05 STS brake feel quest

It's pronounced "chassy." Brakes, suspension...things that make the car fun or a death trap
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: 05 STS brake feel quest

Post by kevm14 »

On my commute I validated that both the brake feel is better (again, still not 100% but 100% of what I am not sure...), and that rattle/clank on bumps is definitely gone.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: 05 STS brake feel quest

Post by kevm14 »

This is kind of funny: It seems the harder I am on the brakes, the better they feel. I'll take it.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: 05 STS brake feel quest

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14 wrote:This is kind of funny: It seems the harder I am on the brakes, the better they feel. I'll take it.
But what makes little sense to me is if I am NOT consistently hard on the brakes, the feel somewhat reverts. It's never as bad as it was before at least. A couple firm stops and it gets noticeably better for a while. These may be GM pads on the car now. They probably prioritize rotor life, silent operation and low dust over stopping and feel. I will probably try another pad but I think these are going to last a while. I guess I can always hammer on the brakes...haha

All that said, I do still need to flush and bleed before I get too far ahead of myself.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: General STS thread

Post by kevm14 »

Finally flushed and bled the brakes. A couple of points to note:
- All caliper bleeders had the factory rubber dust caps on them which was encouraging
- I sprayed all with PB
- The fronts were quite difficult to break free and I could have easily snapped a bleeder if I wasn't careful. Careful means torque on it until it just moves, then go the other way. Work it back and forth like 20 times until it begins to turn more freely.
- The rears required no effort to break free
- First I syringed all the old fluid out of the reservoir - I have forgotten this step before and it just adds a bunch of time to the process, not to mention needlessly pushing crappy reservoir fluid through the entire system. The fluid in the reservoir was quite dark which is what I expected. This MAY have been the original fluid. 127k and 12+ years is more than enough reason to flush it.
- Once the reservoir was empty I filled it back up with clean fluid.
- I elected to use my Mity Vac to vacuum flush requiring less brake pedal pumping from Jamie.
- Direction on this car is as follows: right rear, left front, left rear, right front. I think the SRX and CTS-V are the same.
- I probably used a quart to a quart and a half to get all the junk fluid out of there.

Road test did in fact reveal better brake feel. It is still not as good as the SRX has mysteriously become but it is better and I think it will improve with time. Don't ask me how that works but it does.

I also drove down my new favorite local twisty road to test. I put the suspension in Performance and the trans in Sport. The tires are limiting and there's definitely some understeer from the extra weight over the front end. Yet this car is still quite satisfying to pitch around - the steering actually felt more lively than I expected. I even got stability control on one corner, just for a second. The CTS-V has significantly higher limits, as it should.
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