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Have you ever done your brakes?


adallak

Have you ever done your brakes?  

214 members have voted

  1. 1. Have you ever done your brakes?

    • yes, i have
      181
    • no, i have not
      33


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The tool is used to turn the piston back into the caliper.

Turn the piston CLOCKWISE.

I've only ever done the front discs and used a clamp to push the pistons back to make room for the new pads. (This was on a 1995 STS)

Is there a different requirement / method to do the rear discs? On a 1993? Or is this only for newer models....

Thanks for your input!

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I have done more break jobs over the years than I want to remember,

I mean even when they used asbestos in the linings!

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  • 1 month later...
The tool is used to turn the piston back into the caliper.

Turn the piston CLOCKWISE.

I've only ever done the front discs and used a clamp to push the pistons back to make room for the new pads. (This was on a 1995 STS)

Is there a different requirement / method to do the rear discs? On a 1993? Or is this only for newer models....

Thanks for your input!

A brake cube (spanner) must be used to turn the piston in on the rear disc brakes. Some have used needle nose pliers, crowfoot wrenches, etc. but I found they take considerable force to start them moving. You can get the brake cube at any parts store for $10. It also applies to the '93 provided you have rear disc brakes.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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  • 2 months later...

hi guys,

i use to work for the chrysler dealership here in oak ridge, tn and we use to buy our parts

from a local retailer, at a very low cost, then charge out the customer a dealer factory

cost.........you see were this is going.........lots of profit. if the dealer can do it and get

away with it, then you can see dealer parts?? are not alway MOPAR, GM, MOTORCRAFT,

etc, etc....... aftermarket parts are just fine with me!

Hi Eric

Hard to tell if it's a good price.Rotors are rotors but there are many many price ranges for the parts and quality matters to me.Some places you can buy cheap ones wether it's a cheap price for a good part is another question Evrytime time I have purchased rotors there is a big price spread on them from various sources.

The spread can be as much as $25 or $30 all the way up to over a $125 a piece I don't know about the quality of various vendors as the the ones that cost more are actually better or the cheaper ones are just as good who knows for sure unlees you have tried them.On some of the cheaper rotors when you start to find out about them they are made overseas China,Korea,Cuba.I pass on these and try to find at least the ones(rotors) made in the US All you can do is find out which brand of rotors the guy used and do a price check on them..Did the guy use $100 worth of parts and charge you the rest in labor who knows Did he just turn you old ones(rotors) who knows Same goes with pads and calipers many vendors and grades..

Cheers

Jim

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i use to work for the chrysler dealership here in oak ridge, tn and we use to buy our parts

from a local retailer, at a very low cost, then charge out the customer a dealer factory

cost.........you see were this is going.........lots of profit.

With all due respect, I disagree totally.

First off, the dealer is defrauding the public by not using OEM parts when it is IMPLIED that OEM parts are being used and they should be punished for it, and it BETTER NOT be in the FINE PRINT in the work order that I signed EITHER, I personally would go to jail as I would have someone by their throat FOR SURE.

In addition, how CAN YOU, honestly say, that those cheap aftermarket brakes perform as GOOD as OEM? You don't think the customer had increased DUST?, lousy life?, possible squeeking, pulling? Come on. On and I KNOW, its very hard to prove, but it is a lousy thing for them to do.

We used to have a GM NORTHSTAR POWERTRAIN engineer frequent this site, and he used to say, "With and OEM/AC Delco part, the FACTORY does the testing and validating, with an aftermarket part, YOU do the testing and validating". Might the part work, yep, might there be compromises, darn right..

I REALLY REALLY HATE BAD THE CHARACTER DISPLAYED BY THAT DEALER

I once QUIT an ARCO service station because they charged the customer for an HVAC fan, when I found a loose connection. Well this is why I do my own work, incompetence and a lack of honesty.

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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  • 1 month later...

There are honest techs out there. If the dealer I work at put cheap aftermarket parts on and charged full O.E. price, I would call the news station myself. I do not think some O.E. parts are worth the price and/or are as good as aftermarket. GM may have tested it, but they also recall it now and then. For anyone who has had an EGR valve suck open from a chunk of carbon, only aftermarket gaskets have a screen built in to prevent repeat failure. I just did front and rear pads and rotors on my 95 STS. I bought the cheapest rotors and the best pads - all aftermarket. Rotors don't warp. They become thicker in one section versus another(thickness variation). This is caused from too much lateral run-out. Too much lateral run-out is a by product of a slightly bent hub, a piece of rust between hub and rotor, uneven torquing of lug nuts/bolts. Lateral run-out can be eliminated by resurfacing rotors with an "on car lathe", or shims. Cheap pads are a different story. Some don't stop well or last long. Others squeak and make lots of dust. I personally like severe duty pads from carquest. They don't squeak or make dust. They last just as long as O.E. Cost is about 60-70 dollars per axle with my dealer discount. Stopping power is awesome. Far superior to factory pads. I spent $200 on parts. Back on subject --- doing your brakes does not make you mechanically inclined. I showed a friend how to clean the carbs. on his snowmobile. The next few seasons he cleaned them on his own. He now felt he was mechanically inclined. Last year his sled was not running very well. Kept fouling his mag side spark plug. I figured out that he forgot to put a main jet back in. My point is, he could repeat a mechanical process. Without the mechanical inclination to what he was doing and why, he left out a critical part because he didn't understand what he was doing. If you don't know what you are doing on something as important as brakes, you are better off paying someone top dollar for cheap parts that are installed correctly. That would suck to get screwed like that, but not as bad as an early death.

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  • 2 months later...

Last week I replaced front and rear with carbon metallic brakes. So far, they provide some improvement in stopping power. But my main reason for buying carbon metallic is because they're suppose to last 3 to 4 times longer than semi metallic.

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Yup, just did my rear pads and rotors. Needed lots of PB blaster to get the emerg brake bolt out and also the caliper mounting bolts. Rotors had never been pulled before and they were stuck in their pretty good. Lots of good whacks and they came off. Most problem I had was putting the pads into the clips. What a PITA!

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

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  • 6 months later...
Yup, just did my rear pads and rotors. Needed lots of PB blaster to get the emerg brake bolt out and also the caliper mounting bolts. Rotors had never been pulled before and they were stuck in their pretty good. Lots of good whacks and they came off. Most problem I had was putting the pads into the clips. What a PITA!

LOL i have had similar problem.. with the pads and clips!! Took me 20min almost!!!

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  • 2 months later...

I can finally say yes, I've done my own brakes.

This weekend I did rear pads, rear rotors, and one rear caliper. Replaced the other rear caliper last winter when my brake lines rusted through.

The first side took me about three hours, followed the directions in the factory service manual and got stuck with a rotor that wouldn't come off. The second side took maybe an hour and a half.

I did make a mistake with greasing the caliper though. On the caliper mounting bracket there's a pin that the caliper slides onto and I greased it with all purpose grease instead of the syl glide high temp stuff. I noticed the boot was dry and figured I'd grease it, but totally forgot it needed high temp grease. I'm going to do my front brakes next weekend or the weekend after, and I'm going to take that caliper off and take the grease out and use the proper grease. Oops! :lol:

WARNING: I'm a total car newbie, don't be surprised if I ask a stupid question! Just trying to learn.

Cheers!

5% discount code at RockAuto.com - click here for your discount!

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  • 1 month later...
For some reason I have never had my rotors cut, I always felt better just buying new ones. I do the work myself though, I would guess it is much cheaper to have them cut by a dealer than to have them replaced.

Find a good machine shop and have them cut at a machine shop, going to the dealer is not necesary

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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