My blazer started to make a scraping noise as I drive it. When I first start up the car, there is no noise; but the longer I drive the louder the sound gets. The scraping noise is a short and rhythmic one, and it seems whenever the wheel rotates to this certain position, it makes that noise. So I took it to the garage and was told that the back side of rear rotors were rusted and started to flake off. The cost for replacing them exceeds $600.
I had the car brand new for only 4 years and had been constantly driving it. Why would the rotors rust like that? Is it normal? More importantly, is this what?s causing the noise? And do rotors cost that much? Thanks.
Rotors should not cost that much. Don't know if they are trying to sell you into getting new pads and calipers? $600 sounds too much but I'm no expert. I just know that for $600, I'd look into doing it myself and see if I can do it for under $100.. My friends rotors only cost $34 each. Her's is simple to install. Literally pops out.
SIX HUNDRED BUCKS!!!!--you're getting ripped And rotors don't "rust", but they will score major grooves if the pads wear out
S-10 front brakes are real easy to do (at least the older ones are) Ya need a cheap floor jack, some stands, lug wrench, 4" or larger C-Clamp, a 3/8 hex drive socket (or perhaps a T-55 socket) and a 10 mm combo wrench Have the rotors turned at a machine shop, (25 bucks for both of them) or replace them with new ones for (at the most) 50 bucks each
Actually they do RUST, they also have been known to delaminate. Nothing to do with bad pads. The rotors themselves rot.
600 bucks is high IF they are only changing the rotors. I would bet that price includes new calipers,new pads, new hardware, new rotors. Some of those parts are RIDICULOUS if you buy them from a dealer. The rotors that have the problems cannot be cut because the iron itself is junk. Plus many newer rotors don't have much meat left when you cut them.
FYI here is MY current cost on those items (this is before markup and tax) Rotor - 74.79 x 2 = 149.58 Caliper (loaded) =
88.95 W 4 wheel disc brakes x 2 = 177.90
68.96 W/O 4 wheel discs x 2 = 137.92 Hardware kit = 14.08
"" wrote: > SIX HUNDRED BUCKS!!!!--you're getting ripped > And rotors don't "rust", but they will score major grooves if > the pads > wear out > > S-10 front brakes are real easy to do (at least the older ones > are) > Ya need a cheap floor jack, some stands, lug wrench, 4" or > larger > C-Clamp, a 3/8 hex drive socket (or perhaps a T-55 socket) and > a 10 mm > combo wrench > Have the rotors turned at a machine shop, (25 bucks for both > of them) > or replace them with new ones for (at the most) 50 bucks each
I know they were trying to rip me off there. Those are the rotors on the rear wheels, and the pads need to be replaced as well.
One place I asked said the rotors would cost a little short of $60 per piece, but they will charge $70 for the labor.
Another place asks for $193 per piece, and charges $17 per hour for the labor.
The third place says they could do the job for $155.64, but if I need to get my pads replaced, I need to throw in another $70...
THey are not "Junk" they just can rust a bit easy. The reason the pads rust is because of a high mettalic content. You could switch to a less aggressive pad too with no ot little metalic content too.
What usually happens is the bolts get a little rust on them and cause the caliper to hang. It may hang straight or cocked enough to cause a problem. For most shops it is not worth the time to rebuild a caliper since it is actually faster to just replace them and bleed the system. Just noticed you are saying these are the rear discs that are bad. That throws a few wrenches in the works. Namely the rear brake rotors are actually rotors and drums in one unit. The parking brake shoes are inside the hat.
I would say to replace the rotors with a GOOD replacement (not the cheapest on the rack) Replace the pads with a ceramic composite set (no rust and no dust, usually less noise as well) Replace the calipers as a precaution (How long have they been sticking? How hot have they gotten as a result? Has that caused any damage? - I don't know and neither does the shop and since the factory calipers have a phenolic piston why take a chance) Pull the front brakes and check them as well as replace the front pads with ceramics to match the rears.
43.79 for the pads. Those are ACDelco Durastop ceramics.
This is a waste of your money big time and be advised that ceramic pads are very hard on rotors and if you keep truck you will be replacing the rotors again soon if you use them. When you brake there is a LOT of heat and friction and something has to "give". Ideally you want the pads soft enough so that they do not wear the rotors. I have original rotors on all my vehcials and one is 26 years old. I do not use hard or exotic pads and replace the pads as needed a litle bit more often but a LOT cheap than replacing pad and rotors every brake job.
Its hard to know. There are places that use good parts and charge accordingly. There are places that use cheap parts and still charge as if they are using the good stuff, and there are cut rate places that use cheap parts and unskilled shade trees and charge way less. Occansionally you find a one horse garage that uses good parts, with a far mark up, and under values his labor.( I got one of these, and he always gets paid a bit more than he asks because I know how much it should cost, and he always does an out standing job)
As for design, I think rear disc brakes on a truck has to be the worst idea ever come up with, worse than fords one year "Unibody" 1/2 ton fleet side back in the sixties.
