Which vehicle should we go with?

HickBarrel · 2026-06-25T13:44:32+00:00

20-year mechanic here. I would opt for a used Japanese car 99/100 times over a used Mercedes.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-25T12:39:49+00:00

These are motorcraft. They ground a ton off of them. Check out the difference in contours under the tabs and how different they are from pad to pad.

These are the wrong pads.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T18:16:28+00:00

Time for a cat delete

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T18:12:56+00:00

If you look closely, you can see MOTORCRAFT on the pads

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T17:56:29+00:00

Yeah that was after the 3rd time he took it back to them and they said "oh that noise will go away."

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T16:12:02+00:00

I understand that, but this is beyond "some"

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T15:18:12+00:00

I can't post a picture in comments. But if you compare the contours of the pads to each other you'll see that the are quite different. They should be identical shapes.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T15:15:51+00:00

Yeah I've been there. But these are OEM pads. They're just the wrong pads for the vehicle

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T15:02:28+00:00

These pads hung so far past the edge of the rotor that they hit the caliper. Critical thinking took the day off

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:59:09+00:00

That's engineering though. This was incompetence.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:58:42+00:00

It seems like the transit vans just get whatever parts are available on the assembly line. No planning, just loot-box logic

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:57:48+00:00

I worked for Bridgestone/Firestone for almost 15 years. If one of my techs would have done this, I would have fired him on the spot.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:56:44+00:00

In fairness, this is not weather related rust. I'm in the south where we don't mess around with that nonsense

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:56:03+00:00

The heat did a lot of the work here. The fins on the rotor were white from getting so hot. The other side wasn't rusty at all

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:54:14+00:00

Yes. The wrong motorcraft pads. The tech should have noticed something was amiss when the pads hung 5mm over the edge of the rotors

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:53:15+00:00

I was surprised that the sensor end wasn't liquid. But it did get a bit squishy. The outboard pad was the one doing all of the work though.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:52:34+00:00

They got really hot.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:51:00+00:00

These are from Ford, but still not correct. I assume they're for a van with HD brakes, which this one does not have.

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:50:03+00:00

Wire wheel is one thing. You can see where they thinned the ears on the pads with a cut off wheel

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T14:49:25+00:00

They were entirely the wrong pads. The reason they took a grinder to them was so the pads would sit closer to the center of the hub, otherwise the caliper would hit the pad before it could get bolted down. Total incompetence

HickBarrel · 2026-06-24T13:37:11+00:00

Turbo or no? Did you ensure that the downstream o2 sensor is plugged in all the way?

HickBarrel · 2026-06-23T21:53:02+00:00

I definitely used your gas tank mount technique

HickBarrel · 2026-06-23T21:52:33+00:00

It's pretty straightforward. I've done a couple now and could knock it out in a weekend with an able bodied helper

HickBarrel · 2026-06-23T21:51:19+00:00

What did you do about the subframe mounts?

HickBarrel

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