Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General SVT Brake caliper/pads

Ok, lately I've been in need of a front brake job. During my research I found a difference in front pad sizes for the 1999 'tour SVT. The guy at spmotorsports made it sound like the pads were only slightly smaller. Well to make a long story short, I ordered a set of rotors and pads from a local Checker auto parts store. They had only one listing for front pads for the1999 contour SVT, the larger ones. After getting them and sizing them up on my car, I realized I have the smaller set. I also realized the smaller pad set does not cover as much surface area of the larger SVT rotors as the larger pad seem to. For a little clarity my SVT along with many others are equipped with the appropiate larger rotors but the wrong undersized calipers/pads. What I want to know is this a manufacturer defect for the SVT. I'll admit it may be something not worth worrying about, but if the SVT was spec'ed for larger pads then thats what should have been placed on the it. Im thinking about taking this to the dealership and see if theres anything they will do about it, but I wanted some feedback before hand.

For more understanding read this page:
http://www.spmotorsports.com/contourbrakes.html

Not that it matters much to me, or that I ever noticed it before, but their write-up about the rear brakes is flat wrong.

Pupet, it's unlikely your dealership's going to do a thing about the size of your front calipers & pads, since the smaller parts used in later SVT's are not a manufacturing defect.

Somewhere in 1998 or so (?) Ford changed the calipers they used on the SVTs to the size you have now. It is not a defect, and as a matter of fact the swept area is only slightly different between the two. The "big" ones are not as wide, but taller. The "small" ones are shorter but wider (if that makes sense).

For a while, it was a crapshoot to see which car got what based on material supply (I suppose), but eventually everyone got the "smaller" front pad and caliper set.

For my furture knowledge whats wrong with their rear brake write-up. I'll need to prepare myself for that before hand.

Since all they had listed for the front pads were the "larger" ones, what do I need to ask for to get the right set?

Since you have an SVT, rear pads won't be much of an issue for you to worry about.

The problem with their writeup is that--in reality--the 4-wheel disc setup is completely de-coupled from the ABS option. Selecting ABS on a Zetec model would not get you 4-wheel discs (nothing could). On top of that, SP implies that MTX's were the only V6 models that got pie plates in the back, which is horribly untrue. All 1995 thru 1997 V6 models were equipped with 4-wheel discs, regardless of transmission. A few V6/ATX models in 1998 before the identity crisis hit may have been equipped as such, also. But from some point in '98 model year and after, the only way you got 4-wheel discs was to select six pots and a hand shaker.

Since I haven't had to work on the brakes on my SVT yet, I'm currently unfamiliar with the part number specifics, but it should be easy since there's pretty much only one size of pads for the back end of these cars.

Probably what you'll need to do for the front pads is look for the ones to fit a 2000 model...then you're pretty much guaranteed you'll get the right one, considering your prior experience.

The pads you need for the front are the SAME pads used on the SE V-6. One way to make sure is to make a tracing of your pad and take it with you to make the comparision. BAT also has a full size drawing onm their website. DO NOT go by your build date, mine was built before the supposed change over but I have the later pad set-up.

This topic had a long thread about a year ago, including a survey about build dates and brake size. You might find it on a search if you would like more detail.

As someone already mentioned, The late SVT (as well as the Cougars with 11" front brakes) use the same brke pad as the non SVT. Your parts store should have no trouble finding a set of the correct ones.

I believe that Ford just didn't document the change date very well. It was actually much earlier than the Ford parts catalog shows. Unfortunately, the rest of the industry depends on the accuracy of the factory information. The survey showed that the true date must have been much earlier, perhaps a year earlier.

It is also very unfortunate that SP Motorsports chose the wording they did about it being an assembly line error. You will find the same drawings in the BAT catalog, but without the same note about assembly line error. Having worked on an auto assembly line in my younger years I can say that although such an error is not impossible, it would be extremely rare. You can download the BAT catalog from www.batinc.net for comparison.