My brakes are grinding and vibrating

DMSHIVELY

MEMBER
1999 FORD ESCORT
122,000 MILES

1999 Ford Escort Wagon has severe vibration & rubbing (almost like breaks are not disengaging) in the front end. More so from the drivers side. The vibration does not improve when slowing down, almost gets worse.
Brake light is on sometimes but then goes off other times.
I have checked the emergency brake & it is off.
Loud grinding sound in addition to the severe vibration.

Friday, December 23rd, 2011 AT 7:31 PM

4 Replies

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

Sounds like you need to have the brake rotors checked for warpaged-start here

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Friday, December 23rd, 2011 AT 7:37 PM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
34,330 POSTS

Time for a brake inspection by your mechanic. If the linings are worn down, the backing plates will grind on the brake rotors. By the time you hear that on a Ford, (and on most newer cars), the rotors will be worn beyond the minimum legal thickness and will have to be replaced along with the new brake pads. If you let that go long enough, the rotors can wear so thin that there is enough room for the piston to fall out of one of the brake calipers. That is a severe safety issue, and if you cause a crash, there won't be any way of denying you didn't know that problem existed for a long time. Insurance investigators and lawyers love to find stuff like that.

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Friday, December 23rd, 2011 AT 7:40 PM

DMSHIVELY

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Thanks guys, I just had the front breaks (front brake disc pads & front disc brake rotors) replaced on December 20th, 2010. I can't imagine that they have worn down in a year? Any other thoughts?

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Friday, December 23rd, 2011 AT 8:23 PM

RASMATAZ