Y2K GMC rear disc brakes

[WilliamBos]

synthetic brake grease, make sure the pins are clean, and check the rubber boots that go on the slider pins, if they are dry or cracked, replace. Also, service the rears at least once a year, i do mine twice, spring and fall.
No issues yet.

 

[Soundguy]

Dang, over a quarter million miles, where I'm from we would call that pretty good service.

The vehicle was a lemon we discovered to late. It suffered numerous annoyance level problems.. too many. And it burned an amazing amount of oil from day one which gm said was book spec.

 

[LD1]

I did that on my 04 a few times too. Had the rear rotors rust from the inside out. What a pain.

A few months ago we did my fathers 2011 2500HD. He only has 21K miles on it, but those are snow plowing miles. The truck plows snow in the winter, and sits in the barn with a damp gravel floor during the summer. Its gets washed very seldom so you can imagine the results. All four rotors were wrecked, calipers seized (on the slides, not in the bore, but we replaced them anyway)and pads worn to steel. Nice big brakes though.

Plowing is very hard on brakes. Tires too.

 

[jwstewar]

I'm at 129k on my '99 Silverado 1500. I've replaced the rear pads twice and the front pads and rotors once. First 40k or so was all pretty much highway empty travel and that was in the first couple years. Since then most has been hauling and towing miles. First rears went out at about 77k. Fronts went out about 100k. Second rears went out at about 125k. Pins, rotors, and calipers all looked good every time on the rear. I scored the one front one pretty good when the pads went, thus why I replaced the rotors, couldn't find anyone that would turn them except one place and they were only something like $3 cheaper than new rotors and I would have had to make a second trip back to town to get them.

 

[94BULLITT]

On a lot of vehicles now with disk brakes when the fronts are wore out the rears are too.

 

[Deere Dude]

My 2002 GMC dually disc brakes with 90,000 wasn't stopping my camper like I felt it should or even stop itself like it should. I actually thought it had drum brakes but it had disc.
I had a GM dealer inspect them, he took off the fronts, and he said they are fine for another 30,000.

I forgot about it for a few months. I still wasn't comfortable so I then went to a actual brake and muffler shop and told them I wanted all new rotors, pads, emergency brakes, everything new on it.
The order came in so I went down and was watching the mechanic work on the rears especially. I wanted to see how the axle came out actually.

The mechanic said I already put new pads on it in the rear. I told him I was the original owner and never had any brake work done to it. We firmly disagreed on that point. He didn't call me a liar, but the thought was there.

The read pads were thick yet, maybe 3/8 of an inch and looked great. The discs looked fair but needed to be surfaced regardless. I told him to put all new stuff on anyway.

I talked to the manager and told him about the disagreement, not to get anyone in trouble, but to find out why the pads were good but the discs weren't.

He told me to hit the brakes harder more often. That would help. I said okay, and walked away, not really understanding his theory.

A month later I talked to the GMC dealer in town and talked to the manager and posed the same question to him. He said basically the same thing as the brake guy said, and I questioned him further. He told me that the fronts do most of the stopping, which I knew, and the rears don't really get used unless there is a big load. He said if there is rust on the rears they won't get wiped clean unless I use the truck more often.

He said that unless I pull a heavy load, enough to make the rear brakes work, I need to do something more to remedy it. He said if I don't pull anything for a while to just hit the brakes hard enough to slow the truck down from 55 to about 30 a few times. That will keep the rotors sparkling clean. It seems to make sense to me because I always really babied the brakes to not wear them out and they didn't last doing that. For what it's worth.

 

[3930dave]

2006 Silverado 138000 miles. Original rear shoes, have done the front pads and rotors at least 4-5 times

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

Rear discs look good, sell well on the showroom floor, and are easy to assemble at the factory.

Many people get much better service life out of rear drums though. Trucks and cars.

Rgds, D.

 

[timswi]

I've had rear disks on my last 3 1/2 ton GMC's, a 2004, a 2011 and the current 2013..The only issue was the common rotor rust issue on the '04..Quick, cheap and easy repair..Our former '01 Tahoe and the wife's 06 Hummer have have/had rear disks and never had any premature wear on those and both were/are grocery getters that almost never exceed 40MPH.

 

[aczlan]

Rear discs look good, sell well on the showroom floor, and are easy to assemble at the factory.
Many people get much better service life out of rear drums though. Trucks and cars

They are great until they build up a ridge of rust around the drum and you have to wreck the shoes to get the rear drums off to check them (if you have a big enough puller to pull the rear drum off)...

Aaron Z

 

[3930dave]

A Jedi class trick a friend of mine pulls off is "massaging" a brake drum with a hammer.

Part of what his is doing is fracturing enough of that ridge that you don't need a puller, and next to nothing happens to the shoes during removal. He's never said so explicitly, but I know him well enough to realize he's also checking the integrity of the drum.

Rarely cracks a drum, and usually does it while in the midst of mulitiple conversations....

So yeah, whenever I get thinking I've just pulled off some slick little mechanical maneuver, I drop by his shop to get reminded what a really talented pro is able to easily do...

I probably should record a vid when he is Safety checking an older car or truck, as even a lot of younger mechanics aren't going to work on enough drums to get that proficient.

(P.S. - sorry about the drift JD).

Rgds, D.