About a month ago I had my '05 in for warranty work on the front end. They told me that the front brakes were in need of immediate replacement ($450± pads and rotors). I assumed it was the normal dealership scam so I went home and inspected myself.

First thing I noticed is that they overtorqued the lugs severely. Next thing I noticed is that they were right about the front pads. The inner pads were less than 1mm. The outers were about 3mm more or less. I didn't measure.

I purchased the pads and rotors online through Ford Parts Online and picked them up at a local dealer that participates in the online parts program. Great prices BTW.

I searched every local tool seller for the elusive 9mm hex on a socket. Never did find one so I figured I would just do it with the 9mm allen wrench that I picked up in a set from Sears. Turned out I didn't need it since mine had 7mm hex. Wonder if that was due to mine being an early build or what? I haven't checked to see what size the '06 has.

I drive my cars very gently, like most of us here. I also spend a lot of time driving in low and don't use my brakes much of the time. They wore out much sooner than I expected and also wore out in reverse of what Ford and other's experiences say should happen - fronts first. I'd advise everyone to not expect 100,000 miles out of your pads and just check them now and then.

The brake job wasn't hard at all, by the way. I removed the battery cables and the 24 and 31 fuses as has been discussed. I didn't trust the procedure in the manual for pad inspection/service. I figure the next time I do front pads will only take an hour or so total.

Like everything else around here, your mileage may vary and I'm sure someone will tell me I am wrong about something but I just wanted to share my experience.

 

There's always an "exception to prove the rule." I was surprised to find the wear mostly on the rear discs on my FEH.

As to that elusive 9mm wrench... when I went into my NAPA dealer & asked for one and they had it...!

As it turns out I bought my pads about 30,000 miles ago thinking they surely needed replacing... and didn't put them on until now. The deciding thing was a shudder developing on heavy braking, not the wear on the pads. Still had 6 mm left.

Nothing wrong with your post...

 

My pads and rotors are being done in October. I'm bring my 08 into the local Napa dealer and they're doing the whole meal deal for me. Ultra Premium rotors and Napa Adaptive One ceramic rotors. Hopefully these will be the last set I need to get for a very long time as this brake job isn't gonna be cheap

 

I took the wheels off both of my Escapes today and found the same thing you did. The rotors are taking the wear. They are both lightly grooved and are worn a couple mm based on the rust ring outside the pad contact area. The pads on both cars look almost full thickness.

The front pads on the '06 have about 1.5mm left on them. Not an emergency but I will do it before the winter I think. I will probably do the rears on both cars in the spring.

The '06 does have the 9mm hex to remove the calipers. Guess I will have to track one down anyway.

 

Got a second opinion on my brakes last week. Had to get new tires so while they were doing those I asked them to inspect the pads. I was told that they are wearing unevenly and that the outside were 3 mm, inside were still at 7mm on the front, rears were still at 4mm and wearing evenly.

I'll hold off until after the new year now to get them done as I still have plenty of life left and it saves me $1000.

 

Will, how many miles on the worn pads/rotors?

You've all got me flinching; I've got 113K on my original brakes, and last time anybody looked at them (at around 90K I think) they told me they looked like new. Guess what I'm planning on doing tomorrow!

 

My '05 had about 66k when I did this work. The '06 has about 63k on it and the pads are almost as bad as those on the '05 were.

My experience seems to be different than many others on here so I wouldn't panic but certainly worth pulling the wheels off now and then and taking a peek.

 

I don't know if the brakes were every done since I bought mine pre-owned at 75k km and i'm now just over 123k km.

I had a second opinion from an independent 3rd party and they told me my pads are wearing unevenly but definitely don't need to be replaced yet.

 

I was at the dealer today for oil change & tire rotation.

The service report shows brake pad thickness of 7mm/9mm F/R at 40,000 miles, '07 AWD.

 

Had our FEH
in for service and they (Service rep)said I have 60% left on front and 50% left on rear pads. I don't know what that means in thickness of the brake pads left. Our escape has no known history of brake pad replacement. We have 74000 miles on odometer now.