My mechanic:("Only a Ford dealer can service brakes")
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I have had an independent mechanic for about 10 years. Decent sized shop in a small town. I have a 2015 Ford Fusion, I've had since new. Nothing but routine services, until now. It needs brake work, which through 50 years of driving and owning cars, has always been a service any mechanic can perform.
The mechanic was asked to change my oil and filter, and rotate the tires. With the wheels off, he calls me into the shop, and shows me the brake pads and rotors need replacement. He then says: "These are electronic brakes, and only a Ford dealer can service them, it requires special tools, that we don't have".
First of all, the car has all the components of a conventional hydraulic brake system. So I'm wondering where the "electronic" comes into play. I ask him if he's talking about ABS, which has been standard on cars for sometime, he says no. We finally narrow it down that he is talking about the electronic parking brake, and he shows me some cables and I think some module, that are part of the rear wheel assembly. He says, it's specific to Ford, and nobody can do brake work on these except them.
I find it hard to believe that a mass production car, with hundreds of thousands on the road, can't have common brake work done, anywhere but the dealer.
Ford Fusion Electronic Parking Brake Service Mode Procedure
Set the ignition to ON.
Press and hold the accelerator pedal and place the EPB switch to the RELEASE (downward) position. Continue to hold the accelerator pedal and EPB.
Set the ignition to OFF, then set the ignition to ON within 5 seconds. Continue to hold the accelerator pedal and the EPB switch.
The EPB system will be deactivated, preventing parking brake application until service has been completed and maintenance mode has been deactivated. The yellow electronic parking brake indicator will be illuminated and maintenance mode will display on the message center.
Set the ignition to OFF, then release the accelerator pedal and EPB switch.
Deactivation
Carry out the following service mode deactivation procedure to activate the EPB system.
Set the ignition to ON.
Press and hold the accelerator pedal and place the EPB switch in the APPLY (upward) position. Continue to hold the accelerator pedal and the EPB switch.
Set the ignition to OFF, then set the ignition to ON within 5 seconds. Continue to hold the accelerator pedal and the EPB switch.
Release the accelerator pedal and the EPB switch.
The EPB system will fully apply and release the parking brake to guarantee sufficient air gap between the rear brake pads and brake disc.
Sometimes they'll send you to the dealer not necessarily because they can't fix it, but because they just don't want to mess with it.
Other times they may just be honestly ignorant of the workaround.
The engineering silliness gets old after a while, causing many technicians to leave the business.
One of the big problems I've seen is that people who are mechanically inclined don't always have the slightest interest in electronics or computers, and vise versa.
I have had an independent mechanic for about 10 years. Decent sized shop in a small town. I have a 2015 Ford Fusion, I've had since new. Nothing but routine services, until now. It needs brake work, which through 50 years of driving and owning cars, has always been a service any mechanic can perform.
The mechanic was asked to change my oil and filter, and rotate the tires. With the wheels off, he calls me into the shop, and shows me the brake pads and rotors need replacement. He then says: "These are electronic brakes, and only a Ford dealer can service them, it requires special tools, that we don't have".
First of all, the car has all the components of a conventional hydraulic brake system. So I'm wondering where the "electronic" comes into play. I ask him if he's talking about ABS, which has been standard on cars for sometime, he says no. We finally narrow it down that he is talking about the electronic parking brake, and he shows me some cables and I think some module, that are part of the rear wheel assembly. He says, it's specific to Ford, and nobody can do brake work on these except them.
I find it hard to believe that a mass production car, with hundreds of thousands on the road, can't have common brake work done, anywhere but the dealer.
One of my cars is a 2013 Fusion and had my front brakes done by my independent mechanic with no issues. (Car still has the original rear brakes on it and I just rolled it over 100K miles on Friday.)
Sometimes they'll send you to the dealer not necessarily because they can't fix it, but because they just don't want to mess with it.
Other times they may just be honestly ignorant of the workaround.
The engineering silliness gets old after a while, causing many technicians to leave the business.
One of the big problems I've seen is that people who are mechanically inclined don't always have the slightest interest in electronics or computers, and vise versa.
The caveat here, was that he needed "special tools", that were expensive and not worth buying. It also took a lengthy conversation to narrow down he was talking about the parking brake, and not the brakes as a whole. Communication skills have never been this mechanic's forte.
One of my cars is a 2013 Fusion and had my front brakes done by my independent mechanic with no issues. (Car still has the original rear brakes on it and I just rolled it over 100K miles on Friday.)
Rear brakes on a FWD should last well over 50,000 since the front dose 95% of the braking because no weight in the rear.
Rear brakes on a FWD should last well over 50,000 since the front dose 95% of the braking because no weight in the rear.
I know they are biased towards the front but I didn't expect to have 70% left on the rears at 97K miles.
But then again I didn't replace the fronts until 70K on this car, either. Been a great vehicle....and mine was one of the first new bodystyle Fusions to be produced. (Oct 2012.) So much for the "don't buy a car during it's first model year" theory. LOL....
(Fun fact, that theory is hogwash, by the way.....95% of the time Year 1 of the new bodystyle has less TGW's than the outgoing, older model. Now will year 2 of the new model be better than year 1, yeah, that's usually the case but it's real close. Main difference is sometimes recalls on random widgets are more common in year 1, but even with that year 1 of the newer style is usually better than the older, outgoing model.)
I know they are biased towards the front but I didn't expect to have 70% left on the rears at 97K miles.
But then again I didn't replace the fronts until 70K on this car, either. Been a great vehicle....and mine was one of the first new bodystyle Fusions to be produced. (Oct 2012.) So much for the "don't buy a car during it's first model year" theory. LOL....
(Fun fact, that theory is hogwash, by the way.....95% of the time Year 1 of the new bodystyle has less TGW's than the outgoing, older model. Now will year 2 of the new model be better than year 1, yeah, that's usually the case but it's real close. Main difference is sometimes recalls on random widgets are more common in year 1, but even with that year 1 of the newer style is usually better than the older, outgoing model.)
I'll put Fusion reliability against any sedan in that segment of the market. I've owned both generations. a 2007 and this 2015 I have now. Don't think I'd want one with the turbo engine, I've read a lot of bad stuff about them.
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