Has anyone had a problem with the rear brakes on a 06 Freestyle? I have 49,000 on mine and the pads just started grinding on the rotors. This seems premature. I checked the front pads and they are only about 1/2 worn but the rears are almost gone. Is this a problem with this vehicle or did I just buy one that was made late on a friday afternoon?
Thanks for your help.

 

Generally speaking, OEM's do strange things with pad compounds to get particular characteristics. 49,000 for OEM pads seems pretty reasonable. I don't know what kind of aftermarket pads are available, look around and replace with something 'premium' and be happy for another 50,000 miles. If you are feeling really ambitious, replace the front while you are at it too.

How do you like your freestyle, is it the seven passenger model? Are they all seven passenger?

Archie

 

I like the Freestyle real well, one of the best cars I've owned. We use it as our vacation car. From Ohio out west 3 times, Florida twice, Hilton Head twice,etc. I can as high as 30 mpg if I keep it off the interstates and keep it under 65. We usually average 26 or 27 when on vacation. Around home we get about 22 (my wife has a lead foot).

It's the 6 passenger model. With both the rear and middle seats down there's more than enough room for everything we care to haul. I believe they make a 7 passenger with the middle seat a bench seat.

The only thing I don't like about it is the travel of the steering wheel up and down. It only moves about 2 inches up or down.

Even though the Freestyle was short lived, 05 to 08, it continues as the Taurus X.

It's been a great car except for the rear brakes. I usually get a new car ever three or four years and have never replaced rear brakes on any car I owned. Fortunately, they are disc brakes and simple to change with the pads probably about $25 and about an hour of my time.

Thanks for the reply.

 

My wifes are past due on the rear at 40000, they pulsate bad thought it was the front and replaced them first, with no change. Looked at the rear and they are really tore up. They are quite a bit more than 25 dollars by the way, with replaceing the rotars i belive i will have about 150 dollars in to the rears doing the work myself.

 

Your right. I found out this morning that they are $36.95. I am not replacing the rotors, they still seem relatively smooth.

This must be a Freestyle problem. I've had cars with over 100,000 miles on them and the rear brakes were still ok.

Thanks for your reply.

 

yea my f350 has 80000 on the original front and rear brakes with tons of pad left, the freestyle has pad left on the rear just the rotors are all tore up. I figure the original rotors just must have been made of a poor material.

 

I have an 06 Freestyle and the answer is yes. So many people have had rear brake problems that Ford has released EXTENDED COVERAGE PROGRAM 07N10. “Certain 2005 through 2007 FWD & AWD Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle & Mercury Montego Vehicles - Rear Brake Wear”

This program extends the warranty coverage of the rear brake pads to 3 years of service or 36,000 miles from the warranty start date of the vehicle, whichever occurs first. If a vehicle has already accumulated more than 36,000 miles, this coverage will last until December 31, 2007. This program provides one-time replacement coverage, and is automatically transferred to subsequent owners.

This program has expired and I don’t know if it has been renewed. Here’s the story with my 06. The first set of pads made it to 20,000 miles. Ford replaced them and the replacements went to about 40,000 miles. I replaced them myself at 40,000 with some duralast gold pads (the only non-Ford pads that I could get locally). At 100,000 miles the pads aren’t half way yet. I replaced my front pads with the same duralast pads at 80,000 and they seem to be wearing fine. However, my front rotors have some pretty bad warping about 20,000 miles after replacing the pads. I plan to replace the rotors and put a new set of pads on it soon.

 

I have a '07 freestyle with the same problem and had to change both the pads and the rotors at about 20k miles

 

They have been problematic on the freestyle/500 platform. It has been eratic as some seem to last a long time. Mine have 27K on them so far. I have seen some worn out in 20k. Others like yours 40K. I would feel luck to get 40 out of mine. Fortunately ours will be a low annual mileage vehicle from now on anyway.

If you want to see premature, check out a set of Continental tires on one of these. Mine were gone in 24K. That is rediculous.

 

Yep - a major glitch on some, but not all, Freestyles. It's a fairly common complaint at the Freestyle forum Ford Forums - Search Results - do a search on 'brakes'. My '05 ate the rear pads/rotors at 21K (!!!), but the dealer took care of it. A few guys reported getting gouged $4-500 for pads/rotors, since they're considered "normal wear/tear" items, not covered by warranty. After enough owners screamed, Ford came out with the Extended Warranty Program noted earlier.

Hopefully, the Taurus X, which will be replacing the Freestyle this week, won't have the same problem...

 

My 05 ate the rear rotors at 19k. Since it is AWD the dealer replaced and upgraded all four rotors, calipers, pads and hardware. They told me that AWD's got everything upgraded and RWD's got just the rear. They said that the upgrade is the brakes from the Explorer.
Check with your dealer, they are probably still fixing this problem.

 

You should have received a notice in the mail about this.