2004 Ford Ranger 4×4 4 liter left front brake pad wearing to metal

Ok. Have a 2004 ford ranger 4×4 4.0 liter, bought it new… one of the front rotors starting getting ground at maybe somewhere around 30k miles or so, and I dont drive really aggressive. I am going to replace pads and rotors, already did the pads awhile back, but I am at 50k miles now and time to do it right, just am concerned that if maybe one of my calipers had been seizing up and caused the one front break to burn down so fast, at the time, when the one side actually went all the way down to the rivets of the pad touching the rotor the brake on the other side of the front still had about 1/2 pad or so, give or take, it was a drastic difference, I’m going to do the work myself, but dont want to spend the money on new rotors and pads, just to possibly have a bad caliper act up again, if it did, how can i check that and feel confident of whether i have a caliper problem or not? my email is {removed}. you are welcome to post about this on your site if you like, but please email me directly if you could. Thank you in advance for your insight

That is a REAL dramatic difference in wear. As a professional mechanic, I have a pressure gauge that I hook up to both callipers (two gauges, one for each side.) Then I slam on the brakes, and check the readings on each side to see if the pressures are the same. And then I check to see that both sides released the pressure.

BUT, you’re not going to buy that outfit, so basically drive around the block and brake REALLY hard a bunch of times. Then quick lift up the front end and see if the worn side is sticking on. If it is, then open up the bleeder valve on that calliper. If the pressure releases and the wheel spins freely, then the problem isn’t the calliper, it’s something on the other end, like a sticking master cylinder or bad ABS modulator (if you have ABS.)

If the wheel is still sticking on even if you released the bleeder valve pressure, then the calliper is bad on that side. Also pay attention to the sliders on that calliper to make sure they aren’t binding. ALWAYS lubricate them with brake grease when you do a brake job so they don’t stick. Good Luck,