Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    This thread is for car repair talk! Do you do it? Will I die if I try?

    I think my car's brakes need servicing. So I'm learning about brakes, and how to service them.

    I'll check tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure the pads are worn down. Read some tutorials, and I have the tools I need. I'll order the pads of Amazon, and hopefully don't need to change the rotors, too.


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    @lorne-kates if I were you I would have the rotors checked and either replaced or machined if they still have some meat left of them. If you just replace the pads your brakes will have more life, but will not stop as well or last as long as they would if you have the rotors replaced or machined. Rotors get grooves in them and also warp over time. If you do not have them replaced or trued up you exacerbate the problem in the long term.


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    As for the first part of your question:

    @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    This thread is for car repair talk! Do you do it? Will I die if I try?

    Yes, I do all of our car repair. I for some reason enjoy it. Changing brake pads is pretty damned easy. You should not die if you have a good attention to detail and make goddamn sure you assemble everything correctly and tighten all fasteners well, you should be fine. Disc brakes are much easier than drums, FWIW.


  • Banned

    As long as you have appropriate tools and remember to put back in all the parts you took out on the way, you should be fine.



  • I changed my oil a half-dozen times before I did the math and figured it's not worth the money, especially since you have to drive to a shop anyway to dispose of the old oil.

    Now I just do windshield wipers basically. My car's a hybrid so everything's electric which means:

    1. It's really, really reliable
    2. If something broke, there's roughly zero chance I could fix it without electrocuting myself

    I bought a dash cam for it and got about halfway to installing it then figured, meh. What are the odds it'll ever record anything. (So far: nothing would have been recorded.) And I'd have to pull apart half the wiring in the top console and I'd be likely to break the lane following or auto-dimming mirror or something so I never finished.


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    @blakeyrat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I changed my oil a half-dozen times before I did the math and figured it's not worth the money, especially since you have to drive to a shop anyway to dispose of the old oil.

    Meh. For a lot of us it is not about the money. We enjoy it.

    Also I find that if I go somewhere to get an oil change it takes an hour minimum (drive there, wait while they change the oil, drive home). I can change my oil in 10 minutes. Tops.

    I keep oil, oil filter, air filter, headlights, indicator lights, wipers, washer fluid and other miscellaneous maintenance items on hand for all our vehicles. When restocking and a vehicle is getting close to being due for brakes I pick those up and put them on the shelf so they are ready to go. It saves time and I enjoy doing it.



  • @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @lorne-kates if I were you I would have the rotors checked and either replaced or machined if they still have some meat left of them. If you just replace the pads your brakes will have more life, but will not stop as well or last as long as they would if you have the rotors replaced or machined. Rotors get grooves in them and also warp over time. If you do not have them replaced or trued up you exacerbate the problem in the long term.

    😕

    I'm not saying you are wrong: check the rotors too to make sure they are in decent health. But they are supposed to last waaay longer than the brake pads; you should typically be able to get at least 100 000 km out of the rotors before it's time to replace them (I :donkey:-pulled that figure; it is probably much higher -- we first replaced them at around 300 000 km).

    Slightly related: Last year we noticed a scraping sound from our brakes. I figured that the rusty edge of the rotors was scraping against whatever you call the cradle that holds the brake pads. Spent a weekend cleaning them up -- scraping noise persists. Out with the trusty Haynes manual. It turns out that on this car there is an L-shaped piece of metal that you attach behind the brake pads. As they get worn down, the tip of the L starts scraping on the rotor to warn you that it is time to change the brake pads. Huh! I suppose that's handy for the garage that knows this shit when troubleshooting, but how's that for discoverability. Of course the user manual that comes with the car doesn't mention anything about this (I checked afterwards).


  • FoxDev

    @mikael_svahnberg said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    whatever you call the cradle that holds the brake pads

    Calliper


  • kills Dumbledore

    Part of me likes the idea of being able to diagnose and fix an issue with a car.

    whenever I try; after 3 hours of scraped knuckles, sockets getting lost inside the engine and increasing frustration I inevitably end up with the initial problem no closer to being fixed and at least one additional problem I caused myself. I then remember why I pay people who don't hate this shit and know what they're doing, and curse myself for forgetting that this exact thing happened last time



  • Brakes are a nice easy one to get started with, since there's not much more work in it than changing a wheel (which you already know how to do, right?) and it's hard to get wrong. The bits only really go together one way. If the spotty YTS at your local garage can do it with half an hour's training there's no reason you can't.

