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All rotors warped at 55k miles


BLFarnsworth
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I have a 2015 Fusion Energi, live in So Cal, and drive (I'm guessing) 65% highway / 35% city. I drive pretty conservatively - try to keep my braking score up and maximize regen -- but just recently I found that the whole car shakes while moderately braking. Dealer says they're warped but can turn the rotors and replace brake pads. The brake pads look in great shape, about only 10-20% of them gone.

 

2 questions:

 

1: is it normal to have all the brake rotors warped on this vehicle at around 55k miles? I know that brake pad & rotor wear depends on how hard you drive, environment (i.e., the plains vs. mountains), how many passengers on average in the car, etc.

 

2: even though the dealer says they can turn the rotors, would you just replace them (the rotors)? Dealer here says that turning the rotors and installing new brake pads would run about $350-375 for all four wheels

 

Any info would be appreciated!

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I brake with my right foot (funny - my mom used to drive with two feet; she'd brake with her left foot [while probably slightly stepping on it all the time] and it drove me nuts).

 

I completely get it that brake rotors warp due to overheating (i.e. applying brakes during a long downhill stops, then while the car is stopped... the brake pads are still applying pressure to one [hot] spot on the rotors) while the other part of the rotor is cooling... Or repeated hard braking. I'm pretty cognizant of lightly applying the brakes, getting as much regen and keeping my brake score high.

 

I'm sure I've had a few hard stops in the time I've had the car, but not a whole lot of them. Of course, I don't have a way to record the number of hard stops (like some of the speed/braking monitors available nowadays); I wish I did. I'm just surprised that all the rotors are warped after just 55k on this car.

 

Or is this typical for these Fusion Energis? Thanks in advance.

Edited by BLFarnsworth
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I would take it to another shop to get a second opinion, rotors should not be warped with such mileage unless lots of heavy repeated braking.  is it possible shaking caused by something else in the braking system?

 

Thanks for the reply, and yep, I just scheduled an inspection at an independent repair shop tomorrow morning... I also wondered about something else in the braking system - we'll see, but I sure hope it isn't the ABS going bad on me! 

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Don't machine them. I had mine machined and three months later, without hard braking, they were pitted and needed machining or replacing again. If they're already warped from over heating, when they're thinner after the machining, they warp even easier.

 

 

Yeah, after thinking about the fact that the rotors were going to be much thinner - and more likely to warp sooner... I decided to just replace all the rotors.

 

Here's the summary... I took the car to 2 different Ford dealerships, and they both told me that the rotors were warped and that they could turn all rotors and "de-glaze" the brake pads.

 

First, I understand it when you have to resurface the rotors to even out the surface, but machining warped rotors means that you have to strip away everything that's "warped" on both sides. Who knows how much material that'll really remove from the rotor... I'm sure a lot more material than if you were just smoothing out the surface (of a rotor that isn't warped). So, just like openair said, the rotors would be a lot thinner and probably will warp easier.

 

Second, de-glazing pads? I guess there's still a lot of pad left so they said they'd basically sand down the surface. I've never done that before, but... OK.

 

I decided to take the car to an independent shop; I can get 4 new rotors and all new brake pads for about $50.00 than what the dealers would charge to turn the rotors and "de-glaze" the pads -- that seems a better use of $ to me.

 

Anyway, I'm still not that happy about having to replace all these brake components after 55k miles... On a hybrid, no less! I used to unequivocally recommend this Fusion Energi, but now will warn any prospective buyers that they might have to replace the damn rotors and pads earlier than they expect. 

Edited by BLFarnsworth
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Yeah, after thinking about the fact that the rotors were going to be much thinner - and more likely to warp sooner... I decided to just replace all the rotors.

 

Here's the summary... I took the car to 2 different Ford dealerships, and they both told me that the rotors were warped and that they could turn all rotors and "de-glaze" the brake pads.

 

First, I understand it when you have to resurface the rotors to even out the surface, but machining warped rotors means that you have to strip away everything that's "warped" on both sides. Who knows how much material that'll really remove from the rotor... I'm sure a lot more material than if you were just smoothing out the surface (of a rotor that isn't warped). So, just like openair said, the rotors would be a lot thinner and probably will warp easier.

 

Second, de-glazing pads? I guess there's still a lot of pad left so they said they'd basically sand down the surface. I've never done that before, but... OK.

 

I decided to take the car to an independent shop; I can get 4 new rotors and all new brake pads for about $50.00 than what the dealers would charge to turn the rotors and "de-glaze" the pads -- that seems a better use of $ to me.

 

Anyway, I'm still not that happy about having to replace all these brake components after 55k miles... On a hybrid, no less! I used to unequivocally recommend this Fusion Energi, but now will warn any prospective buyers that they might have to replace the damn rotors and pads earlier than they expect. 

 

I don't know what to say about this only that I believe this is highly unusual.  I now have a 2017 Energi with only 6,000 miles, so obviously no brake issues.  However, I had a 2011 Fusion Hybrid and put 100,000 miles on it and the brakes were straight and plenty of pad still left.  With the hybrids, seems like the brakes should last longer than most other cars, and that was my experience.

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If you're hand, brakes are very easy to do.  You could replace the rotors and pads yourself and it would cost much less.

 

For the record, I drove my Cmax to 73k miles and the brakes were still like new, I regen very well, 99% brake score lifetime average.

 

-=>Raja.

Edited by rbort
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Could you have been stabbing the pedal at low speeds when encountering traffic lights that turn quickly amber then red? On another car that's what happened to me, I once wore out my brakes (I forget now, rotors or pads or both) within 10,000 miles because I had been driving on such a road and was careful to stop on amber because my last two tickets were from running red lights. Since the braking was at such low speeds, it didn't seem like hard braking.

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I could probably count on 1 hand the number of times I stamped on the brakes, low speed or high.  I'm in the Northeast, but haven't noticed a particular (visual) issue with oxidation.  That said, besides the brake replacement and the $600 estimate for replacement of my charge port door, I've been really happy with the car.

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