fastbird232 Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Back in February I noticed the rear-driver's side brake pads had worn down so much that the metal was tearing the shit out of the rotor. Ok, so I replace all four sets of pads, turn the front two rotors and replace the damaged rear ones. Guess what? The passenger-rear rotors started getting torn up last night. Already getting gouges in them. The pads, obviously, are gone on this side, and there's not much left on the other side, either. This seems way too damn fast to wear. Is it just me, or is something really screwed up on these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Cutlass94 Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Could be a rear caliper locked up so when you drive, even when your not using the brake, that one caliper is. Check the piston in that caliper and see if its locked up or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannymik Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Could be a rear caliper locked up so when you drive, even when your not using the brake, that one caliper is. Check the piston in that caliper and see if its locked up or not. thats a good reason...you never smelled your brakes burning? I had that problem in my Cutty on the passenger side and it was 2 different issues. One was that my parking brakes were messed, so they liked to lock up once in awhile(replaced the lines). The 2nd problem was that my rear calipers needed all new hardware in them...applied some anti-sieze and they worked like a champ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastbird232 Posted August 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Nope, smelled nothing. Never ran the brakes hard, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannymik Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Nope, smelled nothing. Never ran the brakes hard, either. well they have to be dragging to wear that fast...maybe your front brakes aren't doing there job correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pabz Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 I have been struggling with this for so long now, currently i am not even driving my car cause the pad is worn down to metal. I even upgraded to the 94+ style rear break and had the same problem with brakes not lasting. I am going to put in carbon metallic pads rather than the cheapos, this should last alot longer. When i switched to carbon metallic on the front, i stoped having to change brakes evey year. People are always surprised that we have to use super duty brake pads for these cars. I think M!DAS here in canada have a lifetime garantee on there pads, i always wanted to get these and just have them replaced free every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Cutlass94 Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 I use semi-metallic pads all the way around on my car and I dont have a problem with pads, best part is that there garanteed for as long as I own the car! But as this one guy came into the store the other day buying new pads and rotors and calipers all the way around his truck! said that his wife didnt smell anything of the sort of brakes burning. So maybe they dont have that smell depending on what pad your using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 if you go to Midas for their lifetime brake pads, that's all you get under warranty, you still have to pay the labor to have the pads swaped out. someone mentioned that your front brakes may not be doing enough of the load work when you're stopping, I'd look further into this, it could be a sign of a bad master cylinder - too big of a brake line in the rear, bad/sticking front brake calipers, or any millions of other things the only real (quick) way to check it is to put a pressure gauage at each wheel and see what kinda brake pressures you're getting - unfortunately a 3500 PSI brake pressure gauage will cost more then most of our cars. --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastbird232 Posted August 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 I wish I had the cash to properly diagnose and fix the problem, but I've only got enough to have the pads replaced. Everything else will have to wait. I'm thinking maybe the fronts aren't doing enough work, because I've let the car coast in neutral at highway speed and didn't notice it slow down too quickly (like it would if the rears were seized shut). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5speedz34 Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 When you changed the pads did you lube the sliders or no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveFromColorado Posted August 6, 2005 Report Share Posted August 6, 2005 here's a little test... when driving the car and you hit the brakes (kinda hard) do you feel the back end drop, or raise up, or the whole car drop... if it drops, your rears are doin' more work, if it jumps up, it's the fronts doin' more work, if the whole car drops then you've got a bit of too much rear, with still some front working (more of a 50/50 mix) the rears should only do between 20% to 30% of the work, where the fronts should do between 70% to 80% --Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalgorn Posted August 6, 2005 Report Share Posted August 6, 2005 Hmm... my front right brake is grinding like a mofo now that I fixed the line to the brake booster. I guess my fronts weren't doing much braking when I had that little vacuum leak... now it grinds when I'm stopping and it's REALLY loud as I'm coming to a stop. There's a rubbing noise while I'm driving too. I'll fix that next weekend though. Don't have the time this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey b Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 I wouldn't rule out seized front brakes either. They might not be sliding out and wearing, thus putting more work on the rears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gp90se Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 pull the rear calipers of, push the piston out with the brake pedal, spray it down with lube (high temp silcone spray) and put it back together, see if that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairdo12 Posted August 20, 2005 Report Share Posted August 20, 2005 I have been replacing my rears every 10 months now because of that. This year I tried something and replaced the rubber brake hose to the caliper and maybe it has nothing to do with it but after 3 months I took the wheel off and to my very surpize everything was still looking great. Some old guy told me it might be possible that the metal mesh inside the hose breaks down and swells or something. I dont know if that could be holding the pressure in the caliper longer... didnt sound right to me but I tried it anyways. Over the years I've replaced the calipers, rotors and pads 4 times and the E brake cables twice and that did nothing to help the problem. I'd try them hoses... maybe you'll get lucky. (keep in mind my hoses were never removed from the metal brake line for 13 years and I had to cut the metal line and replace a small section of that too... its really not that hard and cost like 5 bucks for the metal line parts and 10 for the hose) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Cutlass94 Posted August 20, 2005 Report Share Posted August 20, 2005 Just a little something that I use on my caliper slides that Im not sure too many people do is silicon dielectric compound. Shit works wonders. Just put a good amount on the slides, and put a little more on if the rubbor boots take a little off when you putthem back in. Ive used that stuff forever and my calipers slide like a car going 80 trying to stop on ice. But I literally have maybe a little more than half inch of caliper movement. I havent replaced anything besides the normal wear and tear. But try that stuff out because its better than the grease that you can use. Who knows, maybe this will help stop replacing everything since the calipers have more/better movement. Question: For those that always have problems with brakes, how much does you caliper actually slide on the slides? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdeday Posted September 6, 2005 Report Share Posted September 6, 2005 I have had a similar problem with my 95 Grand Prix; I solved it by replacing the brake hose to the problem caliper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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