Jobs Done!

If anyone ever tells you NOT to get rebuilt calipers or to rebuild your own when you do a brake job on yourcar,they're not giving the best advice. I decided to pull mine apart and rebuild them and guess what! They needed it quite badly. I saved 150 bucks in the process and I learned a bit more about my car (rebuilt calipers $75each, rebuild kits $5 for two). As much as we'd like to think of the brake system as being isolated from the outside elements that's not entirely true. After 207 000km(my car's never had them done)stuff gets in as theseals getoldand the metal will start to corrode in the caliper.Brake fluid is a special oil designed to adsorb water moisture, but only to a certain degree. So if you have really old brake fluid in your system chances are you will have some corrosion in your calipers. No biggie if you catch it in time though. A little crokus cloth and you can shine them up new again. All in all I spent100 dollars CDN with4 hours of time (figureing things out,I could do it in two hours now)and I have "new" brakes on my civic.

I also turned my rotors. That cost almost as much as two new rotors from taiwanbut they had almostno wear.I'll take turned,highqualitysteel over cheap taiwanese rotors anyday. Just my opinion. So that's my first brake job experience on my Civic. Hopefully I won't have to do them for another 200K

 

well i only rebuild them when they wont work right.... but i do always flush the whole brake line system!

brake fluid is cheap and bleeding the brakes is realy easy with some clear tubing to fit the bleeder nipple.....

just stop when the fluids clean

 

Agreed! I don't want to do that again for awhile. Bleeding is much easier, just make sure the pistons aren't sticking.

Now i think my reardrums are making noise![:'(] There's just no end... I should have checked them out while i had the car in the garage. SOB!

 

well if your rear drums should be realy easy to swap out hell i gotta replace those every other year on my 66impala.LOL they CONSTANTLY go bad! i always get new ones for it.... best thing to do on rear brakes when swapen those out is just jack the rear of the car up.... that way when ya remove the brake line all the fluid doesnt run out and drain the whole system... and also will help when bleeding the brakes since the air will be back thier.

 

I'm su****ous, I let my girlfriend take my car to work the other day and that's whennoise started. I'm wondering if she forgot to take the E-brake off! My poor car!

Amazing how that impala eats through a set of brakes in just twoyears. I've put73 000km on my civic since I bought it in 2003 and I just did the brakes now. It must be a function of the car's weight and why the brake wear has been so slow. I guesseverything is coming due. I'll try and pull my back tires off this week and see if it is the drums, or an issue with the new padsup front. Thenoise seems to stop whenmorebrake pressure is applied which leads me to believe it's the rear drums.

 

o well my impala doesnt eat the pads... it eats the solonoids that push the pads out.LOL
but what do you expect for something that was made in 1966 and has MASSIVE drum brakes all the way around...LOL as well as all the drums are worn and cannt be turned... and they just cost to much to replace them.LOL
its just a old school with old school technology.... still stops fine. but definatly not a daily driver at all!

 

That's damn cool!

The grinding noise went away... I wonder if it was just noise from the rotors and pads burning in?? I'll have to see what the car does over the next few days when I get it out on a longer drive.

 

Well it's not the brakes, and that noise is still there only now I reallize that it's a creak not a grinding noise. It only occurs when I apply the brakes, light or hard the level of the creak remains the same so I believe it isn't the brakes. They just seem to cause the noise.

The sound slows down with the car(creak, creak, creak....)so it's definitly something that is turning under there. That should discount the Strut.I also get no feed back in the steering wheel which helps me eliminate the brakes as the culprit.

Could it be the bearing or drive shaft CV joint? Stupid noises! Anyone have any idea?

 

Like they say it 's the nature of the beast...
My wifes old car,(1996 Caravan) used to eat pads,rotors,drums every year or two.
That's why she driving a Honda Accord now.