2003 S-10 pickup, v6, 15,000 miles, I baby it, nice truck, but the brakes seem to be weak, and now after I return from a trip, they feel like they are grinding. They do not have a smooth feel when you stop. Is there a weak spot in the system? Is it the original pads that are bad, or the rotors. Iam going to jack it up tomorrow, but I was wondering, whether Chevy was having problems with them. I am not even going see the dealer, all he will say is that you rode the brakes..yada..yada.. My last GM product.. I have had too much trouble with this truck. Thank you, Andy
I think that 15k miles is extremelly low millage for any S10. If it has my vehicle, I'll be taking back to the dealer. But in the other hand, I dont recall any S10 Brakes lasting so few miles,and i do alots of brake jobs. My
2000 Jimmy(gmc) have 87400 with the original pads, with 4 mm left. I will get another 15k miles aou of them. I dont know how you drive you vehicle, but,You need to examine the way you are driving your vehicle, Overload, last minute braking etc. There is always a chance of mechanical failure / defect. There lots a places that you can get a free brake inspection.
Rizal, Thank you for responding...I am going to take it to the dealer, have him look at it. I am the only one that drives it so, I know that it isn't getting any abuse. I had a 93 s-10 Blazer and did much better with the brakes. I was just wondering if there was a problem with brakes, but I guess you would know, if you work on them all the time. What is a good brake pad for the S=10? Is there any brand that stick out from the crowd? Thanks again, Andy
Late model GM brakes on the trucks hardly wear out, if at all. The one exception is the right rear inner brake pad on the full size trucks. For whatever reason, they seem to wear out prematurely. The S/T series, however, (late model) seem to go forever. Get it checked out before you get all upset about your S-10.
I'll agree with everything you posted and raise you two jacked up inner front pads on my 2002, which are worn unevenly (outer leading corner is down to about 4mm while the opposite corner of the puck has 6mm or more). What a shitty caliper design. I'm jealous of my friend's 2002 Explorer Sport, which has modern front calipers and a good brake feel.
The S-10 brakes are just plain garbage. The pedal effort is high and the feel is wooden, uncommunicative, and non-linear.
Three things to do that will help somewhat.
Bleed them. Especially the rears. Even at 18 months old, bleeding the rears helped the pedal feel.
Punch out the metal tabs covering the oval "ports" in the rear brake backing plate. Get an adjusting "spoon" from Sears and adjust the ratchet thingy until you feel a LIGHT drag in the rear wheels. Go too far and you'll be buggered (I've warped drums this way quite handily).
You will need to do this again in a few thousand miles as the arc of the pad re-acquaints itself with the curvature of the drum.
Replace the front pads with a high friction performance part like the FF-rated Raybestos Brutestop (BD154M) or the EF-rated Performance Friction "Z-rated Carbon Metallic" (154.10 or 154Z). The Brutestops higher friction will impress you but they'll squeak a bit under the right circumstances and they'll dust up your wheels in about 10 days. I just installed the PFC Z-rated parts so it's too early to tell how they'll compare. The PFC's are about cheaper.
If you're feeling spendy, I think Porterfield makes something for us.
If you're feeling REALLY spendy, you can retrofit. But it isn't straightforward:
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