First brake job!!!

[Ashful]

Where I live especially on the work trucks the problem is overheating and warping rotors. Changing pads often won't help with that.

More hills, where you live. Only ever had one vehicle with warped rotors, my brother's Jeep Wrangler. Not sure how he did it, but they'd pulsate fierce, as a result of it.

Only brake failure I've ever had, aside from just wear, was spinning a pad on one of my Dodge trucks. Just about rear-ended some poor motorcyclist when it happened, as I was coming to a stop from 45 mph. Happened an hour after I picked the truck up from yearly state safety inspection, a coincidence that makes it hard to believe the tech didn't screw something up, although I can't for the life of me imagine what.

 

[PaulOinMA]

I have replaced pulsating brakes on both our Escapes. Twice, actually, on my wife's 2012. Suspect warped rotors. A search said it could be due to driving through puddles with hot brakes.

I suspect it is from end-of-winter driving with ice cold puddles of water on the side of the road here in MA.

 

[PaulOinMA]

On specialty tools ... anyone else start a job and run into a triple-square (12 point) fastener?

I was doing something on my VW in the 1990s and had to put things back together. Drove to a car parts place and described it to them. Had never seen one before.

My first thought when I saw it was, "what the hell am I looking at?"

Really? We really need another fastener type?

A friend in the neighboring town recently posted on FB in the evening that he was working on someone's car and needed a 14-mm triple square socket (M14). I said I had one, but he was already driving to pick one up.

 

[xman23]

For years, I've been a mentor for my grandson. This year it was brakes on his 15 year old Volkswagen jetta. Frozen bolts, special tools made it a few day job. First thing was jack stands from harbor freight.

 

[Ashful]

On specialty tools ... anyone else start a job and run into a triple-square (12 point) fastener?

12-point fasteners are usually only common in high-yield-strength bolts, if that's what you're describing. In fact, almost all of the sockets I inherited from my father (1950's Proto ultra-thin-wall stuff) are 12-point.

https://www.specialty-fasteners.com/v/vspfiles/photos/med/2014/08/ARP-12pt-Stainless.jpg

Then there's the 12-point "XZN" Torx'ish things, which might be to what you're referring. I blame the Germans for those.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0324/0735/5528/products/71D9oWRLCZL._AC_SL1500_4b732880-cde5-49ed-b224-a2f48828eeab_360x.jpg?v=1636994446

 

[ABMax24]

12 point and triple square are not the same thing, 12 point is 2 hexagons overlayed overtop of each other, triple square is just that, 3 squares overlayed overtop of each other. Yes it's definitely a German thing, my brother ran into it with his Volkswagen Jetta.

 

[tlc1976]

When I got my first nice car 4 years after I started driving, I didn’t even know how to change my own oil. I could have figured it out but my only experience was watching my dad swear and break things. When he said a certain expletive I knew I better run.

I got a brake job at Tuffy, $200 for new front rotors and pads. This was back in 1996. Don’t know what they did but a couple days later it was raining. Approaching the first stoplight on a slight downhill I had practically zero friction between the pads and rotors. Felt like grease on the rotors. Standing on the pedal with both feet and I was quite a ways away from the next car but I barely slowed down. And crunch.

After that I almost never took my car in for anything. Only when my health didn’t allow me to work on things, so I paid out the nose and things usually got done poorly anyway. Like $750 for a brake line that they cross threaded and it leaked, that was at Belle Tire while I was recovering from my esophagus surgery in 2020. So last summer I gutted and redid the entire brake system for less than that. This coming summer I’m welding in new floors.

The brakes on my first car seemed to work themselves out after the body shop. Then I did a drive axle, balljoints, exhaust, trailer hitch. Learned wiring and did some simple custom work both mechanical and electrical. Sooner or later I probably replaced most things on my cars and people I knew. Eventually I would be swapping engines, done 3 so far. Then learned to weld, and weld thin steel very well with a flux core machine. Lots of fixes out of necessity because for most of the years raising my kid I had no money.

 

[PaulOinMA]

I was VW/Audi for 32 years. My Escape, a trade-in at an Audi dealership in 2015, is my first automatic transmission since 1983.

Back to Ford. My first car was a '74 Pinto!

 

[PaulOinMA]

12 point and triple square are not the same thing, 12 point is 2 hexagons overlayed overtop of each other, triple square is just that, 3 squares overlayed overtop of each other. Yes it's definitely a German thing, my brother ran into it with his Volkswagen Jetta.

View attachment 292487

The packaging on my set states 12-point triple square.

 

[ABMax24]

The packaging on my set states 12-point triple square.

It's not the same thing, just like metric vs imperial you will find a few sockets that interchange, or work if the bolt isn't too tight, but technically 12 point and triple square are different, the diagram I posted above shows that.

 

[PaulOinMA]

The diagram shows two, 12-point to me. One is also a triple square.

 

[Ashful]

Back to Ford. My first car was a '74 Pinto!

... and you somehow lived to tell us about it.

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[NewGuy132]

Doing brakes is something that I have been doing for 15+ years on multiple cars. Every time I do them I buy something to make the job easier. At this point I run air tools and can get them done quickly. Long gone are the days of me jumping on a breaker bar to get a bolt loose. Also do yourself a favor and buy a good jack. Those jacks for changing tires are emergency jacks. I have had a car fall off of those. Luckily it still had the old rotor on.

 

[Ashful]

Doing brakes is something that I have been doing for 15+ years on multiple cars. Every time I do them I buy something to make the job easier. At this point I run air tools and can get them done quickly. Long gone are the days of me jumping on a breaker bar to get a bolt loose. Also do yourself a favor and buy a good jack. Those jacks for changing tires are emergency jacks. I have had a car fall off of those. Luckily it still had the old rotor on.

Better yet, jack stands. Hydraulic jacks are for lifting only, then setting the car down on a proper jack stand. Never work on a car, and definitely never get under a car, supported by a jack alone.

 

[NewGuy132]

Better yet, jack stands. Hydraulic jacks are for lifting only, then setting the car down on a proper jack stand. Never work on a car, and definitely never get under a car, supported by a jack alone.

Correct. Jack to jack stands. That is what I do. Starting off I would just use whatever emergency jack was included with with car. Way dangerous, but it works most of the time.

 

[PaulOinMA]

A young guy in RI on a car web site I'm on was killed several years ago when his jack failed.

A friend in college broke his leg when his jack failed.

 

[shoot-straight]

I use A floor jack and 3 ton jack stands.

 

[tlc1976]

Even a stack of solid wood that’s wider than it is tall is better than a jack. I’ve done that before. With just a jack you’re relying on a little rubber o-ring to keep the car from falling on you.

After I set it on the stands I try and push the car around. If I can’t move it then I know I’m good to go.

 

[Ashful]

I accidentally launched a 427 Mustang off jack stands in a tight garage once, about 25 years ago. Nearly made my buddy legless as the car toppled the jack stands and came down crooked, pinching him between the right front fender and the wall. Only real damage was a hole in the tranny pan, a ruined pair of underwear (his, not mine), and about 5 gallons of ATF all over my garage floor.

I say "accidentally" because I was the one who hit the starter, and failed to verify that the car was not in gear. In my defense, I knew I had left the car in Park when I had put the front up on stands the night before, but a curious house guest had been playing with the shifter (B&M Pro Stick forward pattern with reverse lockout) in the interim, and left the damn thing in gear. I also wasn't aware that the prior owner had defeated the neutral safety switch on the shifter, and had not yet developed the instinct to check all such things in triplicate, that usually only comes with age.