A few questions:

1-How much is normal to spend on
-brake pads? and I do the replacing, which I've never attempted, is it hard?
-should I get someone else to do them, and if so, how much will it cost?
2-Should I replace the rotors at the same time?

Just curious, car has almost 37,000 miles and the brakes are only squeaking a little on hard stops.

Thanks for any help! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

 

Replace the brake pads yourself. It couldn't be any easier. There's basically two bolts to remove and the caliper comes off. Just swap the pads. You should probably do the rotors too while your in there. Once the calipers are off, the rotors will just pull off.

I went with Raybestos ceramic pads up front ($69) and Raybestos semi-metallic pads in the back ($29). You might want to get Autozone rotors. They are inexpensive and they're good quality. OR you could try these:

http://jcwhitney.com/productnoitem.j...=78377&BQ=jcw2

They look great and they are the cheapest drilled/slotted rotors I've seen. I can't vouch for the quality though.

Don't pay someone to do this job. You'll get raped! Good luck!

Dan

<small>[ October 01, 2002, 07:16 AM: Message edited by: camaro_ls1 ]</small>

 

I can vouch for 13K miles of trouble free use on the JC Whitney rotors mentiuoned above. At 43K, I replaced the original pads with the OEMs from the dealer. Expensive, but 43k is exceptional mileage for front pads on a SS.

If your rotors are wobble/vibration free, just have them (properly) resurfaced, assuming this has not already been done, or if it has been done there is still enough meat left to do them again.

 

I think turning your rotors is a waste. You'll spend about $40 to do all four. You might as well put that to a set of new ones. OEM pads have decent stopping power but the amount of dust is horrible. Ceramics dust very little. The stopping power is fine IMO.

 

If you don't have any oscillation through the brake pedal when applying the brakes (i.e. warped rotors), there's no need to replace or resurface the rotors when changing pads.

Here's a link that may help with doing your brakes:

http://www.installuniversity.com/ins...ds_mwarren.htm

 

Brake pads prices varies greatly.
I pad $35 for the cheapest front brake pads (Carquest organic pads, NEVER buy them again!)
$80 for Hawk HPS pads, then $140 for Hawk HP+ pads (going to move back to Hawk HPS pads since the HP+ dust more than I excepted and squeaks under light braking conditions.

Paid $35 for rotors (AutoZone).

 

Agreed, the Install Univeristy site has a great
document on installing rotors and/or pads.

I recently used it this weekend to replace both
rotors and pads. Couldn't have been simpler.
Definately do it yourself.

I just started a web page, so you can see a few
pictures of the install I did.

http://www.host4all.com/~ls1/

Good luck!

-brian

 

thanks for all the help and suggestions! I got raybestos pads for $37 front and $32 rear, and I might try to install myself, if not i have a buddy with a shop here in town (only done drum brakes before, so this is brand new stuff to me).

Derek