    Just remember to support the car properly when you're working under there. Even if you're changing a wheel, chuck the spare underneath while it's up on the jack just in case, and when you've changed it chuck the one you took off under. If it falls it'll damage the sill a bit and maybe the wheel, but that's better than dropping the whole car to the ground and crushing you ;-)


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    @mikael_svahnberg said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I'm not saying you are wrong: check the rotors too to make sure they are in decent health. But they are supposed to last waaay longer than the brake pads; you should typically be able to get at least 100 000 km out of the rotors before it's time to replace them (I :donkey:-pulled that figure; it is probably much higher -- we first replaced them at around 300 000 km).

    We are both right. It was an error in transmission or reception.

    Yes, they do last a long time. But you should have them turned (machined) when you do pads. 100,000 kms sounds like a reasonable service life, for me anyway. I drive a bit aggressively. ;)


  • 🚽 Regular

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @mikael_svahnberg said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I'm not saying you are wrong: check the rotors too to make sure they are in decent health. But they are supposed to last waaay longer than the brake pads; you should typically be able to get at least 100 000 km out of the rotors before it's time to replace them (I :donkey:-pulled that figure; it is probably much higher -- we first replaced them at around 300 000 km).

    We are both right. It was an error in transmission or reception.

    Yes, they do last a long time. But you should have them turned (machined) when you do pads. 100,000 kms sounds like a reasonable service life, for me anyway. I drive a bit aggressively. ;)

    In the UK you can get an MOT failure for the brake discs being rusty, not anything structural just significantly rusty.

    In light of this idiocy I just replace them too whenever I have to do pads, it's only 10 quid for decent Mintex discs.


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    @cursorkeys said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    In light of this idiocy I just replace them too whenever I have to do pads, it's only 10 quid for decent Mintex discs.

    In the area I live in there is virtually no place that has a real brake lathe anymore so I generally just replace them also. But they can be machined. The last time I had rotors machined was by a friend with a vertical milling machine, using a fly cutter and a rotary table.

    The shops that do brakes have machines that turn the rotors on the car, which to me seems like a silly way to do it.



  • @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Meh. For a lot of us it is not about the money. We enjoy it.

    I guess that's a very important, if not the main, deciding factor on whether to do something yourself. If you see that as a chore, unless the financial gain is huge, don't bother, you'll just get the feeling that you're wasting your time.

    If, on the other hand, the idea of taking something apart and rebuilding it makes you all tingly in the wrong (right?) places, well, then, forget about the time and cost and go ahead!



  • @remi I, for one, absolutely hate working with cars. They're dirty, the one nut you need to unscrew is always in a place where you just can't reach it, and it is stuck with grease and rust. Any job that ought to take no more than one hour invariably ends up eating a full day and includes bruises, scraped knees and knuckles, and a deep and profound insight into the use of profanities in at least four languages.

    But I am also a skinflint, and am loathe to spend money on something I could have done myself.


  • Fake News

    @lorne-kates You must be getting worried that mechanics will start to question what's been happening in your van. Just put down some plastic tarps, you should be good.


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    @mikael_svahnberg said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Any job that ought to take no more than one hour invariably ends up eating a full day and includes bruises, scraped knees and knuckles, and a deep and profound insight into the use of profanities in at least four languages.

    I might give that a try next time I want to learn a new language. I only speak 2 at the moment


  • Fake News

    On a meta-ish note: My parents' generation generally isn't that handy, and now my generation is having kids... which makes three generations of not-so-handy people. This was knowledge that fathers traditionally passed on to their children. Even worse, this lack of knowledge is a factor in vehicles becoming more and more complicated to work on, requiring special machinery and really technical knowledge, thus making it expensive even just to have someone else do it for me. I would love to be able to work on my own modern vehicles (and teach my kids how to do so), but I know of no one who has the ability, time or inclination to teach me that stuff; I'd need to go to a trade school to learn a lot of this shit, and I have a full-time job already (plus raising my spawn).


