I've replaced the front twice in the last 6 months. But the rear drum breaks are hardly worn at all. The next time I have to replace my front pads I will need rotors also.

My question is why are the front breaks wearing out so fast but not the rear breaks.

Thanks

 

Auto trans & left foot on the brake. Cure is, use your right foot on the brake instead of the left (i.e. learn to drive a stick shift).

Or, you need the flexible lines for the fronts. The way those fail is by rusting up on the inside until there's barely more than a little pinhole left for the fluid to go through, so when you push the pedal the fluid goes into the calipers OK, but it doesn't come back out so it holds the pads up against the rotor.

 

"Auto trans & left foot on the brake. Cure is, use your right foot on the brake instead of the left (i.e. learn to drive a stick shift)"

Actually i know have to drive a stick, but since I have an 700R4 that's not very helpful. Also I do brake with my right foot only.

I thought that the proportional valve might be faulty, maybe.

 

Nah, I'd put my money on sofakingdom's thought. Those stock rubber hoses fail in some of the strangest ways. Might also check for leaks.

Far as I know, a porp. valve could only either leak or plug up.

 

a bad prop valve could cause it, but is pretty unlikely.

other things that can cause it are, cheap pads, sticking calipers, (hardware or pistons sticking) problems with the hoses, over filled master cylinder, a bad master cylinder, stuck wheel cylinders, a bad finnish on the rotors.

like sofaking said, i would replace the rubber hoses, but i would recommend doing both the front & rear hoses & then flush the complete system & use DOT 4 brake fluid or DOT 5 mineral brake fluid, fill it with the same type of fluid you used to flush it with, it will take at least half a gallon, do NOT use synthetic brake fluid.

also, make sure the hardware is in good condition & your calipers slide freely on the guide pins, do NOT use regular grease to lube the hardware, it will cause the O-rings to swell & make the calipers stick. lube the hardware with grease made for that job, you can get it at most parts houses.

 

Thanks Everyone for your Help. I will post results as I they happen.

 

Well here's what I've done so far. Checked rear breaks and found wheel cylinders were leaking, drums were out of spec, shoes still had plenty of wear left, probably because the of the leaking cylinders.

Installed new cylinders, springs, shoes and drums. I also replaced the flex hose on the back and flushed the break lines.

Monday I will decide on what to do with the front breaks. I am going to replace the rotors and calipers. I'm not sure with what yet. I want to do a slight upgrade from stock without spending a ton of cash.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

So for you've dinked around a bunch and haven't fixed the problem you originally had.

Not that replacing leaky wheel cyls isn't a good idea; but it won't fix your problem.

Change the FRONT hoses, and see if it works better.

If you have drum brakes on the rear, you have no business upgrading the fronts. They go hand in hand. They have to be more balanced than that.

Front brake system upgrades = about $750
Hoses = about $40 for stock and about $70 for stainless steel (which BTW will work with the upgraded brakes)

Go change your front hoses. Then worry about brake upgrades later.

 

I’m having the fronts redone this week. I couldn't get parts for the fronts on Saturday.

If the rear breaks were not working properly due to leaky cylinders and out of spec drums would that not cause the fronts to most of the work there by causing them to wear out prematurely?

Either way I'm having the front hoses replaced, new calipers (hopefully dual piston) and new rotors cross-drilled and slotted (ordering them Monday) and will have them installed on the weekend.

 

Brake effort is about 70/30 in a disc/drum system.

In other words, if your drums weren't working AT ALL, then your front brakes would wear out a little less than twice as fast as normal.

I don't know how much you drive; but I drive around 20,000 - 25,000 miles a year, and replace brakes about once every 18 months to 2 years. So if you drive a similar amount to me, with totally non-functional drums, you'd expect to be replacing pads about once a year; and the only strange thing you'd probably notice, is that in about 4 or 5 years of that, you hadn't had to do rears at all, but you had to keep putting brake fluid in.

You're getting about 3 months out of a set.

So no, I don't think you've significantly affected your problem. You MIGHT, MAYBE, have gone from 3 months on a set of pads, to 4 months on a set of pads, BEST-CASE. I doubt you've even improved it by that little bit.

I'd avoid the buzzword rotors.

There are no dual piston calipers that fit your car, without the aforementioned ~$750 expenditure to go among with them.

I can't imagine "having front brakes done". But then I'm not 80 years old and female; so who knows.

New calipers at the parts store are about $12 apiece. I just had to buy some (same ones) for one of my other cars.

 

You are the greatest. I did need everything that was done to the rears whether you think so or not. If I had to panick stop I would lose significant amounts of break fluid. The drums were worn out of spec. I am doing the fronts this week so your point is mute. I Live in an Apartment and I not alowed to work on cars there. Even so I'm not 80 but I am 57 and would rather drive my car than fix it.

I will spend whatever it takes to upgrade, but thats for your help.

 

I found these at Autozone: 2 piston Calipers.
The 3x the $12.00 you quoted sofakingdom
and dual piston at that.


