So, the other day as i was leaving school i looked down to mess w/ my radio for a split second, as i was finding the right station , some kid thought it would be funny stuff to stop at the green light and hold everyone up till it turned yellow. i looked up and slammed on the brakes as hard as i could, only to find that they didnt even have enough power to lock the front wheels . luckily i stopped about 6 inches from the back bumper of his rusty pos toyota pickup. almost sh@t my pants. So whats the deal here anyone have ideas? my brakes work great when stopping normally but in a hard stop you swear that a gremlin stuck an invisable block of wood under the brake pedal. i couldnt lock up the front tires even if i wanted to. i have a 92 firebird with drums in the rear.

 

unfortunatly thats normal for these cars.. lightly press on the pedal with one toe or stand on the pedal with both feet doesn't make much of a difference.

 

I have to disagree. I have a 87 ta and 91 camaro L98 and both will lock the fronts with med/high pedal effort. Sometimes cheap pads or pads that have been hardened from over heating do this. But if you have good pads and rotors it should lock with out too much trouble.

 

 

thanks for the input, im thinking the pads might have something to do with it. they must be cheap, because from high speeds you can usually make one good stop but you get bad brake fade after that. the car will barely hold itself at a stop light when the brakes are really hot. when running it hard the pads have overheated and started smoking a few times. weve had the car since new and it has all origional brake parts except pads and maybe rotors. and to NINA, i was going about 35 mph. there is a two lane entrance road to my school with a stop light at the end.

 

I recommend purchasing a parachute.....just in case................. lol

 

i think you need to replace a few things as well.. brake flex hoses, fluid, pads, etc.. go for steel braided lines and get quality pads as well.. replace ALL the fluid and bleed the crap outta it.. that should fix your problem.. you might have had air in your lines as well.. good stop, then heats up and expands fluid out of lines, starts to fade, then gets hotter and pushes more fluid out of the lines..

 

ummm, locking up the brakes is BAD for stopping.

 

I know it takes longer to stop with the tires locked up, but they dont even get near locking. my point is that no matter how hard you push on the pedal, they wont lock. As far as i know, any car with normally functioning brakes and no ABS should be able skid the front tires if u push hard enough.

 

 

Ive never been able to lock my brakes....hopefully can next week after the ls1 brakes go on.