2001 Ford F-350 SD Brakes Problems

“I have a 2001 Ford f350 ipday I was attempting to launch my boat at a lake just east of boise, id, when the brakes gave out and I almost went into the lake. I got the vehicle back to my house and checked the wheels and noticed an in ordinate amount of brake fluid ion the right front wheel well. Being a retired ntsb investigator, I pulled the wheel and found the hydraulic brake line had come into contact with the tire which wore a hole in the line allowing the fluid to leak out.”

“I have several complaints with my truck....all of which were potential safety risk. First was the transmission failure mine and my dad's ,both failed at similar times at identical trucks. -after Ford gave us the run around we took the trucks to a repair shop and had transmissions fixed.....note that the failure of the coast clutch in transmissions prevented the trucks from engine breaking. This was particularly serious when towing, which was what this truck was made for. My dad found out the transmission failed on his way down a mountain pass in colorado pulling a 11,000 pound fifth wheel. …”

“The brakes started pulling left around july of 2003. Three different dealers worked on the vehicle. Instead of fixing the problem, they changed the toe-in to counteract the truck pulling left on braking. As a result, the truck pulled right from excessive alignment change, which caused an accident. The dealer initially changed the rotors, and calipers, but it did not solve the problem. The only reason I knew that the dealer changed the alignment is because I took the truck to a goodyear tire store for an alignment before taking it to the dealer for the brakes. …”

“While breaking the vehicle sometimes pulls to the right or left, sometimes to the point that the vehicle is almost impossible to control, other times we get a server vibration while breaking again it is almost inpossible to control,we are geting only about 11000 miles out of a set of breaks, this unit is an ambulanceand although Ford has replaced the break pads three times and the rotors twice in 33,000 miles this doe's not resolve the problem, now that the warranty will soon end they are now telling us that it is the ambulance manufacture problem. …”

“Design flaw front brake calipers have no pad retention device and the thickness of the backing plate is less than or equal to the distance from the caliper cage to the rotor. This, combined with the lack of wear indicator tabs means that the brakes function properly right up until the friction material is almost gone at which time there is the scraping noise. At this time the pad can and has on my truck, slid right out of the caliper and landed on the ground. This leaves one trying to stop a one ton truck with the brake cup directly on the rotor. …”