Brake Caliper - Front for a
1989 CHEVROLET CAMARO
With Performance package (Change)

Normally Stocked Normal Stock
Special Order Special Order
Not Available Not Available



Item Part
No.
Warranty Core
Value Unit
Price Availability
Store Web
FENCO_REMAN
Driver side C364 LLT $37.00 $35.99 Store Special Order Add to Store List Web Special Order Buy Online
2 piston unit
FENCO_REMAN
Passenger side C365 LLT $37.00 $35.99 Store Special Order Add to Store List Web Special Order Buy Online
2 piston unit

 

That's the 1LE package.

There were a very small number of those cars in 89; like, a few hundred, or less. Odds are EXTREMELY poor that your car is one (not impossible, just highly unlikely).

If 1LE isn't on your SPID sheet, those won't fit your car.

The $12 ones will.

But you could upgrade your brakes to be able to use them. That's one of the somewhat popular upgrades. You'd need different spindles (or your existing ones modified), different rotors, some brackets that are easy enough to get made, some hardware, some caliper carriers that are QUITE difficult to find, AND the calipers. Comes to about $750 for most people by the time they buy it and get stuff made or get it from people that make it and modify things and all that.

Note however that those parts are "special order", "not available", Not in stock", and so forth. That's the biggest disadvantage of that system. Other systems that are VERY similar will swap right on the same way, or almost the same, for about the same price. Probably the best one of the swappable ones is the 98-02 system. The 1LE, C4, C4 HD, LS1, and C5 systems are all pretty si,ilar in terms of effort and expense, and in overall effectiveness; but because of marketplace economics, the LS1 setup is probably the smartest for a daily-driven type of car.

 

"""""There are no dual piston calipers that fit your car, without the aforementioned ~$750 expenditure to go among with them."""""""""


Where can I get this upgrade? Is it a Kit?

At this sight they have a LS1 upgrade for $650.00:
bigbrakeupgrade.com

 

Don't know if anybody packages the 1LE setup as a kit or not. Try checking the board sponsors, down the right side of this page. But like I said, that's not the best one to go with, anyway, IMO; since it'll cost the same, within 20% or less, of any of those others, but would be BY FAR the hardest to maintain because of things likeon all the parts, I'd strongly recommend NOT putting that setup on your car. Especially if it's not just a toy you can park and not miss too much, and you depend on it for daily transportation.

People have used stuff from that site, and seems like have had decent enough results. You can look in the "aftermarket vendor review" board on this site and find comments about them I believe. That's the 98-02 F-body (LS1) conversion I spoke of. The 1LE package looks almost identical to that, except there are tiny detail differences in EVERY part that make basically NOTHING interchange. Exactly the same except completely different.

I've actually been thinking about getting the LS1 setup myself; after all, I've been enjoying the sucky brakes on my car for about 21 years that I've had it so far now, I think it's about time to improve them. Although I will say, putting a rear end with the PBR disc brakes on it made a MASSIVE difference. I highly recommend that as an upgrade to your car. But with the old Delco fronts like yours, it's still kind of lame by modern standards.

I have no earthly clue how much somebody would charge you to do that for you. In my many decades of driving, I've never paid anybody to do anything like that for me, and I'm not about to start now (I own a house with a garage BTW, I got myself out of the apt scene back in the early 70s...). It might be tough to find somebody to do it for you. I know FOR DAMN SURE I wouldn't do that for somebody else; since after all, if somebody altered your brakes and then you had a wreck with let's say a school bus and killed a bunch of kids, every lawyer within 1000 miles would be all over THEM (not you) like white on rice.

 

Would it be possible to to do the LS1 upgrade by optaining the spindles at junkyard from a corvette or 4th gen camaro?

 

No. They're completely different.

What the mod is, is to equip the spindles off of one of these cars, to hold the LS1 or C5 or whichever brake system.

 

Thanks

 

""""So for you've dinked around a bunch and haven't fixed the problem you originally had.

Not that replacing leaky wheel cyls isn't a good idea; but it won't fix your problem"""

Well it's only 3 mos since I did the rear brakes and my entire braking system has never worked better since I've own this car (about 2 years) the front brakes have only slight wear since the repairs to the rear brakes. I'm quite happy so far with the brake job.

 

Well, congrats on extending your pad-life.

Lemme know when one wheel locks up, and then we'll suggest replacing the rubber again.

 

Well Mr. Pizza I want you to know that with my Bonus from I ordered the LS1 Big Brake Upgrade today and will have them installed as soon as the arrive (they come with new hoses)
Big Brake Upgrade, "LS1" $735 shipped
http://www.metzcon.com/bigbrake/products.htm

 

With the drum brakes still in back?!

 

Is that a problem?

So I should just keep the crappy rotors and calipers I have now?

I would love to convert the Back brakes to Discs and I will, just not now.
I've spent $245 on Subframe connectors, the front brakes you know about, I've scheduled to have Custom Headers and Y-pipe, along with 3" Cat- back system installed as soon as "Dyno Don" has time about a week or so. I also bought a 93 Camry 4cyl to drive while upgrades are being done.
There just isn't enough money to replace perfectly good rear brakes at this time. The front brakes on the other hand have rotors that are worn past the point of turning them further and I can't see replacing them with stock.