Help With Front Disc Brakes

To make a longer story short I've had a squeek on my front end for a while and I asked a mechanic and he said definetly the brakes(because of a longer description I gave) and I pop my wheel off and look. I have what looks like a groove starting in my rotor and there was some little metal pieces kind of like glitter I almost want to say on my pads. I need some direction as I am A: young and B: never worked on cars let alone had one before

Cut and Paste The following Links

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/verrive/brakes1.JPG

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/verrive/brakes2.JPG

Thanks,
Kevin

1. turn or replace the rotors.
2. buy new pads.
3. do both sides, dont be cheap or the guy in front of you when you don't stop will make you wish you had.
4. if you cant DIYS bribe the next door neighbor with beer after he's finished.

5. GOOD LUCK !! :lecture:

oh yeah
6. make sure your calipers are in good working order, or replace them too!
7. Don't take it to a brake shop. The mark up on the parts is about 300% and they will sell you everything or they will not stand up to what the consider a warranty...

Try to find Wagner rotors, they are solid steel and not a composite or light weight steel, they should run around $35ea, pads in the same ballpark and pickup some 'disc brake silencer', it's a kind of grease that keeps them from chattering. When you put the calipers back on make sure you torque the two bolts correctly or they will back out, fall out and you will be up the creek. You can get cheap torque wrench at the same store you pick up the parts at, around $35 or less. I have 4, a cheap set of 1/2" and 3/8" that I keep under my rear seat and a good set of the same sizes that resides in my tool box and god save that son of mine from laying his hands on those w/o asking.... You will also find the big 1/2" torque wrench comes in handy for torqueing the lug nuts back on to their proper torque...

I would also recommend blue threadlocker on the caliper bolts for saftey.

I'm so glad I found this thread. My new (on-trial) mechanic told me he saw the beginning of grooves on my rotors.

I'm printing out everything suggested here, incl. Wagner rotors. And what kind of pads should I buy? In very damp weather one morning, my brakes grabbed so hard at the bottom of my steep driveway that I almost ejected through the sunroof. I've read that there are metallic pads that are less susceptible to moisture. Good brand & approx. cost?

P.S. I guess I'll find out soon enough, but is it likely that my rotors have never been turned in 94000 miles? If they haven't, then I can have them turned instead of replacing them; right?

If they have been turned already, am I right in concluding from all the "Warped Rotors" posts that they should not be turned more than once, then replaced?

Jeep brakes should be 'warmed up' first thing in the morning, mine have grabbed from new but I find that if I put some pressure on the brakes when pulling out of the driveway the excess moisture gets squeezed out.

Rotors aren't too bad ($35 IIRC) so don't panic if they can't be turned. Raybestos makes a Ceramic pad that's $35 ish they put out very little dust and stop awesome. chechk them out. HTH, Some AZ's also carry a ceramic pad that's not on their website, you may want to ask them too. I have them on the Mrs. Caravan and they work very well.

I've had a squeal develop on my brakes as well. sry to hijack. The pads are not worn, there is a lot left but it seems that they only squeal when the rotors are hot. I notice if I hose them off after they start squealing to cool them down. Then it stops until they get hot again. Time for new brakes/rotors? or just put on some anti-squeak stuff?

Little off the subject but...

I just installed loaded calipers and new rotors, never turned any in 14 years, on my 90.

I bought a 92 a few weeks ago. What a difference in braking. the 92 is great making the 90 seam really poor.

Any explination from others who have the same experience?

I manually adjusted my rear brakes last night and WOW what a diff. it made. I can almost stop in half the distance of before, my clunking noise went away and I think that the front brakes will get a little relief now that I am stopping with all 4 wheels instead of 2. Thanks guys for all the info.
mason

sjx40250 said:

Little off the subject but...

I just installed loaded calipers and new rotors, never turned any in 14 years, on my 90.

I bought a 92 a few weeks ago. What a difference in braking. the 92 is great making the 90 seam really poor.

Any explination from others who have the same experience?

Click to expand...

They improved the booster somewhere around 91 or 92.

Considering how cheap new rotors are, I wouldn't bother to turn old ones. By the time they've gotten old enough to need it they're probably worn thin. Even if they have enough meat on them, it's almost impossible to find a shop that won't take off too much and leave them so thin they'll warp on the first hard stop anyway. Last time I had rotors turned it cost 15 or 20 bucks each anyway, a poor economy unless they're hard to find new.

It's quite possible that churchlady's rotors have not been turned in 94 thousand miles. When I bought my 95 at 110 thousand, it looked to have the originals in it, and it has the same set now at 212 thousand. I've never let the pads get down to the metal, so they surfaces are still pretty good. I expect that the webbing will collapse from rust or they'll just wear so thin they warp before they need to be turned.

I also would not bother to worry about a few grooves as long as they stop all right and don't shake too badly. I think many shops are too quick to remachine rotors.

Abugarcia said:

I would also recommend blue threadlocker on the caliper bolts for saftey.

Click to expand...

Threadlocker?? ANTI SEIZE!