As can be seen from this invoice (below) which came with the vehicle when I purchased it last November, new front discs and pads were fitted less than 1 year ago.

 

Strangely however, when I look at the pads today on the near-side-front, I see (photos below) that the pad which is visible with the wheel still in place has a "wedged shape"!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this normal? I've never seen new matching discs and pads not wear evenly before.

Or is this simply the design of the caliper system on the vehicle?

Many thanks for any input on this.....

Most pads nowadays are chamfered at the ends to reduce noise.

1 minute ago, TomsFocus said:

Most pads nowadays are chamfered at the ends to reduce noise.

OK. Many thanks for the information.

My knowledge is out-of-date.

All the vehicles I owned and did DIY on before this Mk3.0 Focus were Mk5 Cortinas, Mk3 Capris, & Mk2 Granadas.  

Rear wheel brake pads appear to be flush/flat with the rear discs however.

Fair bit of a ridge observable on the rear discs where pads have not made contact... presumably original discs from 126k miles ago.

Edited January 10, 20242 yr by keepingitontheroad
typo

For DIY back in the early 90s, on some Fords manufactured during the late 70s and early 80s, some would angle-grind off ridge(s) to extend the disc's longevity/service-life.

Do any fine folk here in the forum know whether this is presently "allowed"? 

  

1 hour ago, keepingitontheroad said:

For DIY back in the early 90s, on some Fords manufactured during the late 70s and early 80s, some would angle-grind off ridge(s) to extend the disc's longevity/service-life.

Do any fine folk here in the forum know whether this is presently "allowed"? 

  

Back then cars were a lot lighter and not nearly as fast as they are now and mostly had Solid Discs, so skimming them on a Lathe was less of a problem. The Discs were probably over engineered as well.

For my current car Ford state that the Discs should be renewed when the total thickness is more than 2mm less than the new ones, so that is 1mm wear on each side.

Having said all that, I usually scrape the rust off the non swept outer and inner edges of my Discs when checking my Brakes.

1 hour ago, Tizer said:

Back then cars were a lot lighter and not nearly as fast as they are now and mostly had Solid Discs, so skimming them on a Lathe was less of a problem. The Discs were probably over engineered as well.

For my current car Ford state that the Discs should be renewed when the total thickness is more than 2mm less than the new ones, so that is 1mm wear on each side.

Having said all that, I usually scrape the rust off the non swept outer and inner edges of my Discs when checking my Brakes.

Okie dokey... yep in that case it looks like new ones are in order for this particular vehicle... cheers for the reply.

Her mk2 pads wore strange and replacements started off in a strange shape -

uneven wear, inside to outside pad (or left / right of the car), can come from sticking pads, sticking pistons, or slop in the cheap nasty sliding design of single piston budget calipers

weird pad face on new items - I think is designed to get some brakes with ropey discs, where a wear ridge can mean a new flat pad only sits on the rusty ridges inner and out radii of the disc - thus the brakes feel nasty and work even worse... or we get a non flat face on what should be a good bit of disc, this feels normal and kind of works, then bed in to the shape of the discs...

except by magic they NEVER seem to wear out, thus never bed in and always look silly (AKA your picture) - it ought to lead to high pad temp and possible break-up - but now we get a catch 22, drive harder and bed them in - (and risk the pad break-up) carry on and not give a stuff - after all it seems to stop, and the MOT man passes it  ...but you should have lower braking performance than its meant to have (Its a design flaw - the compound is too high ! but you get cheaper servicing costs)

sticking brake pistons - is now a common design feature of modern brake calipers - we moved to a deliberately inferior material for the pistons - and they magically swell and stick solid - this came when high quality durable steel pistons were replaced with budget phenolic plastic brake pistons some 25 to 30 years back - you can't unstick - new calipers are the usual cure

 

 

 

 

52 minutes ago, Botus said:

 

sticking brake pistons - is now a common design feature of modern brake calipers - we moved to a deliberately inferior material for the pistons - and they magically swell and stick solid - this came when high quality durable steel pistons were replaced with budget phenolic plastic brake pistons some 25 to 30 years back - you can't unstick - new calipers are the usual cure

 

 

 

 

Shame about the move away from quality steel pistons which could be re-sealed with a seal-kit, and the caliper insides cleaned up.....