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El Fiendo
06-10-2009, 10:35 PM
Ok, so I just got my '97 Ford Explorer 4Dr back from the shop where I had the rear brakes done and its still making a squeal on braking (sounds pretty definitely rearward). It doesn't do it every time, but probably close 75%-80% of the time. Also, it doesn't do it the entire time the brakes are applied. Many times I'll hear it, let off the brakes and reapply without said squeal.

The rear brake job needed to be done as I know for certain it hasn't been done in the 4 years that I have paperwork for my machine. The front brakes are 3 years old now (have the paperwork) and the shop tells me they're at 25% (which pisses me off too). Also, upon hoisting it up they found my emergency brake had essentially disintegrated into nothingness. I didn't want to fix this, I wanted to simply pack a tree stump with me and if I needed to hill park, bampf! wheel stop. Anyways, $450 odd dollars later (which is about average for this area) and I still have the issue of intermittent squeal. It's going to be heading back in, but I have no clue to tell them what to look for as I'm out of ideas. And my machine has enough non critical issues (she eats oil for starters, and has a bug in the electrical harness that causes either the 4high/4low or O/D indicators to flash, probably many more ghosts I don't know about) that if I were to tell them to start finding and fixing problems, I'd be faced with a bill on a machine that isn't so beloved.

Don't get me wrong, she's solid with good handling and plenty of power, but I'm not willing to drop a fortune into her. She was only ~$1600-2000 (I honestly can't remember). Does anyone have any thoughts on what could cause this other than brakes? Seriously just wing it out there. No 'what do you expect, its a Ford' please, I already realize that its a Ford.

erocker
06-10-2009, 11:11 PM
Ok, so I just got my '97 Ford Explorer 4Dr back from the shop where I had the rear brakes done and its still making a squeal on braking (sounds pretty definitely rearward). It doesn't do it every time, but probably close 75%-80% of the time. Also, it doesn't do it the entire time the brakes are applied. Many times I'll hear it, let off the brakes and reapply without said squeal.

The rear brake job needed to be done as I know for certain it hasn't been done in the 4 years that I have paperwork for my machine. The front brakes are 3 years old now (have the paperwork) and the shop tells me they're at 25% (which pisses me off too). Also, upon hoisting it up they found my emergency brake had essentially disintegrated into nothingness. I didn't want to fix this, I wanted to simply pack a tree stump with me and if I needed to hill park, bampf! wheel stop. Anyways, $450 odd dollars later (which is about average for this area) and I still have the issue of intermittent squeal. It's going to be heading back in, but I have no clue to tell them what to look for as I'm out of ideas. And my machine has enough non critical issues (she eats oil for starters, and has a bug in the electrical harness that causes either the 4high/4low or O/D indicators to flash, probably many more ghosts I don't know about) that if I were to tell them to start finding and fixing problems, I'd be faced with a bill on a machine that isn't so beloved.

Don't get me wrong, she's solid with good handling and plenty of power, but I'm not willing to drop a fortune into her. She was only ~$1600-2000 (I honestly can't remember). Does anyone have any thoughts on what could cause this other than brakes? Seriously just wing it out there. No 'what do you expect, its a Ford' please, I already realize that its a Ford.


If they properly fixed/replaced the rear brakes and you are still experiencing noise, they need to check the rear outer bearings. If the noise is closer to the center it's in the differential.

El Fiendo
06-10-2009, 11:13 PM
Would both of these issues (differential and bearings) only crop up once brakes are applied? Normal driving and accelerating is noise free, its only once brakes are applied. I guess I could tell them to take back and readjust the brakes but they did sign off on them once. Of course it should be under shop warranty so minimal cost to get them to check it again.

Btw, thanks for the reply.