  • Java Dev

    And if you think changing a wheel on a car is bad, try changing wheels (or even the track) on one of these: :p

    0_1505909011149_Bandvagn_206_Revinge_2015-scaled.jpg

    For the record, one of these got 52 wheels in total. 13 for each track.

    In proper car-related news my car has this weird issue I've not been able to solve yet. Sometimes, it stutters so the ride gets a bit shaky. And there's a loud hissing noise whenever I press the gas pedal deeper than about halfway. All this after my exhaust system clogged and it pushed pretty much every air-related hose out of their sockets, although I cannot find any more loose ones after putting them all back (and securing them for good measure). Exhaust system has also been replaced, obviously. It just baffled me and my more motor-knowledgable friends, And the workshop found nothing either.


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    @lolwhat modern vehicles really are not that difficult to work on. I find them to be in many ways easier to work on than older vehicles. The onboard diagnostics takes care of most of it for you. Read the error codes, look up what they mean and most of the time it will lead you right to the problem.

    Couple that with the vast resources afforded us with the internet and you can find a solution to any problem.

    Contrast that with an older engine with a carburetor and a points ignition. They could have you chasing red herring for hours.


  • Fake News

    @polygeekery And what happens if the electronics themselves are fucked? On top of that, with increasingly draconian emissions and safety regulations, we need to put up with turbocharged four-cylinder engines, ten-speed transmissions, a dozen air bags, etc. Oh, and with a non-electronic engine, if shit breaks, you can do a patch job and limp to your destination, as long as you have fuel and spark. Can't really do that with EFI - gotta wait for a tow.

    Actually, tell ya what: Let's get together and have you show me how to replace brakes and rotors - or something else that should be do-able without fancy tools. Even better, come over and help me fix up a motorcycle.


  • :belt_onion:

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I can change my oil in 10 minutes. Tops.

    Meh. If I go to an oil-change place it typically takes them 10-15 minutes, and they also look at cabin air filters, fuel filters, transmission fluid, and other things I'd either forget or wouldn't care enough to look at normally.

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @lolwhat modern vehicles really are not that difficult to work on. I find them to be in many ways easier to work on than older vehicles.

    Maybe if you're talking specifically about engines. I just noticed last night that one of my headlights is out (I just got a safety inspection two weeks ago!). The family car when I was growing up: Unclip the headlight housing, yank it out, replace bulb, done. My car: Apparently I need some sort of special panel removal tool and apparently it's really a two-man job to remove the housing so I can replace the damn thing. What the fuck.

    @lolwhat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Even better, come over and help me fix up a motorcycle.

    Depends on the motorcycle. I have two friends who ride together (no :giggity:). One has a relatively new motorcycle that still has a carburetor and it's simple enough you could take it all the way to pieces and put it back together again. The other has a motorcycle more oriented towards racing, it uses fuel injection, and if it breaks you're kind of fucked. One of them had a much easier time during their ride through all of Central and South America.


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    @lolwhat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    And what happens if the electronics themselves are fucked?

    Then you have a good starting point and know where you issue is. Start looking at the ECU, make sure it has power, etc.

    @lolwhat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    On top of that, with increasingly draconian emissions and safety regulations, we need to put up with turbocharged four-cylinder engines, ten-speed transmissions, a dozen air bags, etc.

    If your issue is with the engine there are only 4 things that will keep it from running: fuel, air, spark, compression. Figure out which one of those is the issue and troubleshoot from there.

    @lolwhat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Oh, and with a non-electronic engine, if shit breaks, you can do a patch job and limp to your destination, as long as you have fuel and spark. Can't really do that with EFI - gotta wait for a tow.

    That all depends on what the problem is. A couple of years ago my wife was on her way home and got within 1/2 mile of our house when her vehicle just up and stopped running. I go meet her and pop the hood. I took a key and pushed the Schrader valve on the fuel rail and a little gas came out and felt it safe to assume that the engine was getting fuel. I had no reason to believe that it was not getting air. I pull a plug wire and stick a screwdriver in the boot and have her crank it. No spark. I check fuses in the fuse block in the engine compartment and one was blown. I pull a fuse from something non-critical and put it in that spot and it fired up and she drove it home.

