Brake pads not contacting full rotor

[Spetz]

Hi guys,

I installed new brake pads and rotors recently on the front.
Both are reputable brands.

After about 100 miles of driving I notice that only about half the rotor is being contacted by the pad. I have included a pic I found on the net for illustration purposes.

Additionally after a medium/hard brake, smoke seems to come from the brakes.
Any advice?

 

[BRZED]

Sticky caliper slide pins? Did you remove, clean and lube the pins and clean and lube the guides when you changed the pads and rotors?

 

[Trav]

The pads are binding in the bracket. Remove the pads and check for rust under the retaining clips or excess material on the pad ears that could prevent it from sliding smoothly.
Use a little brake grease on the clips.

 

[spk2000]

Pads must be binding either not aligned correctly or sticking on the sides. If you have brake hardware might look into replac ing those as well as they get damaged easily.

 

[oldhp]

Originally Posted By: Trav
The pads are binding in the bracket. Remove the pads and check for rust under the retaining clips or excess material on the pad ears that could prevent it from sliding smoothly.
Use a little brake grease on the clips.


^^^^^^This^^^^^^^

 

[Spetz]

Not sure what you mean by retaining clip?
There are no shims or clips.
The only "clips" were on the pads themselves and looked like little springs that are push by the caliper. I believe these are to prevent noise rather than anything else?

I will have a look at the brakes and grease the pins, hopefully that fixes the issue

 

[Silverado12]

If you're smoking the brakes, you may have a bad flexible rubber hose. Try bleeding the brakes. You should get a healthy [censored] squirt when you bleed. If not, you're not passing fluid thru the hose.

 

[Spetz]

The rotors were covered in a black paint (to avoid rusting during storage). I've deduced the smoke was the paint burning off after they heated up the first time.

I've greased the pins (turns out they were stuck) and the car is braking better now, so I hope this issue is done with

 

[Hall]

Yes, I'm aware that this is an old thread....

Just changed the pads and rotors on our '14 Fusion, using Raybestos rotors and Wagner TQ pads. We bought this used and the history shows it was raised in Wisconsin for the first 3 years and now it's in Ohio with us. Both areas gets heavy salt use and it shows on the brake hardware ! Our son worked on cleaning up the brackets real well (almost down to shiny metal) and liberal use of 3M anti-seize on the bracket (pad ear locations) and Sil-Glyde on the pins, we thought things should have worked well. We ran into the same issue of the driver's side rotor, outside only, not getting full contact between the pad and rotor. Not near as bad (missing rotor surface) as the OP's example from the picture, but it was clearly noticeable through the wheels. We disassembled everything, re-lubed the pins, re-applied the anti-seize, but this time we did two things different: 1) We had the wheels straight vs turned (to allow easier access to the hardware and 2) put the lug nuts back on (all 5 - why not !) to hold the rotor flat while we re-assembled things.

Took it for a drive, did quite a few firm stops from 60+ mph down to 10-15 mph and the rotors are looking better already. Fingers crossed this took care of it.