Here are some pics of my OEM front brake pads, taken off at 110,000 miles.

I decided to put in new pads & to have the OEM discs turned because of a developing shudder on hard braking. The discs are well above the minimum thickness and these pads are still well above the 3mm minimum thickness also.

The last time I had a car develop this kind of shudder, it was a high mileage Suburban. The fix was to install new steering linkage ball joints.

So I'm doing the pads & discs first and will see how things are then. More to follow if of interest.

 

Great review. Thanks for sharing.

 

Yes indeed, thanks a bunch! I'm due for a brake job myself, as well as new tires so $2k in 2 months, uugggg...

 

OK, you'll need two tools that aren't common.

A 9MM hex, and this needs to fit onto a ratchet wrench. It'll take more torque than a standard right angle hex key can produce.

An 18mm socket.

I bought the 9MM awhile ago based on threads on this website: so thanks a bunch for those who pointed it out.

The 18MM socket I bought years ago when nothing fit on something on my Suburban... after several trips to the parts store to get sockets that never quite fit, I got out the ruler & measured the darn thing.

Somehow I've used that 18mm socket many, many times since. So why don't they just use either a 17mm or a 19mm standard socket? That's like answering Einstein's Unified Field theory. Go figure!

 

my pads are twice as thick as yours at 130,000 in my FEH.
Then again, I do 75% highway.
I expect my pads to last the life of the vehicle.
Now if they could only make lifetime tires (on my third set).

 

These pads measure 5.7 mm, so that's a lot left. What prompted me to change them out is a developing shudder on heavy braking. It appears to be gone now with machined discs & new pads. The discs as they came of my FEH didn't look bad at all. I was expecting the shudder to still be there.

I purchased the NAPA "Adaptive One" pads.

Clearly the regenerative braking of the FEH makes a real difference in pad life. I bought the replacement pads last fall thinking that surely the old ones needed replacement. So I kept them on the shelf.

I'm expecting the life of this FEH to go beyond even your expectations. I think Ford over engineered this car on the spec that they didn't want much warranty work. Well, we'll see just how far it goes.

 

I had between 7mm and 8mm left not too long ago.

Ford told me this back in 2006 and I think it is a good estimate.
Place a heavy book on the front passenger seat.
Depress the brake.
If the book stays on the seat, you are not using brake pads.
Another eatimate, the first 50% of brake pedal travel is regen only.

Of coarse the above assumes the battery is in a state able to accept full charge current.
Which is, most of the time.
John

 

Update: the front end shudder I noted has disappeared.

On the rear brakes: took them off today the pads had equivalent thickness remaining to what I reported on my front pads. Curiously the discs were at the minimum "machine to" spec of 11.6mm after cutting. (Note the front discs were well above this minimum.)

I have been wondering. The Ford books note that the rear brakes will wear faster than the front brakes. I had thought it would show up in the pads, but it hasn't. Rather it has shown up in the disc, so next time I do a brake job I'll likely have to replace the rear discs.

How about that?

 

Update: Ford notes that the rear brakes will wear faster than the front brakes. I found it curious that the front pads @110,000 & the rear pads @112,000 still had much useful life left ~6mm remaining.

Where the wear & tear actually showed up was on the rear discs. When I had them cut they machined out to 11.6mm. This is the "machine to" minimum. Thus these discs will surely have to be replaced when I next do pads.

Which will likely be around 220,000 miles. Update to follow.

PS It'll take awhile...

 

I just did my fronts on the '05 yesterday. At 66k the outer pads were worn down to almost nothing. Rotors were below minimum for machining.

What was strange though is that the bolt to remove the caliper was 7mm hex, not 9mm as it was supposed to be. That worked out good since I never did find the 9mm hex socket locally. I was planning on doing it with the regular 90° allen wrench.

I replaced the pads and rotors with OEM that I bought at online prices but picked up at a local dealer. Figured as long as it is under extended warranty I would keep OEM parts on it.

Other thing that is strange is that the fronts wore out faster than the rears. And this car has a LOT of miles driven in low. Not sure what to make of that......