Two '01 Sport Rear Brake Questions

[jimbo231]

My rear brakes starting grinding from the pads being worn way too low a few days ago. I'm only keeping the truck a year at max and don't want to sink much money Into it as a lot of other things are wrong. Can I just stick pads on the old rusted grooved rotors and still get a year out of them? Or should I spend the extra for the rotors? I dont care how good the brakes grab I just want to get rid of the grinding. Also do you need to screw in the rear calipers to.retract them or can I use a c clamp and push them in?

 

[Mbrooks420]

If they are ground up, they will eat the pads in short order. Will you get a year? Who knows. You should care about your braking performance. It could save your life, or far far more important, someone else's. I'd think you'd feel pretty bad if you caused an accident and someone got hurt trying to cheap out of $50.

You can push the pistons in with a c clamp without issue. I'd span the piston with something, and push on that.

 

[jimbo231]

Thanks.....ya I'm going to do the rotors too.....someone said If I drive it for a while grinding it could ruin the calipers...is that true?

 

[96eb96]

Thanks.....ya I'm going to do the rotors too.....someone said If I drive it for a while grinding it could ruin the calipers...is that true?

parts are real cheap, you don't need anything fancy for rotors. Advance auto has coupons online and you could probably get them for $20-$30 bucks. Maybe even the junk yard, they would only be a few bucks. They don't have to be perfect, just no major rust or tracks. Eventually brakes wear down to the point where the caliper piston could fall out, and that isn't pretty. I've seen paper thin rear rotors in the junkyard.

 

[J_C]

Thanks.....ya I'm going to do the rotors too.....someone said If I drive it for a while grinding it could ruin the calipers...is that true?

You'd need to take the wheels off and check the remaining material. They can start to make a lot of racket while there's still a "little" pad left with grooved rotors and not risk the calipers much, but you don't want to be driving with metal on metal, and only you can hear and see how bad they are at this point.

It looks like you can get a pair of rotors and pads, both together for under $50 delivered from Rock Auto if you pick parts shipping from same warehouse to minimize shipping costs. There's also a 5% off coupon code floating around, Google should be able to find it.