I just did a front brake job on my 2006 Ford Focus but forgot to find out exact torque spec for the brake caliper bracket bolts.
I torqued the caliper sliding pin to 25 ft-lb. On the internet, some say 21 ft-lbs, some say 25-30 ft-lbs. I figured even if the correct torque is 21 ft-lbs, there should not be any adverse effect from tirquing it to 25 ft-lbs. I assume the engineers have built in that much safety room. By the way, the bolt head was hex (allen) 8mm.
Now, the real question.
I had to replace the rotors as well, because they were warped. The bolts already had thread-locker on them, so it was difficult to tell what the tightening torque was by judging from how easily they came out. On the internet, opinions are divided. Some say 40-45 ft-lbs, and some say 98 ft-lbs. Considering the bolts were 15mm head and grade 10.9, it is difficult to believe they would take 98 ft-lbs. The last time I did a brake job was more than 10 years ago, and I remember the caliper braket bolts took 45 ft-lbs, which seems reasonable.
So, for now, I torqued them to 45 ft-lbs, and I plan not not driving the car until I can find out exact torque. Unlike the caliper sliding pins, which I felt comfortable torquing them to 25 ft-lbs, I cannot torque the caliper brackets to the lower (40-45), higher (98) or the average of the two values I found on the internet.
Does anyone have the official Ford shop manual to lookk this up?
Also, what would be the recommended torque for a 15mm head grade 10.9 bolt, like the caliper bracket bolts? I would think the specific tightening torque for these specific bolts should be close to the tightening torque of the generic 15mm head, grade 10.9 bolts.
Thank you very much for reading this thread.
Roger
