Repair-It

306,xxx miles.

Without inspection I decided the rear brakes were shot. I ordered rear pads back when I did the front pads but set them aside until the rear started to get really bad. Then I ordered Stoptech rotors from Rockauto. They are slotted and directionally vaned for extra performance. They also have an e-coating on the rotor hat. Fanciest rotors I ever put on the car ironically.

I got some kind of EBC pad since Hawk does not make the HPS for the rear. It is my favorite street brake pad (have them on the front, and the CTS-V came with them from the previous owner) and I would have gotten it if they did. Anyway, these EBC pads are fancy and have a special coating to help ensure the rotor is ready to accept the pad material for proper bedding. Never seen that before.

The job went normally which is to say, slow and annoying. On both sides, the lower slide pin was almost dry. Poor design I guess (this was a big annoyance for everyone on the SS forum). I don't know if the boots seal perfectly and I suppose I should have made sure I had new boots (and perhaps pins) for this job. I can do that another time.

To ensure the caliper brackets were totally clean, I usually try to shove wadded up shop towel into the hole with brake cleaner. This time I got creative and shoved 4 q-tips into the end of my cordless drill, and tightened the chuck. I filled the caliper bracket pin holes with brake cleaner and stuck the q-tip in and turned the drill on. That worked awesome to clean it out. For grease I used the expensive and fancy Bendix blue ceramic stuff that comes highly regarded (although I think I used this last go-round and the lower pin was still fairly dry).

I can't wait to break in the pads. An initial test drive (the coating will take a couple hundred miles to wear off) indicated pretty awesome brakes. This might be the best the brakes have ever been on this car, since you may recall I was so happy with the HPS pads on the front after changing them a few months ago.

Oh, and the terrible grinding noises are gone. The left side had an almost gone outer pad and the right side had an almost gone inner pad. The rotors were also pretty bad.

Is this the last brake job I will do on this car? Probably not...but see the rust thread for more discussion.

kevm14 wrote:They also have an e-coating on the rotor hat. Fanciest rotors I ever put on the car ironically.

Actually I have run directionally vaned rotors on the front but never coated.

kevm14 wrote:On both sides, the lower slide pin was almost dry. Poor design I guess (this was a big annoyance for everyone on the SS forum). I don't know if the boots seal perfectly and I suppose I should have made sure I had new boots (and perhaps pins) for this job.

How long (time/miles) had it been since the last rear brake replacement? How often do you do brake services (clean and re-lube) on that car?

Adam wrote:How long (time/miles) had it been since the last rear brake replacement?

Last thing I did was new pads on old rotors. According to the Rockauto receipt, it was April of 2014. They were actually AC Delco pads. I also did a lot of work to restore the system to good operation (I also did new front rotors at that time, reusing the HPS pads which had some meat left - they lasted another 2-1/4 years). That's when I hunted down the caliper brackets, used new pins and boots. 2-1/2 years seems pretty bad but I can be hard on brakes (harder on my new commute for sure). Old rusty rotors probably decreased pad life also. The pins weren't totally frozen either but the lower one was not too greasy. The right rear lower pin was stuck enough that I couldn't turn it by hand in the caliper bracket.

According to Fuelly, that was around 284k, so it's been 22k since then.

How often do you do brake services (clean and re-lube) on that car?

I have done it many times between brake pad changes but this time I think I just went the straight 2-1/2 years. Considering I used new boots last time I'm kind of annoyed that they seemed expanded and not tight fitting. I should really replace those boots again I think. And maybe slide pins. Maybe I'll just wait a year and do it then, which would be an opportunity to relube.

The machining tolerances between the caliper brackets and guide pins is also disappointing and probably also related to having issues. New pins I guess could possibly be a little larger with new coating?