Soquel

My brakes suck. 65,000 on stock brakes so I'm guessing its about time to change them. Does anybody have a write up on how to do it? Do you have to change the rotors when you change the pads? if so I'm thinking of getting new stock rotors and some hawk pads. And finally fixing my ghetto parking brake

ThunderZ28

iTrader: (7)

Very easy to do...
unbolt the 2 bolts on the brake caliper, and off they come..
and if your replaceing the rotors just slide the old ones off, and the new ones on..
and then make sure you compress the plunger back in on the calipers.. slide the new pads in place, and then put them back on and bolt up..hope I didnt leave anything out... I'm in a bit of a hurry...
Daniel

Nick99Chevy

65K isn't very many miles for a NBS. I got 85K out of the rears and the fronts were still good at 113K.

JRsilverado

When I was having my tires balances at about 68k, they said I still had about 2/3 life left on the pads. Of course most of that is highway driving. I have 92k now and I will be checking them this weekend.

I would actually check the condition of them before I went out and bought the parts if I were you. Just my 2cents.

nonnieselman

iTrader: (10)

i have 130k miles on my front brakes and they still look good. but i do clean them a lot.
on the rear i changed them out at 120k miles because they were squealing. they still looked good also but some new pads helped the squealing.
and i have some vibrations in the front so i think my rotors are kindof warped?? not sure, even after i got my tires balanced and aligned...
any suggestion on brake rotors and pads?

sorry for hijacking post.

goshawk23

my rears lasted to about a tad over 100K and i pulled a camper and other stuff semi regularly. the fronts are still going strong with 122K on them. so before you plunk down the money, check'em out. but they are easy to change. on the front you need a star tool, can't remember the size or official name. like the allen wrench but a star.

TG02Z71

iTrader: (2)

As far as how long they last it really depends on if your city or highway driving. Even if you city drive that will depend on traffic. If you have to constantly ride your brakes because of all the weenies around you that don't know how to let off the gas and coast instead of riding their brakes!! You get the point. Its a visious circle of brake wear!!
I have a little less than 60k on mine and the backs look worse than the fronts. The e-brakes on mine are toast and I never use the damm e-brake????

Soquel

So could I just keep the stock rotors change out to hawk pads to have better braking? I do want to fix my parking brake though, for that I need new shoes and the new spring/clip thing?

Bish

You could but you would get the best improvement by replacing rotors as well. Depending on how the parking brake failed, you may just have a bad parking show...or it may have damaged the rear rotor. The new parking brake shoes should come with the new clip. At least mine did (from dealer).

If you are going to keep the truck for a while, I would do all 4 rotors and pads and flush with good fluid. Nothing like fresh brakes.

Soquel

Thanks for the help guys, The only thing I'm not confident on is how to change out the parking brake shoes. Are there any special methods. And what are the torque specs I need to know?