    Next day I check the coil packs and one of them was out of spec on resistance. Replaced it and it was good to go.

    @lolwhat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Actually, tell ya what: Let's get together and have you show me how to replace brakes and rotors - or something else that should be do-able without fancy tools. Even better, come over and help me fix up a motorcycle.

    Sounds like fun, but you have kids, you know how little free time I have. ;)



  • @atazhaia Ironically, the rubberized track probably is more difficult to work with than the old fashioned metal-links kind, where you can just pop out the locking pin and back the vehicle up 5 feet and all the wheels are (relatively) accessible.


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    @heterodox said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Maybe if you're talking specifically about engines. I just noticed last night that one of my headlights is out (I just got a safety inspection two weeks ago!). The family car when I was growing up: Unclip the headlight housing, yank it out, replace bulb, done. My car: Apparently I need some sort of special panel removal tool and apparently it's really a two-man job to remove the housing so I can replace the damn thing. What the fuck.

    Yeah, there can be a bit of fuckery there at times. On almost all of our vehicles I have to remove something to change the headlight bulbs. Battery, air filter box, something. Front turn signal bulbs were apparently designed for access via toddler hands.



  • @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Meh. For a lot of us it is not about the money. We enjoy it.

    Well correct for the fact that I don't enjoy doing anything at all. But still, I especially don't enjoy tasks that cost me more time and money than the alternative and also get my hands all grimy.

    And like I said, in my State it's law that you have to recycle your oil, and guess where you go to do that? Right. The oil change shop you "saved a trip to" by doing it yourself. Blah.

    I do my own plumbing though. Partially because it's not very difficult work, and mostly because I've hired about 3 professional plumbers and every single time they did a really shitty job.



  • @blakeyrat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I changed my oil a half-dozen times before I did the math and figured it's not worth the money, especially since you have to drive to a shop anyway to dispose of the old oil.

    Now I just do windshield wipers basically. My car's a hybrid so everything's electric which means:

    1. It's really, really reliable
    2. If something broke, there's roughly zero chance I could fix it without electrocuting myself

    I bought a dash cam for it and got about halfway to installing it then figured, meh. What are the odds it'll ever record anything. (So far: nothing would have been recorded.) And I'd have to pull apart half the wiring in the top console and I'd be likely to break the lane following or auto-dimming mirror or something so I never finished.

    In the past week, I've seen a car upside down in the opposing lanes of trafficparking lot, and I've seen the car immediately ahead of me to my left have its hood fly up while on the highway. Either of those would've been cool to have on video.


  • :belt_onion:

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Front turn signal bulbs were apparently designed for access via toddler hands.

    Speaking of which, when I got a $99 aftermarket stereo, I also had to pay for a ~$120 kit of some kind because the car is apparently designed such that the turn signal noise apparently actually goes through the stereo and this kit needed to emulate that. Ever since it's been a new turn signal noise and it doesn't do the buzzing it originally did if you left your turn signal on.

    Modern cars suck. They're all being designed as one integrated "unit". The only thing that's good about them is the safety is better and they're a little more robust (at least American cars are), e.g. my timing belts and such are made out of Kevlar so I'm going on 100K miles and haven't had to replace anything major yet.



  • @cursorkeys said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @mikael_svahnberg said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I'm not saying you are wrong: check the rotors too to make sure they are in decent health. But they are supposed to last waaay longer than the brake pads; you should typically be able to get at least 100 000 km out of the rotors before it's time to replace them (I :donkey:-pulled that figure; it is probably much higher -- we first replaced them at around 300 000 km).

    We are both right. It was an error in transmission or reception.

    Yes, they do last a long time. But you should have them turned (machined) when you do pads. 100,000 kms sounds like a reasonable service life, for me anyway. I drive a bit aggressively. ;)

    In the UK you can get an MOT failure for the brake discs being rusty, not anything structural just significantly rusty.

    In light of this idiocy I just replace them too whenever I have to do pads, it's only 10 quid for decent Mintex discs.

    :wtf: around here they charge an arm and a leg just to machine them!



  • @anotherusername Well, install a dashcam? What do you want from me?

