Mondeo brake problem

Pete67

Looking for others experience, my 01 Mondeo Zetec 1.8 petrol has 55k miles on the clock, and is now on its fourth set of front brake discs. I don't drive hard, and never even worn out a set of pads, they have only been changed with the discs.

The discs do not wear out either, what happens is that after about 10K miles they seems to start warping, or maybe wearing unevenly or something and a vibration creeps in when braking. This vibration gets gradually worse and worse until it annoys me so much that I'm forced to shell out another 400 odd for new disks/pads and the whole cycle starts again.

Is this common on Mondeos? Are the FORD disks just crap or could there be something wrong on the car that causes them to wear unevenly? Once the new disks are fitted braking is smooth as silk for anything up to 10k. My last car, (Mazda 626) only had new disks after nearly 100k miles, and even then they were changed due to wear, not vibration. I've had the Mondeo from new, so I know it's never been mistreated. Any thoughts?

Esel

Did you ever go back to the dealer about this?

Marcus.Aurelius

No surprise here. Ford quality as usual. Have you had any other trouble from the front end?

Andrewf20

One way to reduce the warpage is to try this funky procedure. At 50mph, land on the brakes as hard as you can till you drop to 5mph, then accelerate to 60mph, then stand on the brakes again till you drop back to 5mph, and repeat for 70mph and 75mph.

Pete67

The Ford dealer just said that disks are a wear part and may need to be replaced at varying intervals depending on driving conditions and type of driving, ie they wear faster in city stop/start driving than motorway driving.

He did admit that 10 - 15K was not great but he didn't seem to surprised by it.

Only other problem with front end was a noisy RH front wheel bearing at about 20k which was changed by the dealer. Maybe he bent the stub axle or half-shaft, but if he did it's not bad as there is no noise or vibration when driving until braking. It's much more noticeable when braking gently from speed than when braking hard.

Henry Ford III

Warping discs after 10k miles is not normal at all.

It's not all all unusual for a car such as yours to go well over 100k miles without such a problem.

I'd suggest something else is wrong.

mondeoman

Pete67 wrote: »

Looking for others experience, my 01 Mondeo Zetec 1.8 petrol has 55k miles on the clock, and is now on its fourth set of front brake discs. I don't drive hard, and never even worn out a set of pads, they have only been changed with the discs.

The discs do not wear out either, what happens is that after about 10K miles they seems to start warping, or maybe wearing unevenly or something and a vibration creeps in when braking. This vibration gets gradually worse and worse until it annoys me so much that I'm forced to shell out another 400 odd for new disks/pads and the whole cycle starts again.

Is this common on Mondeos? Are the FORD disks just crap or could there be something wrong on the car that causes them to wear unevenly? Once the new disks are fitted braking is smooth as silk for anything up to 10k. My last car, (Mazda 626) only had new disks after nearly 100k miles, and even then they were changed due to wear, not vibration. I've had the Mondeo from new, so I know it's never been mistreated. Any thoughts?

over tightning the road wheels can cause this:(http://www.btinternet.com/~madmole/Reference/knownproblems.html#Brake%20disks%20warping

Captain Slow IRL

you should easily get 100k out of a set of discs - bring it for a long spin and check for excess heat coming off the front wheels, the calipers might be binding

JohnND

Since asbestos was banned, brake discs seem to exhibit a common problem, namely when you brake to a halt and hold your foot on the peddle, the brake disc cools quickly all over except for the area covered but the brake pad. This differential heating/cooling causes the disc to warp which gets worse as the pad wears.
Solution: take your foot off the brake when you stop and put the handbrake on.

maidhc

Dunno, but I have a focus with 92K miles and the discs are not all that worn.

Mondeo with 202k miles and also on its original discs. They do need replacing at this stage though!

JohnND's observations seem sensible.

Plug

Pete67 wrote: »

Looking for others experience, my 01 Mondeo Zetec 1.8 petrol has 55k miles on the clock, and is now on its fourth set of front brake discs. I don't drive hard, and never even worn out a set of pads, they have only been changed with the discs.

The discs do not wear out either, what happens is that after about 10K miles they seems to start warping, or maybe wearing unevenly or something and a vibration creeps in when braking. This vibration gets gradually worse and worse until it annoys me so much that I'm forced to shell out another 400 odd for new disks/pads and the whole cycle starts again.

Is this common on Mondeos? Are the FORD disks just crap or could there be something wrong on the car that causes them to wear unevenly? Once the new disks are fitted braking is smooth as silk for anything up to 10k. My last car, (Mazda 626) only had new disks after nearly 100k miles, and even then they were changed due to wear, not vibration. I've had the Mondeo from new, so I know it's never been mistreated. Any thoughts?

The part where the caliper is held onto the car is probly bent somehow and this is giving an uneven wear to the disks.
I work in a ford garage and rearly replace disks, so its probly just your car the problems with.

mickdw

Does your vibration come through the steering or the brake pedal? Sometimes worn suspension bushes can exagerate any warp in the discs. So if everything was tight, the warp wouldnt be enough to cause any problems but if suspension wear allows movement, any warp in the disc will cause lots of shake. It would be felt mostly through the steering when braking though.

Damien360

I have had 2 of the last shape Mondeos and am currently in the new one. I never had any brake issues with the Mondeo and I put 100,000 miles on each of the first two. Brake dics were replaced at about 80,000 on each of them.

Pete67

Wow, interesting thread resurection! Anyway, I brought the car to another dealer who listened to my tale, decided there weas definately something wrong and booked the car in.

Turns out when the wheel bearing was replaced way back, the 'mechanic' did a lot of damage to the hub, I was shown witness marks where hammer / chisel was used to remove it. I had to replace the hub and driveshaft and yet another set of disks and it has been fine ever since.

Moral of the story, find a good dealer and stick with them. There is one Ford garage in Dublin that I will never darken the door of again, and one I will be recommending to all and sundry.

Henry Ford III

Glad you sorted it Pete.

Nam_Man

Pete67 wrote: »

Wow, interesting thread resurection! Anyway, I brought the car to another dealer who listened to my tale, decided there weas definately something wrong and booked the car in.

Turns out when the wheel bearing was replaced way back, the 'mechanic' did a lot of damage to the hub, I was shown witness marks where hammer / chisel was used to remove it. I had to replace the hub and driveshaft and yet another set of disks and it has been fine ever since.

Moral of the story, find a good dealer and stick with them. There is one Ford garage in Dublin that I will never darken the door of again, and one I will be recommending to all and sundry.

Really I hope am not using the same place .... For my 01' Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDDI

groupb

Chief Admiral wrote: »

No surprise here. Ford quality as usual. Have you had any other trouble from the front end?

The mondeo is probably the toughest car in its class.

Marcus.Aurelius

Its always good to find the source of the problem. Glad to hear you're sorted out at last OP!