Inspect my Brakes

A couple of weeks ago the brake light/chime on the wifes 99 Riv started coming on. After test driving the vehicle and determining it was not the e brake pedal causing the problem I decided to go by the local shop and ask their opinion and schedule a repair. When I told the mechanic about the symptoms he said he would check the fluid...Sure enough he added a little fluid and brought the level up to the Max level and solved the problem. He recommended I have the brakes inspected and said the reason the fluid was low is because they are probably getting worn and may need some new pads. They were closing up shop on a Friday evening or I would have had them inspected then...

Please take a look and see if the pads look OK to youse guys.

You would think I could tell if the pads need replaced. But I have only worked on Disc brakes once and after I got through replacing the pads on the front of that car my brother looked at the old ones and told me to quit wasting my money...they had a lot of wear left on them.

So anyhow, here are the pics of the front first:








Thanks for you input.

Bert

Here are some pics of the rear brakes:






Thanks again.

Bert

The rule of thumb on disc brake pads is "when the thickness of the pad material equals the thickness of the metal backing plate they are attached to, then it's time to think about replacing them." And that's playing it safe, you can run them longer if you watch them closely. You are trying to prevent ruining the rotors by allowing metal to metal contact.
With that said it looks like you have about 75% life remaining on the Front and 50 on the Rear.
Check again in 10,000 miles.

Thanks for the reply, that was quick.

A couple of weeks ago the brake light/chime on the wifes 99 Riv started coming on. After test driving the vehicle and determining it was not the e brake pedal causing the problem I decided to go by the local shop and ask their opinion and schedule a repair. When I told the mechanic about the symptoms he said he would check the fluid...Sure enough he added a little fluid and brought the level up to the Max level and solved the problem. He recommended I have the brakes inspected and said the reason the fluid was low is because they are probably getting worn and may need some new pads. They were closing up shop on a Friday evening or I would have had them inspected then...

Bert

Just remember when you do replace pads to siphon some fluid out of the reservoir with a turkey baster before pushing the pistons back in their bores
(to allow for the thicker new pads) or else you will have brake fluid spilling out of your master cylinder reservoir.

Also Bert - when you pull a wheel for inspection, in order to be absolutely sure that you don't end up introducing "lateral runout" you need to flip the calipers up so that you can pull the rotor hats off and knock the rust off teh insides of the hats and the hub faces. Takes a few minutes. ATE sells a tool for this but I just use a red Scotchbrite wheel on a mandrel that I can chuck into a 1/4" or 3/8" drill (I have 3/8, point is 1/4 will work fine it's not a heavy job). Our state inspection mandates the inspector pull at least two wheels and that they may pull 4. That is OK. One thing that angers me a little bit is that they don't (because inspection is fixed-price) pull the rotor hats and clean things up on the wheels they pull. I usually have to do that when I get home, if can feel the pedal pulsate from the runout (it's not much usually) they introduce.

About the earlier post about replacing pads - take that fluid out of the master cylinder as you are starting the brake job. About 1/2 way down ought to do it.

To clean things up: Undo the lower caliper pin and rotate the caliper so that you can slide the hat off the hub. (it's actually just as easy to remove the calipers as long as you can hang 'em without disconnecting the brake lines and as long as you have LocTite to re-set the caliper bolts). Use the wheel to brush the rust off down to shiny metal in between the wheel studs on the hub face and inside the rotor hat... Clean things off with alcohol (the cheapest dry gas you can get works fine) on a rag or brake cleaner and reassemble. Make sure the wheel hat is flat when you reassemble. What I do is get the bolts fingertight then grab the wheel with both hands and wiggle it around. This also tells me if I have tie rods or ball joints to look at if I try to wiggle in and out.

By the way your brakes LOOK good. Why did you decide to go pulling wheels?

Albertj

By the way your brakes LOOK good. Why did you decide to go pulling wheels?

Albertj[/quote]

Thanks for all the info.

The brake fluid being low had me concerned that the brakes needed work.
Bert

OK. If you do not top up brake fluid then the fluid level will drop as the linings wear. IN my experience you cantop it up once then when it drops again it's time to do the brakes -- SOON.

Albertj

That is a good tip about the fluid level having to be topped off. I will keep that in mind from now on.

Bert

THe problem with keeping the fluid topped off is that you'll miss teh tell tale indicator (fluid is low) that the brakes need done.

That said, you can see thru the inspection holes if you turn the front wheels to lock. All the way to the right to see the left brakes and vice versa.

Point being that if you see the lining and the backing are the same thickness, if you change 'em quick enough you can probably just change pads and use a spray-on rotor conditioner - or use EBC brake pads that have a bedding abrasive sprayed on - IF the rotors are still thick enough. You'd have to use a measuring caliper to tell.

And oh by the way did you see the brake write-up - you need one of those cube-lloking gadgets to reset the rear caliper pistons, they don't just push in.

Albertj