Rear inner brake pads smoked at 28k!

[fORdEGON]

Just drove our Ranger for the first time since early summer. Instantly heard the wear indicates on the rear brakes. My wife has been driving the truck occasionally this summer while I have been gone with my work truck, but not a lot of miles. I did a full inspection of the truck this spring to re check torque on all suspension components I installed before our 2k baja trip. Brake wear was even on all four corners and I greased the caliper slide pins and found no issues with compressing caliper pistons, no corrosion no torn boots nothing. So this extreme wear on the inner rear pads happened very quickly over maybe 5k miles this summer. Outer rear and front pads are all fine.

I am going to pull the calipers tomorrow and inspect everything. I can’t imagine the slider pins seized since I greased them last but will start there and then see if the pistons retract smoothly. Surprisingly rotor wear on the inside doesn’t seem that bad at first glance but I will mic the thickness and see if they are blued tomorrow.

Hopefully it’s just the slider pins and not something going haywire with the stability/traction control/abs or the proportioning from the master cylinder. Dealer is months out on to even look at it so for now I just have to go back together with new pads. Is anyone aware of a higher quality pad than OEM for the rangers yet ?

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[GitRDone]

So the inner rear pads are worn on both sides? Also, does the Ranger activate the rear pads for the e-brake or are there dedicated shoes/drums?

 

[ctechbob]

How much grease did you put on the pins? Too much is just as bad as not enough and will cause uneven pad wear.

 

[fORdEGON]

Rear Inner pads on both sides are evenly gone.

I always evenly coat the slider pins with quality high temp caliper grease. Not overpacking the boot by any means. I also always pull the boots out and check for corrosion in the bore as that can interfere with the pins sliding smoothly. After launching boats in the salt water and driving in Canada all winter with my dodge 5.9l keeping all my slider pins on all my vehicles greased is just part of my normal routine lol.

I am not not sure if the ranger has drums for the e brake like most other vehicles I’m familiar with or if it engages the disc brakes. But I am sure we don’t ever use the e brake and very highly doubt my gal was driving with it on

 

[NotBudule]

has you gas mileage taken a big hit recently? not sure how the ebrake works on the Ranger but I can't imagine it only uses the inner pad , tis odd sir...

 

[Jason B]

I pretty sure that there is no parking brake drum at the rear, so the e-brake just mechanically activates the rear brakes for parking. Check the rear brakes and ensure that the return springs are still on the e-brake cables. You may also need to inspect adjust the cables. Even though the
e-brake is not engaged, a slight pressure on the pads will cause premature wear.
Here is a link to Ranger Technical manuals:
(2) 2019 Ranger Technical Shop Manuals | 2019+ Ford Ranger and Raptor Forum (5th Generation) - Ranger5G.com

 

[JasonTremor]

Emergency brake actuates the inner rear pad first if I recall correctly. That is the way it is on my mustang anyway. Maybe verify that the ebrake lever isn't binding up or being held on slightly by the ebrake lever boot.

 

[fORdEGON]

To follow up on my rear brake issue, just completed a pad replacement and did not find an obvious cause of the extreme wear on only the inner pads.

Slider pins moved very smooth and were properly greased.

I did find some resistance initially to get the caliper pistons to start retracting. However, I was still able to wind back the pistons just by hand with the small T handle on my caliper tool so I don’t think they were seized. Although I’m used to using a large c clamp and socket to force the pistols back in on larger brakes so I don’t have a good feel for how much resistance there should be on these smaller single piston calipers.

I also inspected the e-brake and found it to engage and release all the way smoothly. I might pop the pleather boot off inside the cab and take a turn or two off the tension adjustment to see if it will take any more slack but I don’t see the inner pads dragging from any e brake related issues at this time.

so unfortunately at this point I can’t pin point an underlying cause. I may still pursue a warranty evaluation with the dealer if they ever have time depending on how the new pads wear. For now this job has the golden seal of approval!

 

[fORdEGON]

You are correct with the e brake engaging the inner pads. The system uses an integral parking brake assembly that extends the pistons via a winding motion when the parking brake lever rotates on the caliper

 

[yamahaSHO]

Seems that you're not the first... https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/inner-rear-brake-pads-burning-up.8162/

 

[D Fresh]

Your profile says you live in Oregon. Can I assume it's pretty wet there?

Is your wife used to driving a relatively torquey RWD vehicle in the rain? Is there a chance AdvanceTrac got a bit of a work out this summer?

 

[yamahaSHO]

The real problem isn't any additional braking used, but the fact that the caliper is not being pulled over to clamp the rotor evenly. Apply all the additional braking you want, but the pads should have even wear, inboard vs outboard.

 

[got3fords]

Have you fixed your mushy brakes like most of us have had to do? Probably not related, just curious.

 

[fORdEGON]

Your profile says you live in Oregon. Can I assume it's pretty wet there?

Is your wife used to driving a relatively torquey RWD vehicle in the rain? Is there a chance AdvanceTrac got a bit of a work out this summer?

Pretty dry summer in OR this year and she was just doing short trips on the freeway. I’ve wondered about the traction control or something out of balance on the proportioning but as yamahaSHO pointed out the wear should still be even between the inner and outer pads when the floating pistons are working correctly

 

[fORdEGON]

Have you fixed your mushy brakes like most of us have had to do? Probably not related, just curious.

I never found my brakes to be mushy must of been lucky in that mine seem to have been bled and set up properly

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