I have a 1997 Lincoln Town Car with 90.000 miles on it. It has gone through four sets of brake rotors and due for another set, averaging about 18,000 miles per set. The problem each time is warping of the rotor disc. The last set installed were heavy duty with additional design to promote better cooling, but didn?t last any longer. The car is in very good shape and I enjoy its ride and mileage is 18/24.
Question:
Is this normal for this model, or is there a better replacement rotor out there that would last longer?
Is it all of the rotors, just both front rotors, or just one particular rotor?
Have the calipers been replaced?
Are you using OEM rotors and OEM brake pads?
What about the master cylinder? I had a 94 that starting eating rotors (under warranty), and they finally replaced the master cylinder, and that fixed it.
I have 3 Crown Vics, same running gear as your town car, they all have over 100K miles, one has 160K miles, and they all still have their original rotors. I get 50K miles out of a set of brake pads…Are you replacing the rotors with FACTORY parts or aftermarket stuff? Are the brakes dragging? A good brake shop should be able to sort this out very quickly.
One option would be to install the Cop Car parts…
Normal only if your Town Car is used for taxi service in San Francisco. As other s have pointed out on other posts, warping dicsc can be due to poor quality discs or your shop torquing the wheel studs too tight, or both.
Our Nissan Sentra has 125,000 miles on it and it has still the original rotors. Our Caprice went 200,000 miles on 2 sets of rotors and 4 brake pad replacements.
Good questions.
All rotors were replaced each time. First three times with original replacemet parts including brake pads and after market parts later. Never tried to determine if it was one particular rotor that caused brakes to shutter when applied. Calipers were replaced, even last time about 18,000 miles ago, but have never replaced the master cylinder.
One possible cause is a dragging pad heating up a rotor. Since shops use caliper clamps to push the pistons back in they may not be noticing if it’s not sticking badly.
Try jacking up each corner of the car and spinning the wheels by hand. If one does not spin readily, that’s the problem.
This is admittedly a longshot. But it’s worth a try.
Additionally, when they do th enext replacement, ask them to measure the lateral runout of the rotors. One should be out of spec. Track this and you may find the source is one particular rotor with an intermittantly sticking caliper. Changing the caliper may solve the problem.