    The only thing mine would have captured is some idiot redneck who had a dog in the back of his truck on I-405, the dog jumped out and got clobbered by a 18-wheeler. Not something I really wanted on tape anyway.

    BTW, don't idiot rednecks like dogs? Why would you just shove them in the back of a truck while it's pouring rain then drive onto a 5-lane freeway at 65 MPH? Off-topic, but that bugged me so much.



  • @blakeyrat said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    The only thing mine would have captured is some idiot redneck who had a dog in the back of his truck on I-405, the dog jumped out and got clobbered by a 18-wheeler. Not something I really wanted on tape anyway.

    Blakeycat probably would've enjoyed seeing it.


  • Fake News

    @heterodox said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    the safety is better

    I call air bags Claymores. See: Takata.



  • @heterodox said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Front turn signal bulbs were apparently designed for access via toddler hands.

    Speaking of which, when I got a $99 aftermarket stereo, I also had to pay for a ~$120 kit of some kind because the car is apparently designed such that the turn signal noise apparently actually goes through the stereo and this kit needed to emulate that. Ever since it's been a new turn signal noise and it doesn't do the buzzing it originally did if you left your turn signal on.

    My car was a model year too early to get the nice LCD infotainment system in dash, so I've been looking at possible replacements. Pretty much anything that has GPS, integration with steering wheel controls and all the other features I want will cost over $1k out the door, OEM or aftermarket.




  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    Re: brakes

    Hmm

    0_1505922880375_20170920_113229.jpg

    I just suddenly realized that I don't know what the brake pad SHOULD look like, so I'm not sure if it's worn down or not

    0_1505923042000_20170920_113325.jpg



  • @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    onboard diagnostics

    I've got a '95 Buick LeSabre. It's right at the cross-over between OBD-I and OBD-II, so almost no non-professional (i.e. <$1000) code reader works with it. I've looked it up, and it seems like it just has a weird pin layout for OBD-II. Can I get a cheap OBD-II reader and just rewire the pins to get it to work?


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    @lorne-kates it is hard for me to tell from that photograph. Either they are perfectly fine and have plenty of meat left on them, or they are completely shot and should have been replaced months ago.

    The rotors look to be in really good shape. No grooving or anything. When were brakes last put on the car?


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    @djls45 said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    onboard diagnostics

    I've got a '95 Buick LeSabre. It's right at the cross-over between OBD-I and OBD-II, so almost no non-professional (i.e. $1000+) code reader works with it. I've looked it up, and it seems like it just has a weird pin layout for OBD-II. Can I get a cheap OBD-II reader and just rewire the pins to get it work?

    I have absolutely no idea on that one.


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    @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    I just suddenly realized that I don't know what the brake pad SHOULD look like, so I'm not sure if it's worn down or not

    Brake pads are metal backers adhered to a friction material.

    0_1505923498345_d0bff0ef-7175-4bca-b184-a431a7e4eb90-image.png

    You want to replace them with 1/8-1/16" of material left on the narrowest side (they rarely wear evenly).


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    When were brakes last put on the car?

    Long enough ago that I'm banking on "completely shot". There's no way they're perfectly like-new fine. At the very least, it's been ~15,000 km (before the road trip)-- so there's no way those pads are still new.



  • @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Re: brakes

    Some places have brake pads that come with a 99-month (8-year, 3-month) warranty. Seeing as how brake pads often last only 3-5 years, you can basically get free brake pads for life.


  • FoxDev

    @djls45 I'm pretty sure they exclude wear and tear :P


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    @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    Long enough ago that I'm banking on "completely shot". There's no way they're perfectly like-new fine. At the very least, it's been ~15,000 km (before the road trip)-- so there's no way those pads are still new.

    Meh, 15K km is less than 10K miles (I think). That is not much wear on a set of brake pads. You should get at least 50K miles on a set of pads on a commuter car. Conceivably they could still look almost new. Can you take a picture of the pads where the camera is shooting lengthwise down the pad toward them? Basically the camera should be aligned on the same axis as the car's motion. Does that make sense?

    Why are you wanting to replace them? Have you been experiencing issues?



