Obligatory Brake Post

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 08/07/2019 at 00:02 • Filed to: JRITS

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The front   brakes on my truck started hitting the squealers a few weeks ago. Frankly I’m shocked they lasted this long. They were last done in October of 2011, at 69k miles. Eight years and 75k miles on truck brakes, is not too shabby!

Anyways, I knew they needed to be done sooner than later. This weekend I took an impromptu trip up to Road America with my daughters, to see the IMSA race. I could hear my left front caliper sticking and dragging. When I rolled back into our town Sunday , they started grinding.

I dropped $314 on new premium rotors and pads, and remanufactured GM original calipers. Today I took them to my buddy’s house and we swapped them all out. By we, I mean he did it, and I passed tools and shot the breeze.

The passenger side pads had about an 1/8" of material left, one on the driver’s side had about 1/16" of material, and as you can see the other side was completely gone.

Hopefully these brakes will last as long as the last set!

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 00:32

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My MINI has a wired scraping sound in the front left, but the brakes are only about a year old. Gotta get in there and have a look. 

Nothing > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 00:33

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Brake jobs? Geez, my cars barely last long enough with me to refill the washer fluid! 

Alfalfa > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 01:00

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You reminded me that I was going to do a visual brake check when I changed out the control arm in the Mazda today. Oh well ¯\_()_/¯

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 07:30

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I'm waiting for this scenario. The VW is 290,000 km and 17 years old. It's on its 3rd set of front pads, 2nd set of rear pads and the discs are original...the wear indicator wires have been damaged and jumped...and the mechanic now says just wait until they grind or don't perform. That was last year!

shop-teacher > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 08/07/2019 at 08:41

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I asked my mechanic to inspect my brakes at the start of last summer, and he thought they'd need to be replaced within a few months. He said the same thing, might as well drive it until they grind. If you're not going to be saving the rotors, then damaging them doesn't really matter. I'm really easy on my brakes, so I made them last another year, rather than a few months.

shop-teacher > Alfalfa 08/07/2019 at 08:41

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Whoops!

Its prolly fine!

shop-teacher > Nothing 08/07/2019 at 08:43

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Yeah, that's why Zoidberg and I don't believe you, when you say the 4-Runner will be with you past 100k miles.

shop-teacher > MiniGTI - now with XJ6 08/07/2019 at 08:47

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If a caliper has been sticking, they can wear out really fast. I first had the brakes done on my truck at 45k miles, but they did new pads and rotors, and rebuilt the original calipers. That job didn’t even l ast 25 k miles, because the calipers kept sticking. That’s why at 69k miles, I had everything replaced.

XJDano > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 09:05

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Mine on the equinox are due to have a look.

Nothing > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 10:22

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I’m getting old and settled. The only reason it may not see 100k with me is if it goes with my son when he’s old enough. I need a third car that I can enjoy for a bit, then sell....rinse and repeat.

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 11:12

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You got your moneys worth out of those. I had to do a pad slap on my Dakota last month for similar reasons. Heard the chirpers in the parking garage, got home and, yup almost all the friction material off of the two i nboard pads. Being the weekend, I did an advance auto order and swapped them out between thunderstorms. I drive it so little and it gets packed away for winter, so I’m not going to do the full brake job, which requires some new lines, till next spring or this winter.

Funny thing was, as soon as I finished my truck, the next day, my MIL said her car was making a scraping/grinding noise, sure enough, on me of the inboard pads was gone. Back to advance I go. Another pad slap as we are limping her car for another few months till we pickup a newer minivan for her. It was nice though. Nothing fought me, it was very relaxing to go through the replacement.

Those unplanned brake jobs are so much fun.  At least you had some company with yours.  

shop-teacher > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc 08/07/2019 at 12:19

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I did a slap new pads job on my old Roadmaster wagon, but my truck is my DD/family hauler, so I did the full thing.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 16:50

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Outside pad looks OK, but someone else suggested that also.  G oing to get in there and check it out tonight. 

Boxer_4 > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 20:33

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I dunno, I’ve seen worse ...

These were off a friends ‘03 WRX.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > shop-teacher 08/07/2019 at 23:14

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It was a little strip of dried leaf that was wedged such that it was rubbing the disc. Explains why it didn’t really change when applying brakes. Amazingly it’s been in there for about 3 days and I’ve probably done at least 300 miles.

shop-teacher > Boxer_4 08/08/2019 at 02:12

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Yeeesh!

shop-teacher > MiniGTI - now with XJ6 08/08/2019 at 02:13

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That's crazy! Cheap fix though :)

Urambo Tauro > shop-teacher 08/08/2019 at 09:35

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8 years is not bad at all!

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro 08/08/2019 at 09:51

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Nope! I can't complain one bit!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 08/15/2019 at 22:55

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$314?? Or does that also include beer?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 08/15/2019 at 22:58

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Change the oil every 5,000, rotate the tires, and inspect the brakes; that’s my ritual.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/16/2019 at 07:12

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No, just parts. Napa premium pads and rotors, plus remanufactured GM original calipers. I first did the brakes on this truck at 45k miles, and I just did pads and rotors and rebuilt the calipers. 24k miles later, they were junk because the calipers kept sticking. T hat time I put remanufactured calipers on, because I was tired of screwing around with them. That was in October 2011, and I just now had to redo them. Eight years and 75k miles on a set of for my truck brakes is pretty damn good. So, I did the same thing this time.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/16/2019 at 07:16

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I change the oil in the spring and fall (which is usually a big less than 5k miles), and I inspect the brakes when I switch my winter tires and wheels on and off. I always mark what corner the tires come off of, so I can rotate them when I put them back on.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 08/16/2019 at 07:22

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Lots of calpiers though, seems like. What for a truck is it?

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/16/2019 at 11:51

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2006 GMC Sierra 2wd, with drum rear brakes (apparently that makes a difference)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 08/16/2019 at 13:06

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Yeah I would think that rear drum brakes would be less common for that truck. What I am curious about, is whether the engine in the 06 is the same generation of engine as the vortec  4.3 that I have in my van. I know that the V8 in the v6 for my era of Safari van were related.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 08/16/2019 at 13:06

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I wonder when the 4.3 vortec as I know it was phased out. I'm sure I can figure that out on Wikipedia.

SafeBraking.com > shop-teacher 08/16/2019 at 14:17

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Looks like the brakes have the usual  GM tapered wear pattern caused by worn out hardware and slides , good call on replacing the calipers. Looks like the old pads used mechanically attached friction materials using NRS backing plates. Eight years and 75K miles! Good job! Most people would have used the cheapest parts and got only 25,000 miles because the pads would have rusted.  

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/16/2019 at 14:20

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The drum brakes are definitely less common.  They only put them on the later base model trucks. The 4.3 V6 was available still at that time. I considered a V6 5-speed regular cab work truck. It would have been a lot cheaper, but it wouldn’t be able to serve as my family hauler like the crew cab still does.  I have the 4.8L baby LS V8.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/16/2019 at 15:06

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I think the vortec 4.3 was available until like 2014.

shop-teacher > SafeBraking.com 08/16/2019 at 15:09

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Yeah, the drivers side caliper had been sticking because of that.  I made the mistake of not buying new calipers on the truck’s first brake job, back when it was 3-years old and had 45k miles.  They were indeed garbage 24k miles later.  That’s why I went whole hog on that brake job that lasted so long, and why I did it again this time.  I certainly got my money’s worth out of those front brakes!