Brake Pad Replacement?
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 341
Likes: 1
From: Fredericksburg VA
Cruise-In VII Veteran
Brake Pad Replacement?
I have just started getting a shutter when I put the brakes on. The harder the brakes are pushed the shutter gets worse but still not huge. It sounds like it is coming from the Passenger Side rear.
Back when the car had about 1000 miles on it, the stock Z51 pads were replaced with Ceramic Pads because the dust was driving me crazy. I did notice a small difference in bite with the ceramic pads but virtually no dust.
Anyway, I got about 36K miles on it now. I pulled the rear brake calipers off to look at the pads. The rotors do not have any scratches and look good to me.
Here are some pictures of the rear pads. I have not pulled the fronts, since it seemed to come from the rear. No squealing at all from this, just a shutter.
I am looking for input if you think these pads are really bad. I will probably go back to the stock Z51 pads and put up with the dust. Those just seemed to have better stopping power than the ceramics.
I do not track the car so I am surprised that the pads could be bad enough to need replacing so I could be looking in the wrong place if these look good to you experts.
Also, even though the rotors look fine to me, would you recommend having them turned or replaced if I put new pads on.
Thanks.
Passenger Side
Drivers Side
Back when the car had about 1000 miles on it, the stock Z51 pads were replaced with Ceramic Pads because the dust was driving me crazy. I did notice a small difference in bite with the ceramic pads but virtually no dust.
Anyway, I got about 36K miles on it now. I pulled the rear brake calipers off to look at the pads. The rotors do not have any scratches and look good to me.
Here are some pictures of the rear pads. I have not pulled the fronts, since it seemed to come from the rear. No squealing at all from this, just a shutter.
I am looking for input if you think these pads are really bad. I will probably go back to the stock Z51 pads and put up with the dust. Those just seemed to have better stopping power than the ceramics.
I do not track the car so I am surprised that the pads could be bad enough to need replacing so I could be looking in the wrong place if these look good to you experts.
Also, even though the rotors look fine to me, would you recommend having them turned or replaced if I put new pads on.
Thanks.
Passenger Side
Drivers Side
Last edited by Wcberry; May 18, 2008 at 09:25 AM.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 27,420
Likes: 64
From: San Clemente CA
I would replace the pads with stock pads and only resurface the rotors if they are warped. Clean them and rough them up a little. Make sure the calipers are moving freely. It's interesting the inside pad on both are worn and not the outside.
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 46,295
Likes: 2,596
From: Northern, VA
St. Jude Donor '15
"In honor of jpee"
I agree those are strange looking pads to me. And to my knowledge, the rotors aren't actually "turned" or shouldn't be. There is a method of creating a swirl pattern but it's done by machine, typically.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 341
Likes: 1
From: Fredericksburg VA
Cruise-In VII Veteran
Well by "turning" I meant this:
Rotors can be machined in a process known as "turning" which can be done on an ordinary lathe or on a brake lathe which may also be capable of "turning" brake drums as well. They typically can be machined only about 1 or 2 millimeters at most before they become too thin and must be discarded and replaced.
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,650
Likes: 268
From: Cape Canaveral Florida
St. Jude Donor '07 thru '26
NCM Lifetime Member
The pads do not look particularly worn to me, and I have run ceramics on my C5 (100K miles with no issues) and my C6 (10K so far) for years. I would be interested to see what the inside pad looks like when you pull it out of the caliper (I suspect it is not worn as much as it appears, but it just pushed into the caliper a bit).
A shudder can be caused by several things ... a "hard spot" on the rotor or pad (usually the pad, via a manufacturing flaw) is the most common in my experience. Frequently some good panic stops in quick succession can wear through the spot and restore the system to normal (easier to do on the fronts since the rears to so little braking ...). Turning the rotor can also help, but many places will not do it on cross-drilled rotors ...
If the Z51 pad dust irritates you, stick with the ceramics (either GM or Hawk). Nothing at all wrong with them.
A shudder can be caused by several things ... a "hard spot" on the rotor or pad (usually the pad, via a manufacturing flaw) is the most common in my experience. Frequently some good panic stops in quick succession can wear through the spot and restore the system to normal (easier to do on the fronts since the rears to so little braking ...). Turning the rotor can also help, but many places will not do it on cross-drilled rotors ...
If the Z51 pad dust irritates you, stick with the ceramics (either GM or Hawk). Nothing at all wrong with them.
