Parts hunt

[West Peterson]

This is not for Antique Parts, but it may be helpful information for those having troubles finding parts for relatively late model cars.

Last Saturday, with my 2004 Ford Freestar up on jack stands to replace a rear brake caliper, I called all the major suppliers of parts and none yet carried the caliper... not even the Ford Dealer!!! Too new.

So I called ProCare to see if they could fix it. They said they could. I asked them to make sure the caliper was available, and they said it could be in within 30 minutes. Knowing that the part was in town "somewhere," I called another ProCare and asked them where they get their parts. After naming the same major suppliers I'd already called, he also mentioned an independant that I'd not heard of before. So I called the independant, and sure enough, they just started stocking them.

As to why the caliper failed after less then two years is a mystery. And with 60,000 miles on the vehicle, the warranty was long gone.

[R W Burgess]

West, I had a similar problem with our 1988 Chrysler Conquest. We kept hearing this grinding sound. After a shop in town inspected it, we found the rear disc brakes worn to the point of ruining the rotor, at 30,000 miles!???

The mechinac at the shop said they noticed that rear disc braked vehicles seem to wear the rear brakes out first. Something to remember, I guess.

Wayne

[West Peterson]

Rear discs (rotors and pads) do not wear out first, in fact they should last up to 100,000 miles. But evidently the the calipers tend to wear out, freeze or plain malfunction. I've been told it helps to apply the emergency brake often to keep it from freezing. With an automatic transmission, the emergency brake rarely gets used by most people, and since the rear brakes only do about 15-20 percent of your regular braking, the caliper does not get used much. The same thing happened to my 1993 Mercury Sable.

In my opinion, rear disc brakes are a waste of money. Drums work just fine. Although there are more parts involved, they are not expensive, close-tolerance items.

[R W Burgess]

I think our guy was speaking of the Conquest only, in this case. As a matter of fact the car's making that noise again at about 53,000 miles. The problem is that our state inspectors are trained to pull and check the front wheel only, so all rear brakes are never looked at unless you do it yourself. It may be a brake bias thing with this MitsubitcaXXXXX(Chrysler), don't make me spell it. I know one thing, when you hit the brakes in this car hard, it will cause the seatbelts to bruise your chest.

Wayne