• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

What type of brakes do I have?

Thanks! I guess i'll order my pads and rotors from bat inc. Anything I should know when ordering them? And parts I should think of replacing since the rotors have oh 178000 miles on them? Thanks! :)
 
If you want to have a stiffer brake pedal and want to replace those 178000 mile brake lines you have, get the stainless steel brake lines that they sell. Your braking performance should be much better once all that's replaced :).
 
so I'll need more fluid...first thing I did was bleed the brakes. Are the abs on different lines though? Cause when the abs kicks in it's shuts the car off...the fluid I took out was never ever changed and black as dirt. flushed all lines last summer. pedal is somewhat fine now. and also what clutch fluid do I need? Do I need any bolts or anything spare and handy while I take on this job since it's so old? Thanks again! :)
 
Not sure about clutch fluid.. never done anything with a clutch before. Hopefully some of the more experienced people will answer the questions you have now. I answered all I could but I hoped I helped :).
 
The clutch uses brake fluid. Although there is a separate clutch master cylinder, it uses the same reservoir as the brakes. There is a hose from the brake master reservoir down to the clutch master.

Flush (bleed until clear) the clutch at the same time you flush the brakes.
 
Ah thanks I did not know this so it wasn't done. Could this cause a problem? Where exactly is that located? I ordered the brakes from bat inc today so hopefully I can get them on over the weekend or next week sometime. I saw on a couple threads though the rears took a week for some people. Seriously? How could I not get this done in a day or less?
 
My brakes took me a week because I was doing it after work for 1-2 hours at a time, and I had a really hard time getting some of the bolts to break free. Actual work time was probably 8-9 hours for all four corners, plus time to let the bolts soak up some PB Blaster. It was my very first time doing any sort of brake work, and all I had was the TCE instruction page (no pics) and my Chilton manual that details removing the rear caliper by stating "remove the rear caliper". Flying a little blind really made it take longer. If I had to do it again, now that I've done it once, it would probably take me 4-5 hours for all four corners.
 
Awesome thanks! Yah I have done brakes on a focus SVT before, but never a Contour. I hope I can knock this out in a day cause it's the only drivable vehicle I have at this time. Since I have an SVT with rear rotors I don't need to worry about parking brakes or anything do I? I read some threads about taking the rear parking brake off but thought that was for drums and I hope it is.
 
naw but I had a baer brake kit on the fofo ;) Mustand cobra fronts and vette rears...yah it was an odd thing but damn did it stop ;)
 
ok this was the brake job from hell. I spent 9 and I literally mean 9 hours doing JUST THE FRONT BRAKES. I am sure someone had to change the rotors over the 178000 miles this car has on it but I have no clue. I got the calipers off np. changed pads somewhat fine. Thought I HAD to take off the metal clips which I did NOT need to do. Pissed me off cause I think I might have messed up the drivers side one but it drove fine on the way home so I'm not worried about it too much. Anyways the rotors would NOT come off. I have no idea what kinda crap the last person put on this car but there was so much rust on the inside of the rotor I couldn't move it at all from the hub. I had to go get 2 grinding wheels to put in an electric drill and grind off all the rust on the inside of the rotor. OMG this was a pain in the ass. I striped to my boxers before I got into my car cause I was black from rust. Not rust colored, black. Not only did I use both of those wheels they weren't even enough. I could have used another 2. I also hit the back of the rotors with a hammer for God only knows how long. They would NOT budge. I have no clue how I didn't break anything else hitting these things for so long. I don't even want to attempt the rears cause the rears are worse then the fronts. No pads left and rotors are worse and the fronts were ridiculous. I'm frightened.
 
ok rears were easy as pie but the e-brake don't seem to work as good as before. I never took them off and didn't honestly need to. everything looked ok on the ebrake I suppose. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. any reasons why?
 
Back
Top