JT1999CamaroSS

My 1999 Camaro SS has 31,000 miles on it now and I'm thinking about refreshing the brakes. A quick call to the dealer (trying to keep it original) told me that front and rear pads ALONE run $101.00 a set! That's $202.00 for BRAKE PADS not including tax!!! I'm amazed. I back peddled quickly and tried Carquest who quoted $76.00 for front pads part no. BCD749 and $68.00 for rears part no. BCD750. I ran to rockauto dot com and found PN PGD750C for the rear at $44.79 and PGD749C at $55.79 for the front.

My question is, is this the going rate for brake pads? It seems a bit high for such a mundane part?

The price for rotors is also amazing at the dealership, $163.00 ea for fronts, $184.00 each for rears. They do offer AC parts for $113.00 front, $135.00 rear.

Of course, there is a catch, if you replace the rotors, the caliper holder brackets have "one use only" bolts! Does anyone have any experience with these bolts? Are they truly one use only? Or can you reuse them? They run $5.30 each for fronts, and $6.00 each for rears. I'm getting this info from the original chevy shop manual on the bolts.

I'd love to get my brakes right back up to new standards, but I must admit that while I'm willing to spend money on my ride that doesn't make it go faster, this seems like a really expensive brake job by any standards.

Is anyone out there willing to share their experiences with me and perhaps point me in the right direction? At this point I'm wondering if I can upgrade to an aftermarket application for the same price as staying "stock"

By the way, I'm not experienceing any chattering or pulling, no warped rotors and they look pretty good. I might not need rotors at all. Has anyone had a good experience with just getting them cleaned up at the local machine shop?

Thanks for any help,
JT

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

wow, my parents own a shop and they charge $99 for front brakes, $99 for rear. that includes new pads, turning the rotors, and al the labor.

Magic Man

I reused the bolts and put on some Hawk pads easy job to do on a weekend afternoon.

JT1999CamaroSS

Thanks for chiming in guys.
Kyle, are you sure they would charge that much for a camaro?

Magic Man, you didn't mention how much those Hawk pads cost? Are they ceramic like the originals?

Thanks again guys,
JT

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

flat rate, disc brakes are disc brakes. most cars take the same amount of time to do, and most of that "time" is because the rotors are being turned down on the lathe.

Magic Man

It's been awhile since I did them but I think they were green could have been blue.

waldershrek

iTrader: (1)

Wow....get some hawk pads and Baer rotors and do it yourself in the driveway on a weekend. It's easy and will be much cheaper

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

ebay rotors............a rotor is a rotor, i would say the ebay rotors are the cheapest out there, ive got em on my car and they are fine!

JT1999CamaroSS

I agree with your thinking. I've done everyone of my own brake jobs for the last 30 years at home. I'm just out here shopping for ideas on how to get the price down on these parts. My idea was to use GM parts to keep the car original but the $202.00 plus tax cost of dealership pads was just way out of line. These cars came with fantastic brakes and I don't see any reason for the "upgrade" kits, I just want to return the system back to new performance.

I don't even have any reason to believe I need new rotors for that matter. No shaking, pulling, vibrating, nil, nothing. I just thought I'd look into them while I was at it.

Well, tomorrow is my day off and I've cleared the garage so it's up onto the jackstands and all wheels off. I should know where I stand by lunchtime. I'll get back here and let you all know what I find when I take a hard look at 31.5K brake wear.

Thanks again for all the input,
JT
SLP long tube, tuned length headers, SLP short throw shifter, K&N filter in orig airbox setup, SLP bilstein springs and shocks, Auburn High Torgue Diff with GM 3.73 gears, SLP lightweight chrome rims, Skip shift, O2 sims, GoodYear Eagle F-1 GS-D3 tires (I love those tires, they rock) HyperTech tuner- not worth the money if you ask me, but it lets you get codes and change the speedo for the changed rear gears.

