Now before you flame me for a stupid question, please hear me out:
I bought my Z24 almost 30,000 miles ago, and with it, from a Mom and Pop dealer, came installed some crappy Nexen tires on the front, and brand new brake pads and rotors (the brand I do not know). At any rate, 30,000 miles is quite far on the same pads I figure and now that I'm home for the summer in South Eastern New York, I'm encountering a lot more wildlife than I do at school in Pennsylvania. I figure if these almost bi-weekly encounters continue, these brakes will get quite the workout. Now, my family owns a repair shop nearby and one day on my lunch break I stopped by to bull@!#$ and hang out a little bit and brought up my brakes. My Step Father who owns the shop walked over to the car and took a quick look through the wheels and said "you're not even down to the sensor yet. You could just pad slap it but...." And I stopped him as he's the one that has always said that I should buy Rotors and Pads after a decent amount of miles. He suggested that I get them replaced before I go back to school in August.
Now, the brakes still feel fine, grab great, and recently in these tight situations with the deer and what not, they stop abruptly and without drama. I must note here that my ABS doesn't work, and to be honest, I've never been a huge fan of ABS since driving my sister's base model cavalier (the ABS goes off every time I hit the brakes and happen to encounter a small bump). So I have no reason to believe that mine would be any better. Oh, I must also note I've NEVER flushed the brake fluid since having first owned this car, and I figure I should do that while getting the brakes replaced anyways.
This leads me to my actual question: Should I replace my brakes this summer before going off to school? I won't be close to home, and if something were to go wrong with the brakes, I'd have to be towed over 100 miles home which, last time, when my water pump took a crap, my step father was less than ecstatic about it. I'm not exactly sure how long brakes last for, and I know that it's extremely dependent on driving style. I do have my fun with the car, and I have had to make many stops over the last 2-3 years, but I am also gentle when going down hills or coming off the highway, making sure to engine brake whenever possible and never ride the brakes, etc. It's just the brakes still feel fine, maybe not as crisp as I'd like through the pedal, but I figure that's from the craptastic fluid I probably have in the system.
Thanks in advance,
Alcolawl
Oh, sorry for the double post, but I'd also like to hear some recommendations for what kind of brakes and which brand of brakes I should get. The brake dust was pretty terrible with these pads, and so I've been considering EBC RedStuff brake pads and maybe PowerSlot Slotted rotors?
Pull the wheel off and take a look. Everyone drives differently and will wear pads differently.
BTW pads and rotors is a very easy job to do.
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redstuffs are good. but you also need to balance brake dust with practicality. the better pads that stop hard, will have more dust. how well do you wanna stop and what will you be using it as? i ran green stuff and that didnt last long. good for in city driving, but not as well for higher speeds. red stuff good. if you can get yellows, they dust more, but still great stopping!
also look into hawk HPS.
slotted rotors never drilled is my reccomendation. ebc offers dimpled one...better option than drilled.
Funky Bottoms (Event) wrote:redstuffs are good. but you also need to balance brake dust with practicality. the better pads that stop hard, will have more dust. how well do you wanna stop and what will you be using it as? i ran green stuff and that didnt last long. good for in city driving, but not as well for higher speeds. red stuff good. if you can get yellows, they dust more, but still great stopping!
also look into hawk HPS.
slotted rotors never drilled is my reccomendation. ebc offers dimpled one...better option than drilled.
Just a daily driver. Like I said, I have to make some decently abrupt stops from deer and other wild life crossing the road, but nothing major. I don't go to track days or anything else, just @!#$ around on some back road every once in a while. Most of the roads around here are suburban and back roads, with two to three main roads at 55mph or above. The dimpled brakes look great, but they also look extremely expensive haha. What's wrong with RedStuff pads?
Honestly if you are DDing it and not looking for performance stuff, just go to autozone or other local parts store and pick up a set of ceramic pads and some rotors. Last time I did all 4 rotors and ceramic pads on the cavalier I was under $100. That included 2 cans of brake parts cleaner.
Ceramic will reduce the dust and stop well.
"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"
Cheap autozone rotors and hawk hps pads thats a great pad
see ya!
With all the different setups I've run. My favorite setup was ebc yellow pads and ebc black dash rotors as far as stopping power goes. They lasted about 30-35k of very spirited driving and a few autox days as well. Now if your just messing around and don't do any recreational racing look into the duralast gold brakes from autozone. They have lifetime replacement on them and my dad's silverado has about 130k on it andhas had 3 sets of pads that I've changed personally and we've only paid once. Then when it's time for new pads you bring the old ones in and they give you another set...
