Neon Girl Needs Your Help!

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 10:29 pm

lol HI!

Now that I have your attention, I have some questions for you nice fellas

I NEED to replace the 2 front wheel hubs and rear drums on my 2003 SXT neon, front wheel hubs making noise, and 2 rear drums are orange from rust, my question is, If i'm replacing these parts, are there other things I should replace while I'm at it? (wheel bearings, bushings, wheel cylinders etc..... ) any advice helps! =)

I order my parts of rockauto and then have them installed, so I would like to just order everything at once and not have multiple visits to the mechanic

so far I got

2 front wheel hubs (any brand recommended? )
2 rear drums (same ? as above ^)

thanks for any advice and help =)

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 11:09 pm

You may want to consider the brake pads and hardware for the rear drums so all is new inside there.

If the rear bearings are still good, no real reason to get those, they really don't have a specific life span. I have only had to replace one, the other has 208,000 miles on it, along with both the fronts.

AFAIK, the rears on my 1gn are original at 253,000 miles.

As far as the front hubs, I personally haven't had to replace them in my neon, but the Timken ones for the Sundance never gave me an issue. One of them is still getting mileage in my 1gn.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 9:24 am

The brake pads are still good, changed them last year, i just want to make sure i order the right parts and get the right hardware

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:00 am

When you say the rear drums are 'orange from rust', I am assuming you are talking about the rear brake drums??

If your rear brake drums are just orange from rust..... That doesn't matter.
What matters, is that the I.D. (inside) the brake drums, are within the proper specification. A local NAPA or parts store should be able to check the drums for you.

Now, if you are talking about rear hubs (as opposed to rear drums, those are different.

- Nick

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:09 pm

this is what i mean

and

this is what i plan on ordering

2 drums

2 wheel cylinders

2 rear wheel bearings

2 front wheel hubs & wheel bearings

2 sway bar links

2 sway bar bushings

anything else i should add?

brakes and calipers are good

Post by **occasional demons** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:43 am

Those drums are actually in decent shape, other than cosmetic appearance. Unless you coat the new drums with caliper paint, they will look just like that in a year, or less. Mine literally had chunks falling off.

If it is just for appearance, then new drums are the most economical way to get clean metal to coat.

By the time you go to the trouble of having them media blasted, and time without the car, the cost of new ones is cheap.

Unless you happen to have a media blaster in your garage...

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 10:39 pm

well I already ordered the new drums, when i take it to my mechanic to get installed, what do i take to him to spray on them so this doesn't happen again? i just really hate that orange look

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:24 am

I would just buy some caliper paint at AutoZone, and paint them before you take it to them.

You will want to get some brake clean and degrease them first. Granted the paint dries pretty fast, but you don't want to have them to have to mess with it beforehand.

Yeah it could be done after they are installed, but you will probably get a better coat with them off, so you can move them around, and you could mask the pad surface, and get the inside lip too.

You can get it in brush on, or spray. The brush on will go on a bit thicker. And you wouldn't need to mask...

Edit: Maybe AZ doesn't offer the brush on stuff anymore.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliperPaint/

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:25 pm

Is this just a 1 quick coat type of thing or its an elaborate process? It sucks that you have to do this to NEW drums for them not to turn Orange

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 10:11 pm

Simple degrease, and one coat, then done. You could also use ceramic header paint...

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:26 pm

parts are ordered =) will post pics when it arrives

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:44 pm

Ok so rockauto sent the wrong part, now my only choices are ACdelco drums for 20$ or Mopar drums for 75$ each

Now, i happen to have ordered some rotors and brake pads before i knew my car was a drum setup , what else would i need to convert the drums to rotors? And how much $ would have to be put in to get the rest of the parts and installed ? And is it worth it? Whats the gain

I have the rotors, wheels hubs, brake pads

NickKo · Post by **NickKo** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 2:29 pm

neongirl87 wrote:Ok so rockauto sent the wrong part, now my only choices are ACdelco drums for 20$ or Mopar drums for 75$ each

Now, i happen to have ordered some rotors and brake pads before i knew my car was a drum setup , what else would i need to convert the drums to rotors? And how much $ would have to be put in to get the rest of the parts and installed ? And is it worth it? Whats the gain

I have the rotors, wheels hubs, brake pads

I would buy the MoPar drums, but that is just me.

As far as upgrading to rear disc.... There are plenty of threads on this topic.
I am assuming you would be paying for a shop to do this for you ?? (Assuming you don't have a garage and / or tools to do this)

Otherwise, the drum brakes are really not a bad way to go.
A couple of nice things about drum brakes is :
1 ). They are lighter / weigh less than a Disc brake setup. + 2 ). Less drag than disc brakes. = A bit better gas mileage.

If this were my car, I'd leave the Drum brakes on.

Nothing wrong with those !!

- Nick

akirony · Post by **akirony** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 3:07 pm

Rear disk swap was pretty easy. The e-brake cables were a PITA though. Finding them was a whole nother story. I got new rotors from acdelco and they had surface rust in a few days. The inside drum is the only surface to worry about.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:35 am

ok so I ordered the parts, got them installed and got the alignment installed, =) everything was going great until I noticed the rear drums were warped smh -______- so now i have to swap out the new ones for the old ones and send them back

BUT! the car drives smooooooth

new struts
springs
strut mounts
new battery
new tires
tune up, spark plug, k&n intake etc.....
new drums, wheel hubs, bearings drum cylinders, rotors,brake pads etc....

everything is pretty much new in this car!

i just got the tint, stereo, and hids done today too pics coming soon

please follow this link to help neon girl fix her car up =)

thanks for taking the time to check out my thread