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I need to put new brakes on my '01 Corvette. I have no knowledge as to which I should buy, semi-metallic or ceramic? The guy at the Chevy dealership said that I need rear pads. I plan to also replace the rotors as well. Should I stick with Delco? And, should I replace the front pads and rotors at the same time, even though they look pretty good?
My car has chrome wheels. What type of lug remover will I need so I don't damage the chrome nuts. This is my first go round with chrome wheels.
I used Powerstop rotors and ceramic pads. A good quality lug wrench will suffice. The wear ratio from front to back can be roughly 2-1. If you are sure the fronts "look pretty good", then I would just do the rears for now. If $ isn't an issue, I'd try to true up everything and get the braking maint on a "schedule," of sorts-meaning I would go ahead and do the front and rear.
What type of use does your car see? If it is street use, you may want to investigate Brakemotive. They have some great rotor and pad packages. I installed a second set on my Z06. The first set lasted about 100k miles.
Ceramic pads will generate less dust but have slightly less braking power than the semi metallic. For street use, the ceramics are fine and you won't notice the difference other than having significantly cleaner wheels
If your doing the rears do the fronts... For a high quality street pad I recommend the Carbotech 1521 pad.
The Carbotech Bobcat 1521™ is our high performance street compound that is our most successful compound. The Bobcat compound is known for its awesome release and modulation, along with unmatched rotor friendliness. Like our AX™ & XP™ line of compounds, Bobcat 1521™ is a Ceramic based friction material offering minimal rotor damage and non-corrosive dust. Bobcat 1521™ offers outstanding performance, even when cold, low dusting and low noise with an excellent initial bite. This compound’s virtually perfect linear torque production provides incredible braking force without ABS intervention. Bobcat 1521™ operating range starts out at ambient and goes up to 900°F. Bobcat 1521™ is suitable for ALL street cars, perfect for your tow vehicle, police cruiser. The Bobcat 1521™ compound has been found to last two-three times longer than OE pads you can purchase at a dealership or national retailer. That’s one of the beauties of Carbotech Ceramic brake compounds. Bobcat 1521™ is NOT recommended for any track use.
I need to put new brakes on my '01 Corvette. I have no knowledge as to which I should buy, semi-metallic or ceramic? The guy at the Chevy dealership said that I need rear pads. I plan to also replace the rotors as well. Should I stick with Delco? And, should I replace the front pads and rotors at the same time, even though they look pretty good?
My car has chrome wheels. What type of lug remover will I need so I don't damage the chrome nuts. This is my first go round with chrome wheels.
Thanks for all of the great replies. My car only gets on the road maybe 300-400 miles per year since I bought it back about 5 years ago.
I just found out that it needed front and rear stabilizers on it, so I let Chevrolet do it. Total coast was $460.00, plus tax. I keep my vehicles 100% all the time from the ground up, including the inside . I detail my vehicles twice a year and of course, in between washings, inside cleaning, and quick polishing on the outside. I only use light soap and rinse on the convertible top.
The brakes I can do in my garage. I just worry about scratching the chrome nuts, but I'll go to American Speed Shop and find out what they recommend, although I may not buy whatever it is I need from them.
Thanks for all of the great replies. My car only gets on the road maybe 300-400 miles per year since I bought it back about 5 years ago.
I just found out that it needed front and rear stabilizers on it, so I let Chevrolet do it. Total coast was $460.00, plus tax. I keep my vehicles 100% all the time from the ground up, including the inside . I detail my vehicles twice a year and of course, in between washings, inside cleaning, and quick polishing on the outside. I only use light soap and rinse on the convertible top.
The brakes I can do in my garage. I just worry about scratching the chrome nuts, but I'll go to American Speed Shop and find out what they recommend, although I may not buy whatever it is I need from them.
Are you sure you even need new pads? Sounds like the tech at the dealer may be looking for some easy money. He sold you new front and rear sway bars? Those are basically just steel bars and don't normally wear out. Beware of stealerships.
If you're worried about chrome lug-nuts then you prob should get ones that don't scratch. For a car that gets driven so little I would easily check the pads myself, probably get one or two more seasons out of them.
If you're worried about chrome lug-nuts then you prob should get ones that don't scratch. For a car that gets driven so little I would easily check the pads myself, probably get one or two more seasons out of them.
The rear pads are definitely in need of replacing. The fronts have about 80% of the lining remaining. I just wasn't sure if I should replace them at the same time, so that I would have matched pads and rotors all around. I am aware that the front does most of the braking, so the front is OK.
I was shown by the mechanic how much play that the end link had on the stabilizers, so I gave the go ahead to replace the ends on the stabilizer bar. Funny thing is that I never noticed any issues when taking a tight turn at a higher than normal speed.
If you don't track your car I would go with ceramic pads, mainly because you have chrome wheels and it will keep the dust low. If you can do your own brake change then you could have saved yourself alot of money and changed your stabilizer bar end links, it's not hard at all.
Brakes