SS SLP2

iTrader: (8)

just my .02', I like OE pads, no noise/brake dust, if I were not going to use OE pads I would use "wagner thermal quiet", asto the rotors IF NO WARP or scorn I would only sand them with sand paper stuck on a round rubber pad in a drill, the most important thing you need to do is to seat the pad and/or rotors, do this :
wash the sanded or new rotors with sopey water then wask with brake clean, do not get brakes hot ubtill you seat/brake them in do this ::
make 8-10 slloooowwww stops from 30-25 mph rolling between each stop to allow cooling, then 8-10 sslllloooowwww from 40-45 mph rolling between stops you are then ready to go and stop any way you like
with this said I will say this : when I worked out in the public I would allways mechine or replace rotors in replacing pads
again just my .02' Johnny

Grimes

iTrader: (3)

Running Hawk HPS on the front and Bendix stock replacements on the rear. Screw the dealer rip off prices man....

2002_Z28_Six_Speed

iTrader: (19)

Rotors aren't all the same. I have always had better luck with factory rotor or a high quality replacement. You get what you pay for.

qwk93ta

iTrader: (13)

I bought rotors from Autozone last year for my Tahoe and they were warped within two days. I will not buy rotors made in China again.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

BINGO!!

There are the Chinese rotors, which are the stock in trade at the auto parts stores, and then there are the "good" rotors that are either European or Canadian made. I would look at Bendix, EBC, Baer, etc.....


A GOOD rotor for an F-bod will run at least $75-80 or more. Anything cheaper, it's a Chinese piece of crap.

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

just stating from experience, i bought the ebay "junk" and i have braked hard a LOT with them and they are just fine

qwk93ta

iTrader: (13)

Then you are one of the few that got decent cheap rotors......I was not so lucky.

Grifter

iTrader: (12)

I'm a mechanic so I just resurfaced my rotors and installed new Hawk HPS pads. The pads were around $80 something from ByunSpeed. You can most likely resurface the rotors since you only have 31K on them.

Grifter

iTrader: (12)

This depends. Newer GM rotors are AWFUL! I'm talking brake pulsations every 10K miles. I finally had enough with my 05 Silverado after cutting the rotors 3 times in 25K miles. I went to AutoZone and bought a set of rotors, they've been great for 10K now.

JT1999CamaroSS

I've gone through countless chinese rotors on my 93 Aerostar. Problem is, the costlier dealer rotors were every bit as bad. For an otherwise reliable, cheap and efficient peice of equipment, that Aerostar has always been a loser on brakes. It's a continuous rotation of pads every year, and rotors and pads every other year. I actually took it back to the dealer with less than 10,000 miles on it when it was new because of warped rotors. The Chinese rotors are junk, I would never put anything like that on my Camaro.

That said, I don't think I need rotors at all, at least not yet. I was going to take the car apart today but instead drove it to meet the local chicago camaro guys at a nearby Hooters. Somehow shop talk, good food, beer, and those great gals serving us won out over starting the brake job, go figure??? Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it up in the air and take a measure of things. I figure I'll probably just replace the pads, whatever I end up paying, and maybe sanding the rotors for a fresh surface, nothing more than that I hope. Otherwise I'll have to luck into some overtime at work!

I agree with LeadFoot4 that the general auto parts are chinese junk and should be avoided for anything but the lowliest of grocery getters. Everyone has their own budget and needs, but my camaro is my toy, it can sit and wait for the right parts.

Thanks again for all the input, sometimes these boards get so busy with high end mods that a lot of the regular maintenance gets left by the way side.
JT

wht01ws6ta

iTrader: (45)

I would stay away from the dealer based off of how much you pay compared to how much product you get.

You said that they brakes were working fine and you thought the stock braking was good as is, so if it ain't broke and YOU are happy with the performance then don't fix it/change it especially if you don't want to spend a lot on it. But you might just want to inspect the pads for wear and the make a decision on whether replacement pads are in order and while you're in there clean up and grease up the caliper hardware that is 10 years old now.

If you do want/need new rotors and pads I would recommend a good blank rotor (Brembo, ATE, Baer, etc.) and decent pads like Wagner thermo-quiet, Hawk, etc.

Also, you would probably notice a big difference in brake pedal feel just by flushing out the old nasty brake fluid and replacing it with clean DOT 4 if it has not been done recently (or since the car was born).