Lincoln LS 12.6" Brake Upgrade Confirmed

[TooManyToys]

Depends on who supplied the brake pads for the Neon. At the OE level when Bendix supplied the pads the steelbacks were too thin. When we took over supplying the OE pads we upped the thickness of the steelback due to both noise and bending mode. Unfortunately Aimco, who supplies just about all of the aftermarket industry with steelbacks, picked up on the Bendix initial spec's and never changed.

Chrysler has always been about price. You could have the very best part for all major characteristics and they would take the second level supplier if they could save money as long as the warranty was acceptable. Profitable for them but frustrating for the consumer especially if the failure rate was just outside of warranty.

OK, off my Neon rant.

If the brake pad's steelback spec is not correctly agreed to between the foundation brake supplier and the brake pad supplier, yes they can have issues. That could happen with any manufacturer,

 

[Broseph]

Im just bringing this back to avoid starting a new thread. I did this upgrade on my Gen I. So far it works great, but the only issue I'm having is pedal feel at Idle. I know I know...air in the lines. Not the case, I've bled the lines a ton

Turning the key to on position the pedal stays stiff so I believe a master cylinder (or is it booster) is ruled out. But once I turn the engine over it gets very soft. Now when cruising, accelerating ect. the brakes are pretty solid. Anyone have any insight? I thought maybe a check valve on the booster, since I believe the vacuum line goes from intake to it, but it appears to be a b!@$# to get to. Id appreciate any advice

 

[Kumba]

Im just bringing this back to avoid starting a new thread. I did this upgrade on my Gen I. So far it works great, but the only issue I'm having is pedal feel at Idle. I know I know...air in the lines. Not the case, I've bled the lines a ton

Turning the key to on position the pedal stays stiff so I believe a master cylinder (or is it booster) is ruled out. But once I turn the engine over it gets very soft. Now when cruising, accelerating ect. the brakes are pretty solid. Anyone have any insight? I thought maybe a check valve on the booster, since I believe the vacuum line goes from intake to it, but it appears to be a b!@$# to get to. Id appreciate any advice

I've got no pedal weirdness in any condition. If I pump the pedal a few times to bleed the vacuum out of the booster I can get something similar to what you described, but I do not know if it's the same thing.

Perhaps you have a leaking hose somewhere as well which isn't pulling enough vaccuum to the booster? You can kind of do a make-shift check of the check-valve by seeing if you can move air in both directions. You should really only be able to pull a vacuum. If you are able to push much if any air in (basically the hose volume going to the check valve) then it's probably bad.

If you have the tools, you can put a vacuum tester on it, pull a vacuum, and see how much it leaks down over a couple hours. That will tell you if the booster is going or you got cracks in something up to the booster. Then you can take a leak-down tester and try apply ~2 PSI of pressure and see if it leaks down in a couple hours. That would tell you if the check-valve is bad.

 

[CTX-SLPR]

As an update, here are the correct Akebono pads for a 2004 Jag S-Type Sport:

Front: EUR1065
Rear: EUR806

I tried the EU806's and they had to be filed down to fit in the rear calipers on my 2003. They are just ~1mm too wide on each side but otherwise identical to the OEM Ford pieces I pulled off. I'm not sure I'd list them as a drop in though they do seem to work without too much modification.

 

[M4rk]

Did you push (screw) the pistons back in correctly? I just put those in myself (rear only) with no issues. Very happy with them!

 

[CTX-SLPR]

Did you push (screw) the pistons back in correctly? I just put those in myself (rear only) with no issues. Very happy with them!

Just did rear only and yes I did screw in the calipers correctly. The problem is not the caliper piston, it was not fitting into the bracket with the slider hardware (steel shims) untill I took around 1mm off of each side of the pad at the contact patch. I believe these to be the factory original rear brakes on my 103K mile LS even though I've done the fronts twice including replacing the originals.

 

[M4rk]

Just did rear only and yes I did screw in the calipers correctly. The problem is not the caliper piston, it was not fitting into the bracket with the slider hardware (steel shims) untill I took around 1mm off of each side of the pad at the contact patch. I believe these to be the factory original rear brakes on my 103K mile LS even though I've done the fronts twice including replacing the originals.

Ohh, I see what you mean. My car never had the shims in the back, and neither did the two different sets of rear pads I have purchased (Wagner ThermoQuiet and now the Akebonos). I actually bought an aftermarket caliper hardware kit for the rear (pins were rusted), and the shims included were too big - presumably made to fit the front caliper brackets.

 

[CTX-SLPR]

Still acting up on me... Had smoke rolling off of one rear brake at a stoplight yesterday and there is definately more heat coming off of the rears than the fronts after I park.

I'm now worried about cooking the cailpers. When I took things apart to check the brakes I had to mildly squeeze the calipers with a C-clamp to get them back over the pads. The pistons did rotate a bit with the clamp and I lined the indents back up with the pins on the pad backs. I think my original problem might have misaligned the pin and it poked out and dragged.

 

[M4rk]

My rears are always quite tight and can be hard to put back on, and they do feel warmer at times.

 

[Kumba]

I tried the EU806's and they had to be filed down to fit in the rear calipers on my 2003. They are just ~1mm too wide on each side but otherwise identical to the OEM Ford pieces I pulled off. I'm not sure I'd list them as a drop in though they do seem to work without too much modification.

Mine went right in. Didn't have to modify anything and have probably 10K-mi on them at this point.

 

[Broseph]

I tried the EU806's and they had to be filed down to fit in the rear calipers on my 2003. They are just ~1mm too wide on each side but otherwise identical to the OEM Ford pieces I pulled off. I'm not sure I'd list them as a drop in though they do seem to work without too much modification.

+1 . I ordered both fronts and rears. My rears weren't too bad, but the fronts were waay too large for the bracket. I'm not sure if whoever supplied them through Amazon got them mixed up or not but I had to do some filing. The paint on the pad seemed kind of thick but I was filing past it into metal before they fit easily.

Part of my issue might have been from cutting the saddle clips, they got bent and warped a little bit causing them to "spring" off the bracket. Might have caused some resistance.

I'll have to order some new pads and OEM clips to see if the problem goes away in the future which will be awhile because these pads have great wear. After filing - 8,000k+ with no problems.

 

[Kumba]

Maybe I somehow got lucky on my pads or brackets. they literally slid right in and have been working great.

Maybe it's a case of tolerance stacking or varied mfg runs. Has anyone besides me done this upgrade with the Akebono pads without issue?

 

[M4rk]

Maybe I somehow got lucky on my pads or brackets. they literally slid right in and have been working great.

Maybe it's a case of tolerance stacking or varied mfg runs. Has anyone besides me done this upgrade with the Akebono pads without issue?

Akebono pads on stock setup, no issues at all. Everything slid in nicely.