Truck Breaks
 

I'm not much of an automotive mechanic so I need help. I just took my 2005 Excursion to the dealer to have the vehicle serviced. Well when they took the tires off to rotate them they also inspected the breaks. They determined that the rotors needed to be turned as well as new pad's. The vehicle has only 37K on it and the pads I "could" understand but needing the rotors turned kind of baffles me. My question is could pulling a boat trailer with surge breaks cause this premature wear?

Can't help with the brake question but I assume the weight of both a heavy truck AND trailer could cause the brakes to wear more quickly (We only get 30K out of the fronts on our Suburban). What I think is more important is for you to find a service shop you can trust, I did and now I don't sweat what they tell me I need.

had to have my front rotors turned on my EX at about 30k, had a vibration when applying the brakes, it's common on the ex's, had the dealer do it under warr. said Ford would only turn them once and that was it, i have been looking at aftermarket rotors and for about 200$ you can have a set of healthy front rotors that can really make a diff.

Do you have a web site for them?

My local dealer has been telling me since 2001 that I need new rotors. They are grooved but no vibration. If you don't have vibration and brakes are working ok , I'd go w/ pads (if needed).

Did he mention anything about excessive runout or anything that would constitute replacing them? I just had the brakes replace on my wifes H2 and she has 65,000 miles on it. Not much towing but the rotors were fine.

ford have always chewed up rotors. the heavy duty trucks see about 30k at best and i always turn rotors when i change pads

summittracing.com
4wheelparts.com
truckperformance.com
rpmoutlet.com
alot to choose from, drilled, cross drilled, slotted, but should get you in the right direction.

Ask them to prove the need with facts. How worn down are your pads vs. new? If you don't feel a vibration when using the brakes, why do they want to grind material off the rotor? (some thinks that makes new pads stop better, some don't. But all agree it adds to the shop's profit). The biggest "red flag" I see here is if they also say the rear brakes need replacing. They usually last through two sets of front pads. If the shop can't provide factual data to justify an entire brake job and rotor turning when you don't feel any vibrations, I'm betting they are trying to make money off of you.

BTW: I've driven a PSD Excursion as my daily driver for 5 years, and do the brake jobs personally in the driveway. I know how simple it is, and am shocked by how some shops take advantage of some customers.

BTW#2: The best thing to prevent rotor warpage in the future is to torque the lug nuts down to 170ftlbs. If your shop does not know to do that, then they are not trying very hard to decrease your needing future repairs.

I get over 80,000 kms 50k miles out of brakes on my Super Duty .
Not sure what you are doing with your truck .