brakes

[dajuiceman]

O.K., lets see if I got this straight. With the 5th gen grand am's if you have an SE then you have rear drums, if you have a GT then you rear disc, am I right or was there a disc option for SE's. Anyway, why did pontiac even put drums on anyway, I dont see how they can be cheaper. I did drum brakes one time in my life and theres all those springs and clips and wierd rods. With disc theres only a simple caliper and it's so much quicker and easier to change disc because theres not all those parts to deal with. Anyway I dont see why theres drums on passenger cars when I dont see the advantage costwise or time changing them wise. (semi trucks I can see using drums for all the extra surface area).

[GregFarz78]

you are correct there was no rear disc option on the SEs...I don't understand why any car manufacturer still uses drum brakes

[tenspeed]

Anyway, why did pontiac even put drums on anyway, I dont see how they can be cheaper.

If drums were more expensive, why would they be on all the cheaper models?

Drum brakes last longer because of the larger surface area and are used world wide where speeds are lower. With global use comes low prices.

Disc brakes dry faster when wet and are more fade resistant. In the old days, cars had drum brakes in the front. You had no brakes if the drums got wet. You had no brakes if they heated up when driving down the mountain. It didn't take much to overheat them, one hard stop from 80 - 100 mph is all you got until the drums cooled down.

[Brandon]

semis=air brakes=me love air brakes (although they are drum) i still love em!

[SE2000]

Drum brakes are cheaper to manufacture, they also weigh less. They are more simple to do a parking brake with. They justify you buying the more expensive model to get 4 wheel disc.

manufacturers do not care how difficult it is for you to work on unless they can make it a selling feature.
I remember when pro mechanics took a lot longer to do disc brakes compared to drums.

[dajuiceman]

it just seems so odd to me that drum brakes are cheaper to manufacture. There's so many more parts and each part has to come off a machine of some sort.

[tenspeed]

it just seems so odd to me that drum brakes are cheaper to manufacture. There's so many more parts and each part has to come off a machine of some sort.

The manufacturers move the machines into areas where they pay people a couple of bucks a week and flush the waste into the rivers.

[GregFarz78]

drum brakes also force most people to take their car back to the dealership when they need service lol

[Gimli]

it just seems so odd to me that drum brakes are cheaper to manufacture. There's so many more parts and each part has to come off a machine of some sort.

Then again you have brakes like the rear ones on 99+ GTs where the regular brake is a disc but there is still a drum assembly for the hand brake.

[XoticGA]

I wouldn't have minded rear drums on my GA, 2 lest rotors to warp :lol: :lol:

[TA^Guy]

Maybe I'm old school, or maybe because I was trained and used to do it for a living but drum brakes really aren't that hard to do. Simple kind of, you have springs to hold the pads away from the drum, a cylinder to push them towards the drums, and an adjuster to keep them adjusted.

If you have problems with drum brakes here is a tip, remove both drums and keep one together as a reference guide.

I think the worst part about drum brakes is removing a rusted drum that stuck on there. Everytime I check my brakes I put a healthy cat of bearing gease on the mating surface to make sure it comes off easy everytime.
If drums were more expensive, why would they be on all the cheaper models?

Drum brakes last longer because of the larger surface area and are used world wide where speeds are lower. With global use comes low prices.

Disc brakes dry faster when wet and are more fade resistant. In the old days, cars had drum brakes in the front. You had no brakes if the drums got wet. You had no brakes if they heated up when driving down the mountain. It didn't take much to overheat them, one hard stop from 80 - 100 mph is all you got until the drums cooled down.
Yah but they didn't get wet as easily, you practically had to drive through a small pond to 'soak' them.
Drum brakes are cheaper to manufacture, they also weigh less. They are more simple to do a parking brake with. They justify you buying the more expensive model to get 4 wheel disc.

Drum brake lighter? On what tiny little car? lol All my drums have been heavier than a disc. Well, except my Camaro that had aluminum drums, those things were damn light.

I wouldn't have minded rear drums on my GA, 2 lest rotors to warp :lol: :lol:
How in gods name did you warp the rear rotors? Were you driving around with the parking brake on? lol

[XoticGA]

Nope, but they were warped terribly, iirc when Jimmy took them off my rear passenger side was the worst.. It had gotten warped so bad, the the brake pad itself was actually worn at a pretty good angle

[TA^Guy]

I bet your slides weren't properly lubricated and they froze making you drag your re brake. Did you use your parking brake alot?

[XoticGA]

Eh, every now and then.. My driveway kinda goes up at an angle and then downward once I get near the garage, so if I didn't pull in, I'd sometimes put the brake on.. They were all warped to an extent, but the back ones were more crooked than Stacey's smile :rofl:

[TA^Guy]

Hmmm . Rear slides are known to freeze on vehicles where they are properly lubricated and people dont use the parking brake much. That would cause dragging of the pads and maybe wrapped rotors and excessive pad wear.

[Gimli]

Hmmm . Rear slides are known to freeze on vehicles where they are properly lubricated and people dont use the parking brake much. That would cause dragging of the pads and maybe wrapped rotors and excessive pad wear.

Not on a Grand Am it wouldn't, the parking brakes use the internal drum mechanism, even on disc rear brakes.

Didn't you read my post granpa? :lol:

I agree it was probably caused by a stuck caliper slide though, just not related to the parking brake.

[TA^Guy]

Thanks Ben, to be honest it's been awhile since I've been under the back of a GA. I was kind of skimming posts, no coffee this morning, sorry. lol