Rear Brakes on 96 - CEG Archives

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

Well after 10 years and 160,000km it was finally time to do a rear brake job on the 96. This was prompted by an inability to solve a bad shuddering while braking. I had the front rotors turned yesterday and thought that would solve the problem. No such luck, I spent 4 hours yeaterday trying to find the problem in the front of the vehicle. I checked every suspension component as well as the braking system but no sign of a problem. Today I decided to check the rears and gasped at what I saw

. The rear rotors were FUBAR and the pads were just as bad. The drivers side e-brake cable was seized along with every bolt back there. It took just shy of 4 hours to get everything disassembled and cleaned. The cleaning consisted of grinding off all the rust from the caliper bracket and it's bolts. When all was said and done the car was equipped with new rotors, calipers and pads and the result is unbelievable. I don't think the car has even stopped so smoothly. I the pedal feel is a little soft but I think there may be some air traped in the lines because I did the bleeding myself

. This job was well worth the frustration and should be considered by anyone with higher milage Contiqies still riding on the factory original rear brakes.

I'm riding on my 96's original rear brakes with 181000kms. They are drums though and I think they are in need of replacment. Never done drums though personaly. I want to but need to be shown how. Maybe a mod meet day thing?

Glad to hear this made such an improvement for you Rob. Is it possible that your problems may too have been the fronts but were masked by how bad the rears were?

Originally posted by mbb41:
Rob. Is it possible that your problems may too have been the fronts but were masked by how bad the rears were?

I don't think so, the fronts were all replaced late last year, rotors, pads and calipers.

Where did you get the new calipers from? I'm thinking about picking up some reconditioned ones from CT. My rear brakes are rubbing like crazy. I thought it was my wheel bearings but its the brakes.

I'm on factory rear calipers on my 97 at 140K km but the rotors and pads are only less than 2 years old. The factory front calipers retired 2 weeks ago due to the piston on the driver side began to seized up. Got the front calipers from Canadian Tire at $47 per each after returning the core. I also changed out the front rotors and pads - they seemed to have got some un-even wear probably from the partly seized piston, though they were only 3 years/40k km old.

When I did the front brakes I also tried to flush the system. The fronts went well but the rears were busted. I managed to snap the driver side bleeder screw after tons of liguid wrench. So I decided to give it up this time and try flushing it when I change out the rear calipers later this year.

Where did you get the rear calipers and how much are they?

I got the calipers through Chris Wong. They are remanufactured OEM Ford calipers. You should expect to pay about $100 per rotor plus the core charge which will be refunded when you bring the old ones back.