were like 'brand new' measuring less than 8% wear, and the rears down to metal.... Then they tell me that seems normal to them? We see it all the time with new cars, replace the rear pads twice for every front brake job.... Well according to my calculations, I'd be replacing the rears 10 times for every front job, how is that 'normal'. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdii Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 My whole concern was the drastic uneven wear. In the dealers own words, the fronts were like 'brand new' measuring less than 8% wear, and the rears down to metal.... Then they tell me that seems normal to them? We see it all the time with new cars, replace the rear pads twice for every front brake job.... Well according to my calculations, I'd be replacing the rears 10 times for every front job, how is that 'normal'. I dont think it's normal on your car though, My Sport, which was just replaced 2 days ago with a Hybrid, needed new pads all around at 37K. One rear caliper hung a bit causing faster than normal wear on one side, but the other 3 wheels wore normally, but still were due to be replaced. 40k is about right for pads on a normal car, short for a Hybrid though. The rear calipers integrate the parking brake in them, and if the cable is too tight it can force the pads against the rotors and cause them to wear quickly, but you would notice that in both performance and fuel economy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdii Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Well, now that I have driven the FFH for a while I can say that previous posts regarding the brakes not getting a lot of use is dead on in THIS car. I find the Fusion Hybrid uses regen a LOT more than either the Prius or Camry ever did. I found that the actual brakes only start getting used when almost stopped, or if I hit them really hard. SO as others said, yep y'all have a problem with those rear brakes if they wore out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKZ 2011 Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 Pads and rotors replaced at 10,000 We complained of squeaky brakes on our MKZ Hybrid at 5000 miles but the dealer said it wasn't repeatable. Took it back again at 10000 and they deglazed them but said it was out of warrenty, then back again in a few weeks when they replaced the pads and rotors. They initially charged us for this but after complaining they ended up giving us a complete refund for all work after we answered a survey from Ford and explained the events. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogo88 Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 Pads and rotors replaced at 10,000 We complained of squeaky brakes on our MKZ Hybrid at 5000 miles but the dealer said it wasn't repeatable. Took it back again at 10000 and they deglazed them but said it was out of warrenty, then back again in a few weeks when they replaced the pads and rotors. They initially charged us for this but after complaining they ended up giving us a complete refund for all work after we answered a survey from Ford and explained the events. Am I missing something here? All new fords come with a 3yr/36k mile bumper to bumper warranty. Sounds like the dealer is trying to slip one past you. Good you complained. I'd be looking for a new dealer. Dan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfruth Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 Most new car warranties exclude 'normal wear' items like brakes, batteries, wiper blades etc ... but a brake job at 10 K miles, clearly something was wrong, Ford needed to step up (as they did) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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