My brother is preparing his 2001 GMC Sierra extended cab/short bed 4x4 Z-71 for our fishing trip to Canada later this week. Round-trip the vehicle will accumulate approximatley 2000 miles, pulling a 3500 lbs boat with additional gear in the bed. While rotating tires, he noticed that the inner pads of the front brakes did not seem to be making full contact with the rotors as evidenced by the wear pattern. He estimated that approximately 50% of the pad seemed to contact the rotor. He was curious if this was normal or if he should be concerned. He has not noticed any significant braking complications. Both the inner and outer pads appear to have considerable life left in them. He did state it doesn't stop extremely well, but then again he does not drive this truck too much, particularly around town. His daily driver is a lighter vehicle in general. I told him I would post this and follow up.
Front Brakes
Aug 27, 2003
1 Replies
"Gary Picha" wrote
How many miles on the vehicle? I've noticed that the front brakes on these trucks don't wear out, but they do exhibit the condition that you are describing. What I would suggest is that he needs to remove the calipers and the brake pads, and clean up the steel shims that sit between the knuckle and the brake pads. They get all corroded and the pads seem to jam and not slide properly. Of course he will need to get a proper silicone lube and lube those shims and pads where they meet each other. Hopefully he can get more use out of the inner pads by doing this.
Ian
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