Unfortunately I have to spam you folks again. I had the pads in front replaced by the dealer 10k miles ago and did not let them resurface the rotors. There is a quiet high pitched squeal from brakes when slowing down to a crawl. I want to install slotted rotors. Do you think that will cure the problem or the root cause could be something else? Rear drums? Last time they checked there was plenty of lining left on drum pads in the back. The problem started after the car was in for a timing belt (I saw them taking wheels off, not sure what for). Clues?
We had a '97 Protege that sacrificed it's life to successfully protect my daughter in a head-on. That great car had front brakes that squeaked quite often; the first stop of the day being the loudest.
I suppose you can mess around with backing plates, grease, rotors, etc or you can simply ignore it. Squeaks and disc brakes seem to go together like cheese and mold.
p.s. she's driving a '98 Protege now with brakes that, for some unknown reason, do not squeak.
Mine did not either for 60k until the dealer did the timing belt. Just curious how do you get into a head-on unless you aim for a fixed object like a pole or something?
I have replaced the front disc brake pads on three Datsun 280Z's, a 1992 Sentra, a 1994 Camry, my former 1996 miata, my current 1991 miata, and two other M1 miatas that I can remember. That is at least nine changes with hundreds of thousands of miles shared by all of the vehicles on the replaced pads. I also did the rear brakes on about half of them, both drum and discs. Neither system was prone to squeaking in my experience, the drums were just harder to work on.
I got a lot of sqealing when I used full-racing brake pads on one Datsun. I pulled those and went with some aftermarket but not nearly as metallic brakes. This was about 16 years ago.
Since then, I have used only OEM pads for the most part, (every time with the miatas), and haven't had or heard of a squeaking problem from any of the brakes yet except one time when I forgot a backing plate, (oops!), that was easily diagnosed and fixed.
This is not bragging at all. I have seen a number of cars come out of "professional" mechanics, brake repair shops and dealership service departments with the brakes sqeaking and I try to figure out why they can not accomplish what an untrained, (shade tree mechanic at best), can do.
Very glad to hear that your daughter made it through the head-on collision and hopefully it was not too traumatic for you and your family.
Did you have brake work done at the time? The timing belt work has nothing to do with the brakes at all. If it started squeaking upon having the timing belt done, it is either pure coincidence or a very shady dealership doing something like swapping brake parts to get you back in for another repair.
One way is for another driver to hit you with their vehicle. There are plenty of other ways as well. The best race car driver in the world using the best defensive driving techniques possible still has a chance of having a head-on collision. They will be far better at avoiding it than the average driver, but nobody is 100% safe from a head-on when driving roads with other vehicles on them. One recent head-on collision was caused by a guy driving the wrong way down the highway at a high rate of speed. If one of these people is coming at you, are you sure that you will zig when you should and not zag, or vice-versa?
Exactly. Imagine my surprise when I noticed squeaking.
Hmm, after $900 timing belt bill I'd think they would not do this. After all it was them who did the brakes 10k miles before.
I thought this is supposed to be the "who will zig first" game :-) So far no head on close calls but two recent close calls with people running red lights. Lucky me I have underpowered heavy car and was pulling out late in both cases. otherwise would've been killed in a quicker car. The bay area is full of fscking singles :-[
She had a small cut on one toe and a bruised arm from the airbag. Other than that, she was somewhat angry. Thirty years ago, she would not have been so well off.
The head on was with another car in an intersection. I remember when the genius sages were all against airbags. Glad they lost that one.
Excellent! I am also glad to hear that she was not seriously injured.
My '91 has a Momo Champion wheel and obviously no passenger-side airbag, not that airbags were that great in 1991 anyway. Yet one more reason to look at the new one, especially now that it won't deploy if it gets too cold. ;-)
Airbags have improved considerably as far as effectiveness and less injury caused when deployed since they were introduced from what I have researched. I am not sure that I would want the original airbag from my 1991 model installed, but if I could put a 1999-2005 Nardi steering wheel with a working airbag in there, I would have already done it.
Do you mind telling what you paid for your Protege? My daughter will be driving soon and a '97 to '99 Protege might be an excellent first car choice.
I don't recall what I paid for the '97, but I replaced it with a '98 that I got for $2600. It had 122K miles on it. Needed tires and an a/c compressor.
We also bought a 2000 for another daughter which set me back $2900. This one was not going to sell due to the "check engine" light being on all the time. I anticipated this and brought my code reader with me when I saw the car. It needed a catalytic converter and O2 sensors. That was around $500 worth of stuff, but it was still a good deal. It had 116K miles on it when purchased.
Both cars checked out OK with Carfax. The '98 was a leased vehicle and the '00 was a rental car someplace back east (we live in CA). These were both obtained about a year ago, so I would be careful about cars with water damage today.
When the kids were in high school, I did a little research and convinced myself that the Protege was an overlooked car. They have all the features one could need, are very reliable and use modest amounts of gasoline.
When our oldest graduated from college, we went downtown and did battle with a local sleezeball Mazda dealer. We got a good deal on a new 2003 (last year for the Protege), which has served her very well since.
We could be an advertisement for Proteges, if they still existed.
That sounds like a nice dollar figure for a first car. I will check them out. The only work I have ever done on a Protege was to tighten down a battery hold-down one time on a co-worker's car. I have still never driven one.
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