Sticky Brake Pad?

It sounds like the mounts had a buildup of rust or mud. Professional brake jobs involve a real lot more than slapping in new pads, and it sounds like you're aware of that. There are things we do to prevent noises and dragging brakes, and there are things we can accidentally do to cause those problems.

There's no normal "springy" action with the pads. When you see that, it's due to an anti-rattle clip or spring, and the mounting surface has to be clean. When you don't see that on the other side, it's possible the clip is just holding the pad tighter, not that there's necessarily a problem. What we don't want to see is a hammer, pry bar, or other means of force needed to install a pad. They should fit snugly on their mounts. Pads, by nature, are going to vibrate. We want to keep that to a minimum because that is the objectionable squeal we hear.

Ford has historically had a lot more trouble with calipers and pad mounts than all other manufacturers, particularly on trucks, but we don't run into that so much now on vehicles as new as yours. The first observation is you should be able to pry the piston back into the caliper housing with a flat-blade screwdriver before the caliper is unbolted. If that doesn't work, it's because crud has accumulated behind the piston, or a ring of rust or dirt has built up around the piston where it slides through the square-cut seal. Either problem will cause the caliper to not release, resulting in dragging brakes and overheated parts. If you ever have to resort to using a C-clamp to retract a piston, stop and replace the caliper or rebuild it. Rebuilding them used to be a standard part of a brake job, but that is done less and less today because professionally-rebuilt calipers with a warranty are rather inexpensive.

If the pistons do slide in freely, the next step is to drag a flat file over the piston and the caliper's outer fingers where they contact the pads' backing plates. You don't have to shine them up. You're just removing any dirt or rust that could prevent the pad from sitting squarely against them. Gaps due to specks of dirt help the vibrations and squealing to occur. Those same surfaces must be coated lightly with the grease you mentioned. That is a special high-temperature brake grease. It comes in little tubes with the set of pads, or any auto parts store will have it in small bottles with a brush in the cap. "Rusty Lube" is one I'm very familiar with, but there are many other brands. The pads are going to vibrate. The goal of the grease is to let them vibrate across the caliper rather than transmit the noise into that caliper where it will be amplified.

That grease is also used where the pads are held in place. For most designs, that's the ears on each end that slide into grooves on the caliper mounting knuckle. Many models use stainless steel inserts for the wear surface. New pads will come with new inserts. Be sure to use them with that grease on the side that touches the ears on the pads.

When the caliper slides on a pair of special bolts, inspect them for pitting or the chrome plating has lifted. It is never acceptable to clean those rust spots off. They will come back and impede the caliper from sliding and releasing freely. Coat the sliding surfaces with brake grease. Don't use any grease on the threads.

Replacing rotors is also more common than machining old ones because they cost so much less than they did 30 years ago, and on many models, just one wear cycle leaves them too close to the published legal minimum thickness to be reused. Be aware a lot of them come from China and will warp in a few months. All that is needed is a light machining, then they'll be fine after that. Most auto parts stores will do that machining for you for free. When we make parts from cast iron, we set them aside for three months to "age" before they get their final machining. The Chinese cast 'em, machine 'em, pack 'em, and ship 'em, then they age on your car. Once that minor warpage is machined out, they'll be fine. It's the people who demand replacements under warranty who run into repeat problems because every new rotor is likely to do the same thing. Put a little brake grease around the rotor's center hole where it contacts the hub. That will prevent a harmless crunching noise when you go around corners at higher loads.

If the new pads do not have a taper to their linings on the ends, grind off the sharp corners by hand. I used to do that at a bench grinder, then I found it was just as effective to do it with a flat file. Later just dragging those edges on the cement floor was sufficient. You're removing the "fingernails-on-the-blackboard" problem which can also set up a squeal. Most pads come with those edges tapered already, but when you have to do that yourself, I found it is only necessary to do that deep enough to cover the couple hundred mile break-in period. When squealing due to that issue is prevented during break-in, it won't develop later. I suspect it would even be sufficient to do that with a few swipes of a piece of coarse sandpaper. Don't get carried away by making that taper too deep as that will eliminate the squeegee action after driving through deep water.

New rotors will be coated with a protective coating of cosmoline or something similar. That must be washed off with Brake Parts Cleaner. If it is left on, that material can become embedded in the friction surfaces and lead to a squeal. The same with any type of grease including fingerprint grease. Once cleaned, handle the rotor only by the edges or center hole. Any grease that does get on a rotor can be washed off to prevent a squeal, but that has to be done before any parts go through a warm-up cycle. At some shops, the managers even insist the mechanic must throw away any pad that has had grease on it. They don't settle for cleaning them.

Once everything is back together, there's still one more important thing to avoid causing a problem. That is you'll need to stroke the brake pedal to run the pistons out to adjust them. In spite of what many people tell you to do, and even found in some service manuals, never push the brake pedal more than halfway to the floor. Crud and corrosion build up in the lower halves of the bores where the pistons don't normally travel in the master cylinder. When the brake pedal is pushed all the way to the floor, the rubber lip seals are run over that crud and can rip them. That results in a slowly sinking brake pedal that typically takes two or three days to show up. Rebuild kits are available to fix that, but in many cases, a professionally rebuilt master cylinder is actually less expensive. If that becomes necessary, we have dandy articles on how to bench-bleed and replace the master cylinder. You'll find a whole list of articles here:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles

for your reading pleasure.

If you have all of these details covered as far as mounting the pads, I wouldn't be too concerned when you find differences from one side to the other. It's common for one side to go together like we expect, then have to fight and do battle on the other side, especially when all kinds of oddball clips and hardware are involved. In the first hundred miles, perform a few rather aggressive stops from highway speed to assist the break-in process. Long after that, feel for heat around the wheels after a run on the highway that didn't involve much braking. They should be cool. If a brake is dragging, the wheel will be too hot to touch, and may even be smoking.

Let me know how this turns out or if I missed anything.