New Brakes

[iThane]

i'm in the market for some new brakes. they seem to work fine, but
the brakes work a little rough, and by that i mean i really gotta step on them to stop. when i hop in another car and step on the brakes, my face goes through the windshield because of the major difference! they also squeak as well.. yay.

where would you recommend shopping for brakes? do i need to replace them at all, or can i do something to stop the squeaking? it really only squeaks when im going from about 2 mph to a stop.

i have a mechanic who offered to get me a quote for brakes, but i feel guilty calling him, because he's a grouch and makes our conversations extremely awkward..

and one final note:
while washing my car, i found some good sized rocks that were glued to my wheel wells with mud. im guessing the previous owner forgot he was in a car as he went off roading.. should i replace all parts of the brakes just to be safe? and could the dirt be the cause of the squeaking?

thanks for any and all feeback!

[ZeroChad]

Pads and rotors are pretty easy to do by yourself. Your rotors are probably not seized to bad since you're in the south. Might as well get new rotors since they're pretty cheap (opposed to getting them turned).

[UriahRR]

I do the majority of my shopping online to get the absolute lowest price, then just having a shop install them for like $40.

http://www.hawkpadsdirect.com/Hawk-HB26 ... .2813f.htm

http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/WC/ ... oogle+Base

^That's what I'm running. Nice price (real nice for those rotors, damn, got mine for $90) and pretty grippy, but even on black wheels I can see a considerable amount of dust. I'd like to see what some other people are running and see what they think of their setups.

Oh, and I hear the stainless steel brake lines tighten up the pedal a lot.

[g_force58]

I had hawk hps pads and the dust was really bad. When they wore out I went to Advance Auto and picked up the Wearever silver pad. Not that much difference in grip and greatly reduced dust. Only time the wheels get dusty is if I get lazy and don't wash my car for like 2 weeks, lol.

[iThane]

well i don't do much racing, so performance to me only matters as much as being able to stop behind a stop sign or avoiding rear ending someone.

i'll check out the links and the wearever silver pads and compare them to whatever my mechanic offers me. i'll let him install them too, since ive got no idea what im doing! and how do i know if i have stainless steel brake lines or not? i'm pretty sure my entire car is stock besides what i've done to it. and i don't recall replacing brake lines.

also, on my 04 SXT, i have disks in the front and drums in the rear, correct? and only the front brakes use pads?

[racer12306]

You don't have stainless lines.


If you let your mechanic do it all, more than likely he will use a good pad and rotor which will cost more than shopping around.

Call the guy up and see how much it will cost and go from there. Another thing to consider is that not all mechanics allow their customers to bring parts.

[iThane]

You don't have stainless lines.


If you let your mechanic do it all, more than likely he will use a good pad and rotor which will cost more than shopping around.

Call the guy up and see how much it will cost and go from there. Another thing to consider is that not all mechanics allow their customers to bring parts.

so if its not the lines, its most likely my brakes?

and our mechanic just does work in his own shop. he doesn't work for a company or anything but he does just as much as a company would! cheaper too! but your right, he refused to put aftermarket brakes on our jetta, for what reason i forget. but i asked him and he told me he could give me a quote and told me to shop around too.

How often are brakes generally replaced? i do more city driving than highway driving.

[racer12306]

You shouldn't have to replace the brake lines unless they are damaged.


Most people like that don't want to deal with the headache of customers bringing them cheap junk parts because when it fails guess who ends up doing the work again, and most of the time for free.

Replacement interval is pretty much whenever they get used up. Doing more city driving you will go through them faster, but different compounds will last longer. I think I got about 60k on my fronts before I replaced them. This was mainly highway, but being a younger driver I'm sure I was more aggressive on them, plus panic stopping on the highway in drivetime.

[g_force58]

I don't know about you, but my car is just that, my car! I won't let a mechanic dictate to me which brand of parts I use. My suggestion, find another shop that is more cooperative with your needs. Ask if they will let you watch them do the work. I know insurance regulations are tight, but there are shops that will let you watch from a close distance. You will be suprised what you can learn from watching and asking a few questions about what he is doing. Establish an open line of communication beforehand. Large shops are not usually open to this but there are credible small shops out there. In a previous post someone suggested you change the rotors which is a good idea. At the least have them turn or machine them to retore the surface and take out any warping.

[racer12306]

I can understand where they come from. I'm sure there are took many people that try to save a few bucks and cheap out on parts. Then the mechanic ends up getting the shaft.

[iThane]

thanks for all of the feedback!

i got my price on all the parts, so i'm going to see what he has to say.
i'm also going to just replace all parts also.
i'll let him do all of the work, and if he doesn't mind i might watch him.
he's in need of work so i feel guilty finding another mechanic.
plus he does all my work real fast and cheap. some times i give him a little extra cash.
i'll ask him to check out the brake lines too, because if thats the only
problem, then it'll save me some cash.

[g_force58]

I understand what you are saying Frank and agree for the most part on what you are saying. However when you do this, you should be making an informed decision and be in agreement with your mechanic on the possible outcome. He or myself have not had any issues. If he tells me the part won't last I listen and don't use it. The wearever silver brakes are good brakes with no issues for the last 5,000 miles. Therefore I would not have recommended them. They are not for racing tho and he didn't say anything about racing so I thought it would be ok. But still, I understand where you are coming from.

[racer12306]

I completely agree.

I have wearever silvers on my car too

[g_force58]

Thank You Sir!

[iThane]

so then you wouldn't recommend the wearever brakes?

any brand in particular that you like or would recommend?