Brakes overheating?

[Nathan89]

Hey,

So I'm driving a 2004 Focus SE 2.3, 4 door sedan.

The issue is that I bought this car a month ago from some shady dealer here in florida as-is, it had 59k miles on it, one previous owner. I replaced the tires which were down to the wire to find a cracked and discolored rotor, discolored calipers and the brake pads both inside and out were metal on metal with the rotor, and the brake fluid was beyond corrupted. So I replaced all this, put in new rotors, calipers, bled the system (2 man method since my 1 man kit didnt fit the bleed valves), and put in new pads. It's been 3 weeks and just over 1k miles and the calipers are extremely discolored again (the same rust red it was before). I'm genuinely concerned even though everyone I've asked attributes it to the salty humid conditions here because there is no way from my (limited) understanding that the pads would be down to metal and the rotor cracked with so few miles on the car right? Any help on this is appreciated!

[Sponsor]

[Elizabeth]

Anytime high humidity or slight rain or mist will start the rotors to rust.
Anytime the car sits for awhile.
If you drive and the rotors get cleaned off.
Then I would say no problem.
As for prior owner. 59K is more than enough to wear out the pads totally. Once worn, the driver would be having to stomp on the brakes hard to stop, heating up the rotors way more.
So IMO not to worry. If you current brakes are good (aside from the common surface rust) good to go.
No other permanent damge is caused by totally worn out brakes. So replacing the pads and rotors should be fine.
Also the calipers may have had some (red) dust on them, and it got into the pads and onto the calipers.
I really would not be worried.
If you are worried. Buy some 'brake clean' and taking the wheels off. spray the calipers and rotors. (the only problem with this is do not spray the caliper pin area .. the grease on them is needed!!)

[Geezer]

Elizabeth brings up a good point regarding the caliper pins. When you installed the new calipers you did grease them...right? I ask because if you didn't, the calipers may not be releasing which causes the pads to drag on the rotors and results in extra and unneeded heat generation (not to mention premature wear and potential glazing of the rotor). A simple test would be after driving the car for awhile is to go out and touch the wheel in several different places immediately after parking the car. It should not be excessively warm. If it is the odds are good the pads are dragging on the rotors.

[Nathan89]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

Anytime high humidity or slight rain or mist will start the rotors to rust.
Anytime the car sits for awhile.
If you drive and the rotors get cleaned off.
Then I would say no problem.
As for prior owner. 59K is more than enough to wear out the pads totally. Once worn, the driver would be having to stomp on the brakes hard to stop, heating up the rotors way more.
So IMO not to worry. If you current brakes are good (aside from the common surface rust) good to go.
No other permanent damge is caused by totally worn out brakes. So replacing the pads and rotors should be fine.
Also the calipers may have had some (red) dust on them, and it got into the pads and onto the calipers.
I really would not be worried.
If you are worried. Buy some 'brake clean' and taking the wheels off. spray the calipers and rotors. (the only problem with this is do not spray the caliper pin area .. the grease on them is needed!!)

Thanks Elizabeth for the reply, I did actually replace the calipers as well so in 3 weeks they have turned almost completely red. My concern about the mileage was more in regards to brake fluid corruption, from my understanding at 59k the brake fluid should still be reasonably usable? I did consider that perhaps the metal on metal from both inside and outside pads caused the overheating of the entire system and corrupted the brake fluid much faster than normal.

[Nathan89]

Originally Posted by Geezer

Elizabeth brings up a good point regarding the caliper pins. When you installed the new calipers you did grease them...right? I ask because if you didn't, the calipers may not be releasing which causes the pads to drag on the rotors and results in extra and unneeded heat generation (not to mention premature wear and potential glazing of the rotor). A simple test would be after driving the car for awhile is to go out and touch the wheel in several different places immediately after parking the car. It should not be excessively warm. If it is the odds are good the pads are dragging on the rotors.

Yes, I did grease the pins as well as the pistons. There is a generous amount of warmth coming from the brakes after a decent drive, granted most of the roads in my area have high speed limits and require a lot of braking for the 1 million and 1 lights and stop signs and out of state drivers :P I'll get the tires off, clean the system and see whats going on as far as alignment and the calipers efficiency, perhaps all they need is to be regreased. Thanks!