"JRK" wrote in message news:- snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...
The rear axle and wheel areas on a truck are pretty unsheilded from road debris, salt and snow build up, mud etc. Often they get dunked on boat ramps. Every one I have seen the rotors are rusted, the caliper slides froze, the inboard pad wore to nothing chewing the rotors, the outboard almost 75% left. I saw the same things on many cars as well. Keep in mind I reside in Florida, we dont have snow and road salt to contend with, but even non snow bird cars exhibited problems with rusted rotors and froze slides. I was always thankful that although I am a Yankee to the marrow, I resided in Florida making a living as a mechanic. The only set up I didnt see this a problem on were Corvettes because they used fixed mount calipers with inner and outer pistons, and other cars with a similar set up. However fixed calipers tend to be noisier than floating calipers, especially if the rotor is solid instead of vented, and they are more sensitive to run out and lack of parallelism, meaning they pulsate easier.. One way on the vented rotors manufacturers have tried to fix the noise issue is one rotor surface is often a tad thicker than the other, the idea being the harmonics off set one another and cancel the noise out. By side I mean of the rotor not on the car. Have to be carefull with this because if the difference is too great, then the thinner side's pads will run hotter than the thicker side's pads. This is one reason I think rotors should be changed in pairs if there is going to be a major difference in the thickness of the rotors side to side, it can cause a pull when hot. And of a personal opinion, I have driven many vehicles with four wheel disc brakes, and with the exception of a few exotics, like a Ford Lola a buddy had in Germnay, and the late 60's through late 70's, early 80's Corvettes, I've never driven one that stopped as well as a disk/drum combo.
You make a convincing argument, but, the comparison is tough. My 2003 Z06 stops a WHOLE lot better than my '96 Silverado. I know the Vette weighs a lot less than the truck does also. So, it is hard to compare. I know that the rear drums on the truck don't get used much at all. I still have the factory brake shoes in there and they look great at 145k. I'm thinking the factory didn't want much braking power in the rear for that model year. I get the brakes serviced every year and both the dealer and an independent shop said everything is working normally. But, your arguments about the rear brakes are certainly worth thinking about.
"Mike Copeland" wrote in message news:42c53e93 snipped-for-privacy@news1.prserv.net...
In the 90's because so many people were buying trucks as cars, there were constant complaints about rear brake lock up even with rear wheel anti lock set ups, So GM changed the rear brakes from a Servo set up to a non servo set up. In a servo set up the pivot point is at the top, the adjuster at the bottom, the front shoe hits first (the shorter of the two shoes) when it does there is a twisiting motion that kicks the bottom of the rear shoe into the drum and then the wheel cylinder catchs up and the top of the rear shoe is applied. This happens very very fast. It also provides a leverage advantage to the braking. This twisiting movement also happens in reverse when you back up and thats why the adjusters work when you back up. The non servo design the "pivot point" is at the bottom, the self adjuster is under the wheel cylinder and usualy activated by the parking brake system as it also doubles as the parking brake strut. This design came about for front wheel drive cars to aliviate rear wheel lock up, and you are correct it does not provide near as much braking power, the rear brake shoes seem to last for ever. Alll because the manufacturer started catering to a driving public that wanted a car that looks like a truck. Those of us that want a truck have ended up with soft springs, mushy rides, especially when loaded, and a brake systm not worth a dam when towing or loaded heavy on 1/2 ton trucks..
A 77 Vette weighed 3,534 lbs, , 96 1500 weighed 3,869 lbs.its not that much of a difference.
Same thing here in NY. Also agree about the disk/drum being a better set-up. Unless your racing a vehicle full time drums in the rear work better. The "well they heat up and fade" comments are the common rejoinder I hear. The problem is I have never heard folks who actually tow and use their trucks as trucks complain about the drum brakes. I have heard people complain about the disks though. Repair costs are ridiculous and they are EASILY damaged by rocks and salt. About the only thing I can think of that disks are better at is drying rapidly when they get wet, the flip side to that is when your really working them and the get hot and then get splashed with water they warp. Oh well just keeps shops in business I guess....
Good point. I feel bad for those horse shop owners - I do understand that it costs money to maintain a shop, and it is understandable that they need to make a living. But competing with those bigger shops, they are struggling - their shops are probably not as nice looking or as clean as those fancy ones, so it is even harder for them to get business unless someone happens to go there and finds out.
But anyways, today I took the car to a local shop. They said I just need to replace the back brakes. They asked if I want to purchase the higher quality parts or the lower grade ones. The higher ones would cost over $500 and the lower grade ones just half that cost. So I went with the cheaper parts...
I just want to thank you all for the inputs and suggestions.
"" wrote: > "Mike Copeland" wrote in > message > news:42c53e93 snipped-for-privacy@news1.prserv.net... > >
It is not just the servo, GM at first had rear only ABS then full ABS and the firmware (control circuits) and software for them has improved a lot on the most recent models when compared to ones from the early and mid 90?s
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