Must be a new proceedure for the 08. My instructions were out of the Ford service manual.

 

It's not my opinion, it's from the Ford Engineer who developed Fords regenerative breaking system.

Furthermore, after talking to a Prius tech the other day, in all likelyhood, the brake pads weren't the cause, but they were part of the solution. They're seeing in Prius' that the brake system actually gets a layer of grime on them, from not being used, which increases the grabbyness in wet conditions, and that once cleaned, they're far less grabby (Though still grabby.) What likely happened was the new brake pads were better at cleaning the grime that had accumulated off, so they're operating with a clean, and hence, less grabby braking system.

The suggestion was made that you either do some hard braking to get the brakes to self-clean, or (I didn't like this), apply the parking brake slightly as you coasted down a hill (Though once again, that's for the Prius), to clean them off. This seems to a problem with all the HSD vehicles, since they hardly use the real brakes.

 

The parking brake in the Ford Escape Hybrid is separate from the 4 disc brakes. Applying the parking brake in motion will have zero effect on your 4 primary disc brakes, wet, dirty, or otherwise.

 

True... thats why when mine act funny I just shift the thing into "N" coming to the next intersection.... no regen, all friction brakes for that ONE stop and that usually takes care of it.

 

OK, so you haven't changed your pads and don't know what difference changing them makes.

 

A change in pad coefficient of friction may have undesirable effects at higher speeds and in dry conditions. TeeSter has the best solution. You NEED to clean the rust of periodically anyway!

 

Thanks to all for their responses. Turns out this works like a charm! I had a wet drive in this morning, so as I approached a red light I put it in N and brought the vehicle to a pretty firm stop. No more grabbyness for the rest of the commute. Brilliant!

 

I don't think that would be the case at all. The pads that Gator uses have nothing but positive effects on the braking effect (I know, I have used them myself).

~John

 

You mean like shorter stopping distances and more fade resistant?

 

They may help... they may not. You have to understand that the physical brakes only come on by computer control partway throught the stop. Up till that its regenerative braking. That transistion is controlled by the controller... messing with the bake coefficient of friction might mess up what the contorller is expecting and may even make you have the same lurch when dry as we experience when the brakes are damp. The lurch comes because the controller applies the brakes expecting them to grab a certain amount (and be a smooth transition) but instead the water and or roughness of the disc has increased the grab and the controller hasn't accounted for it... hence too much brake, to fast and a lurch....

In order to get less lurch you'd decrease the coefficient of friction... not something I'd want to do with my brakes in any case.

I think he'd just trying to say you might not get the effect you are looking for.

We are still talking about gettting rid of a lurch when its wet... not increasing braking power aren't we?