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How bad are the OEM pads and rotors?

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Location
Hollywood
#1
(Front) Jeez. The front rotors and pads must be really, really bad as OEM. I'm doing my first pad swap at 35,000 miles and I generally drive pretty easy although I do live in the capital of stop and go traffic - Los Angeles. - but my brake guy just told me I need rotors up front as well. Seriously? He sent me a picture of his digital vernier calipers on my front rotors - 21.09mm - that's about .830 inch.
Guys, Is this typical FOMOCO supporting the aftermarket or just junk cheap parts from Ford? Do we need to change out rotors every time we change out front pads?

Thanks
 


Messages
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Location
Boston
#3
(Front) Jeez. The front rotors and pads must be really, really bad as OEM. I'm doing my first pad swap at 35,000 miles and I generally drive pretty easy although I do live in the capital of stop and go traffic - Los Angeles. - but my brake guy just told me I need rotors up front as well. Seriously? He sent me a picture of his digital vernier calipers on my front rotors - 21.09mm - that's about .830 inch.
Guys, Is this typical FOMOCO supporting the aftermarket or just junk cheap parts from Ford? Do we need to change out rotors every time we change out front pads?

Thanks
As far as I know, this kind of wear is pretty typical for performance pads. More performance oriented pads dust more, are louder, wear out faster and wear through rotors faster as well. 35k is pretty good for OEM pads. I know mine were out at 25k. I went with EBC yellows, the same thing, only lasted about 30k miles, and went back to OEM because it was cheaper and I liked them better. You can go with aftermarket, but if they're going to last longer they're not going to have the same performance. Comfort and performance are usually on the ends a sliding scale
 


Ford ST

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Pleasant Garden
#4
The pads nor rotors are junk. The OEM pads that come with the vehicles equipped with Summer tires are fantastic. They are aggressive and they make a lot of dust. Are they easy on the rotors no.

I actually do replace the rotors every time I do front pads. I do that on everything always have.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
 


ronmcdon

Active member
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Beverly Hills
#6
I'd be delighted if my rotors would last 20k miles. Replaced my oem rotors with Stoptech slotted around 7k miles (got car used and drove for 2k miles). With tamer daily drivers and softer pads they would last longer. On my daily driver hybrid, I think the rotors were replaced at 60-80k I forget, but thats a very different type of car and milder oem pads.
 


Mikey456

Active member
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#7
I have had my front rotors turned at 22 k with new pads. Seemed to work fine. Next time I will buy new rotors.
 


M-Sport fan

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#8
I actually do replace the rotors every time I do front pads. I do that on everything always have.
EXACTLY! [thumb]

This is standard operating procedure for me, as it is not worth even the chance that the rotors will be that much thinner with 'turning', and therefore having less of a heat sink/heat dissipating function, on already somewhat small diameter (and rotor thickness) brakes.

I probably drive even easier yet than the op, with very little stop and go nowadays, no autocross or open tracking, and even with the torque vectoring system as shut off as the button will allow every time I get into the car, and I need everything changed at 30K miles on the 'all season' pads. [wink]
 


Erick_V

Active member
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San Antonio
#9
Tried other pad and rotor combos and went back to a Centric/OEM Pad setup. They feel great for the street and AutoX and as said above are cheap. I got them both for $170 shipped through RockAuto
 


jmrtsus

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#10
They are fine, replaced at 30K with new rotors. The ST is a high performance car with high performance standard brakes. You should not be looking for harder longer lasting pads, will last longer with longer stopping distance. As to the rotors don't turn, just replace as they are not expensive.
 


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Location
BC, Canada
#11
Every set of OEM pads/rotors I had wore really evenly front and back, so I ended up replacing them all around when they're at 3mm or so; 30K sounds about right.

But yeah, someone on forums used the term "finger of god" and I think that's the apt description for how well they bite (at least before they're overheated, which didn't happen to me personally, but then I never tried tracking them). They're pretty phenomenal and the only problem is the dust that sticks to absolutely everything and is almost impossible to clean off the callipers if you leave it on there for long enough.
 


Business6

Senior Member
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#12
I'm closing in on 64k miles and getting my front pads replaced tomorrow. I don't actually know if they're using the OEM pads, though, as it isn't a dealership.
 


OP
trepanned23
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Thread Starter #13
Thanks, everyone. I thought the rotors would be good for about twice as long as the pads. I was wrong
 


jmrtsus

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#14
Thanks, everyone. I thought the rotors would be good for about twice as long as the pads. I was wrong
For the cost of replacement rotors I did not even consider turning them. But I'm sure you could. I just did not like the thought of thinning the rotors.
 


Intuit

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#15
Owned from new.
Memory serving, changed my rear pads ~around~ 30k.
Changed front pads ~around~ 40k.

I went with premium organic pads front/rear.

Over 50k and rotors should be good.

But I do plan to service the caliper slide-mounts as they're starting to get stiff.

I will say that the OEM semi-metallic pads have a *massively* more confident "feel"... it is truely a performance pad and without them it "feels" almost like a normal car. Regardless, I can quickly lock-up the wheels (engaging ABS) at-will so it doesn't actually matter for typical driving conditions. One unanticipated and positive side effect of the decision is they're virtually dustless... or rather the dust isn't charged in a way that causes it to stick to the red calipers and black wheels.

But I do believe in replacing pads... and not rotors. I've made the mistake of trying "lifetime" pads on a prior vehicle and all they did was warp and wear out my rotors.

I did kevlar pads on the motorcycle only to find out they were f****** dangerous under wet/cold conditions.
 


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Location
Melbourne
#16
(Front) Jeez. The front rotors and pads must be really, really bad as OEM. I'm doing my first pad swap at 35,000 miles and I generally drive pretty easy although I do live in the capital of stop and go traffic - Los Angeles. - but my brake guy just told me I need rotors up front as well. Seriously? He sent me a picture of his digital vernier calipers on my front rotors - 21.09mm - that's about .830 inch.
Guys, Is this typical FOMOCO supporting the aftermarket or just junk cheap parts from Ford? Do we need to change out rotors every time we change out front pads?

Thanks
Mine were gone at 30k! I couldn't believe it.. Bought car brand new too but i was hitting the twisties a lot and driving it hard a lot.. I'm a late breaker too.. still using OEM pads and rotors but would be good to change next time.

Sent from my Mi MIX 2S using Tapatalk
 


Intuit

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#18
Though the performance pads give you a massively better feel, reaction time, having to replace the rotors all the time is something I haven't gotten used to. Just seems so utterly wasteful compared to the 3 sets I bought in well over 300k. You either wear out the pads or the rotors. I like to replace the pads ~several~ times over the life of a rotor.

That said though, I really do like the "feel" of the OEM. It's kind of one of those, "you don't miss it until you've had it" things. I may just resolve to having to replace rotors... maybe not. I'm on the fence at this point. 😄 It's not just the feel, but the rotor dust. As it is now, my wheels stay pretty glossy. OEM pads it was pretty much matte black all the time.
 


Last edited:
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26
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Location
Riverside, CA, USA
#19
OEM pads are great only way I will go. I just had to do my first fronts @20k Just pads didnt turn nor replace rotors I was even metal on metal in one corner of pad. Haha. Small groove on rotor nbd. Car stops good as new. Next set of pads will get new rotors.
 


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