Just wanted to chime in and add my experience as a data point. I have an '01 F-150 4x4 Lariat Scab with the 5.4L Triton. I have the Off-Road package and often tow an 18' boat (at least thru the summer months). I just had my original front brakes replaced at 30K miles. Rear brakes are still "real good". I started noticing quite a bit of brake dust on the front wheels a couple of weeks before I had the brakes checked/replaced, so I kinda figured a brake replacement was coming my way. The rotors just needed a very "slight" touch-up. I decided to stick with the Ford OEM pads.

 

Original brakes passed inspection back in March, now at 70,000 miles.

I know that the front brakes do more of the stopping than the back brakes but, could there be some problem causing the front brakes to do way more of the work than they are supposed to? Or maybe the back brakes don't work so good?

 

I also think it might be your driving style. I have an '01 SCrew with the tow package. I was tired of having the wheels look dirty so I replaced the front pads with Raybestos "Quiet Stop" pads. The change was made at 33K miles and my factory pads showed virtually no sign of excessive wear. I even saved them for an emergency back up. I am confident they would have lasted to 70K or even 80K miles.

The QS pads are made of a ceramic material designed to be low dusting and quieter than OEM pads. They definately perform as claimed. The dust they produce is a light haze of very transparent material. After 3 weeks of stop and go traffic I can barely detect the presence of any dust at all. Stopping force has not been effected. My 22' Ski Nautique comes to a halt rather quickly and it weighs 3400lbs on the trailer.

I typically drive with one foot.

 

What's is it about F-150's and brakes?

My factory brakes were TERRIBLE. Twice. The rotors warped and I had a dealer replace them for an ungodly amount of wasted money (and the service guy was a complete jerk). Warped again about half-way through the pad life. The pads were also making a click-clack sorta sound too.

I'm in a band and I haul gear every couple of weeks and then commute in stop-and-go traffic back and forth to work 15 miles.

My wife was afraid to drive the truck (not necessarily a bad thing ;-)).

I just installed the Hawk Performance HPS Road/Sport disc brake with the HAWKS RACING 'Pro Stop' Slotted Rotors. Pads were $64.00 on tirerack.com and I got the rotors for $120 Total FOR BOTH.

I can't even BEGIN to tell you folks HOW MUCH BETTER THIS ROTOR/PAD COMBINATION IS!

I always felt like I didn't have a lot of brake pedal left when stopping quickly. Now, after burninshing the pads per the instructions, I can stop the beast on a dime.

 

Every so often backup your truck where there is plenty of room and get a fairly good head of steam up and apply the brakes "HARD" 2or3 times in a row. This will adjust the rear drum brakes and stopping power is greatly improved. Of course it only lasts for a couple hundred miles so you must repeat this often. Ford has the worst adjusters in the rear drums i have seen. Try this my fellow F-150 brothers it does work....

 

You'd think with all the people that complain about the rear adjusters, someone would come up with an aftermarket replacement.

I'm sure a TON of people on here would buy them!

 

My 2002 is going in on Mon or Tue to have the fronts replaced with 27,000 on them. Approximately 8,000 of those miles are non-stop highway driving from western MN to eastern South Dakota, 200 miles one way. The braking ability on my 02 has always been half-assed...these are also the HD pads available with the towing package. I was also told by Ford that I should get 30,000 to 50,000 mls out of the brakes depending on driving conditions, but 30k is still a joke and even new they do not stop safely.

My 2 cents,

RAZO

PS:The rears are at about 75% still. I figure I will get 2-3 front brake jobs to the 1 rear brake job. Also I do "use" the truck but I do not beat on the brakes, no more than any other vehicle I have owned without this problem.

 

I get the feeling that the brakes on these rides aren't the greatest. I will say that when towing my boat, ( a 20' cuddy), the brakes do suck. I get that " uh oh, am I gonna get stopped" feeling. And I do drive wel ahead of myself- that is, I look at what is ahead of me for a long way so I am not "surprised" by anything. They just don't grab like I think they should. With 4 wheel discs, I thought this truck was gonna brake with the best of them- it just hasn't been so. Granted, the package I tow weighs in around 3500 lbs, but that is not even half of what my truck is rated to tow. ( Book says 8200 lbs with my gear ratio and engine.) I have towed a 763 Bobcat before with it which comes in around 8000 lbs with the trailer and that is all the truck wanted. But, the brakes felt about the same with that load as they do with my boat. I was wondering myself if the rear brakes really do much. They show some wear at 37,000 but seem awfully small. I do have the H.D. brakes on my truck.

Oh well, maybe a foray into the aftermarket is in order.

UFM82

 

So it's been a couple of weeks with the Hawk high performance rotor/pad combination, plus I'm backing up and stopping hard coming out of my drive way every morning.

I would recommend these brakes to EVERY F150 owner.

Before I used to feel like I was running out of brake pedal. I'd do a hard stop in traffic (stupid people pulling in front of me) and it felt like I had only an 1" of pedal travel left.

NOT ANYMORE!

These things are so grippy it isn't even funny.

If you do get them, make sure you burnish them like the directions say.

I don't know if I'm allowed to post URL's of eBay auctions, but the front rotors are $128 + shipping for THE PAIR!

 

It seems from what i am seeing here and on other posts, 35,000K is about average for a supercrew....my fronts hit the wear indicators at 37,000 and i did rears at the same time just so i knew I had good pads all around.

 

Original pads still have some life left at 70k on my 01 Supercrew.



SM



P.S. The original pads on my '90 Ranger lasted 217k and that's not a typo.

 

Just had my fronts done today, 27,500 miles, pads were totally shot. Miracle that I didn't trash the rotors. Luckily, they turned.

Service guy said average is 30-50k! What a crock!

'01 SCab, 4x4 ORP 5.4...

 

On my 1999 4x4 4.6L I replaced my front pads at 48,000, rotors were in great shape, did not even need to turn them. Put on a cheap $20 set of pads.

I have 74,000 on them now, rotated the tires last week. The front are looking great, lots of pad left. The original rear pads may last another 10,000 and look fine. I've never torqued my lug nuts ever, only hand tighten by feel, never had any problems.

Out west this summer towing a camper in the mountains the truck/brakes were great, no problems.