  • @raceprouk said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    @djls45 I'm pretty sure they exclude wear and tear :P

    The ones I'm using on my car do include normal wear and tear. :D



  • @raceprouk AFAIK AutoZone does actually give you a replacement set if they wear out.

    No idea what the business model is there. Assume most people lose the receipt? Or maybe they're super cheap to refurbish (just have to strip the old material and put new material on) so they make it a loss leader and eat the refurbishment cost.



  • @lorne-kates In the bottom picture I think I can see the cleavage (fuck, it's difficult to describe things in english when you have never talked about the topic at hand before) between the two halves of the brake pad (see @Polygeekery 's post). I would guess that you have a 7-8mm left on them before the cleavage is gone, which is fine. Unless the back one is more worn, you should not need to do anything with them.

    Also, get the Haynes manual for your car if you haven't got it already. Read up before you remove anything. It's not like it is difficult to figure out where everything goes, but on some car models you have things that, if you accidentally remove them, you will need three hands and a special tool to get back on again. I know this because on older SAABs, such as the one we had when I was a kid, you needed to exercise and grease up the brakes thrice a year. On the back there was a rubber sleeve (?) over the piston(?) kept in place with a ...tourniquet (?) that was supposed to rest in a tiny groove less than a millimeter away from the edge (where the brake pad would then be inserted to help keep it in place). Intentionally removing it to clean the piston still added two hours of work to put it back. When it fell off unintentionally, I learnt plenty of new words. :-)

    INB4: :giggity: And don't get me started on the special tool my dad made to screw in the piston.


  • BINNED


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @polygeekery

    Does that make sense?

    Yup, will try to take the tire off again soon

    Why are you wanting to replace them? Have you been experiencing issues?

    The car feels like it isn't breaking as good as it used to... need to push a bit harder, and stopping distances feel longer. There's also a bit of grinding noise... quiet, not over whelming... when the brakes are lightly applied. Sounds like front passenger.


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    @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    The car feels like it isn't breaking as good as it used to... need to push a bit harder, and stopping distances feel longer.

    That could be more than just pads. You should also look in to bleeding your brakes and also verify that you have plenty of brake fluid in the system. As your pads wear down the pistons that clamp them on the discs extend further and more fluid is pushed in to the system. In theory your reservoir should hold enough fluid for the full piston travel on all 4 corners. In practice, not always.

    I only glazed over that article. I make no claims as to its correctness, but it should give you some idea what is involved.

    Brake fluid is also hygroscopic (I think I used the correct term there, basically brake fluid absorbs water from the air, lowering its efficacy at higher temperatures as the water boils out of solution causing a very spongy pedal feel). It should be changed according to a service interval.

    @lorne-kates said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    There's also a bit of grinding noise... quiet, not over whelming... when the brakes are lightly applied. Sounds like front passenger.

    Yeah, get pictures when you get a chance. Something else that can cause that in my experience is when rust ends up between the pads and the rotors. Brakes rust horribly. Cast iron, high heat and splashing water cause horrible corrosion. Big flaky rust that will occasionally get between pad and rotor and cause just that sort of symptom.

    When you get pictures, get both pads. Calipers are on sliding brackets. After many years of service they do not slide as easily as they used to. Especially so if they are not greased with high-temp grease each time the pads are changed. That can exacerbate the uneven wear I mentioned in an earlier post. It can cause pads to completely wear out on one side of the rotor while the other pad is near new. Pads also wear out more on the leading edge of rotation than on the trailing edge because as the pads are clamped they want to bite more on the leading edge. Single piston calipers like are used on everyday passenger cars make this problem worse. That is why (among other reasons) high performance cars have multi-piston calipers. More even clamping forces on the pads instead of a single point of contact in the middle.

    Another thing you need to look out for when checking brakes is that it is not entirely uncommon for pads to become unbonded from their backing plates. I have had it happen to me 2-3 times in the ~20 years I have been servicing my own vehicles. The friction material just straight up comes off of the backing plates, putting metal on metal and causing grinding. It does not sound like the case here as when it happens you will know something is wrong and your rotors will be wrecked.


  • kills Dumbledore

    @polygeekery said in Lorne (and others) attempt to make expensive death-machines not-not work!:

    lowering its efficacy at higher temperatures

    He's in Canada. That's not going to be an issue


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