Hi…so my son recently took his Ford Ranger in to have it serviced (which of course Mom pulled out her wallet to pay for…do they ever leave home completely?), anyway, he had been complaining that the truck had a lot of bounce in it and I say it was from the brakes. The front brakes were down to 5% (yikes!) and needed new calipers and rotors. Lo and behold the shocks were fine and now the bounding has stopped. He says he doesn’t see what the brakes had to do with the bouncing but I said with no front brakes left it would put more pressure on the shocks and the bed of the truck being lighter than most it would cause more bouncing.
Who’s right? 
Who’s right?
You want me to get in the middle of a family debate?
What color truck did you say it is?
P.S.
What was that saying…oh I know, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Of course, if my mom bought me new brakes, I wouldn’t argue with her.
Hahahaha…guess you are right. I’ll let sleeping dogs lie and of course at least this way I won’t get fleas.
Thanks from Mom
When you say “bounce”, was it a vertical or side-to-side shake? Only when applying brakes? If more of a side-to-side, it could have been badly warped rotors (which have been replaced). Tell your son to quit riding the brakes, and they won’t warp so quickly. If the brakes were so worn that the front end wasn’t contributing to braking (all in the rear), it’s possible that the rear wheels were locking up and skidding/bouncing along the road. Any odd wear in the tires, especially in back?
He was probably experiencing the “bounce” or vibration from warped rotors. This is likely to be true if the truck was red. Red Ford Rangers would develop warped rotors if the brake pads were not replaced when needed and the rotors were subjected to heat that resulted from caliper compression.
However, no matter what caused the problem, any theory you have is right. He shouldn’t argue with you about it, especially after Mom paid for it. But the truth is, the brakes could have had everything to do with the “bounce, bounding, vibration”, whatever.
You didn’t say if the truck was red. Was it?
It sounds like you’re describing a brake pulsation due to brake rotor parallelism being way off. This can cause a vehicle to appear to be repeatedly diving forward whereas some brake rotor problems (the most common) cause a brake shudder or vibration instead.
There wasn’t any unusual wear on the rear tires but the pads in the front were down to 5% and everything was replaced. The rear brakes were done as well. He wasn’t really arguing with me, he just didn’t see how the brakes could affect the drive of the car so I figured I would see if my theory on the bounce was correct. I drove it once before the brakes were done and made him park it until we could get it in to the shop. The bounce was coming from the rear forward.
Really?? Only red Ford Rangers develop this problem? Interesting. Who knew? His is silver.
The truck is silver and thanks for the confirmation of my theory.