Tips for Brakes?

[allfalldown]

1996 Riviera. I'm getting ready to do brake pads and rotors. I'm going to move up to ceramic pads... but would like to know if the Riv has floating disks or do I need to remove the whole disk with the hub?

I do not have a repair guide as I cannot find a Haynes or Chilton for our make/model.

Sucks!

[96riviera18]

it is a floating caliper. riv's came with ceramics from the factory so its a good choice. i made a write-up for replacing the rear pads and rotors on rivperofrmance.com under the braking/handling section. the fronts are basically the same but you will need either a special tool or needle nose pliers to push/turn the piston back in.(PITA w/out the proper tool)

[allfalldown]

Originally Posted by 96riviera18

it is a floating caliper. riv's came with ceramics from the factory so its a good choice. i made a write-up for replacing the rear pads and rotors on rivperofrmance.com under the braking/handling section. the fronts are basically the same but you will need either a special tool or needle nose pliers to push/turn the piston back in.(PITA w/out the proper tool)

I guess my next question is: do the rotors come off without having to remove the axle or whole hub assembly? I guess that is what I meant by floating rotor/caliper.

My mom's old Chevy FWD you could remove the wheel, take the caliper off, and the disc just slid off after that. I've done other FWD cars where after the caliper comes off, you must remove the last big nut to pull the whole hub off.

Does this question make sense?

[allfalldown]

Originally Posted by allfalldown

I guess my next question is: do the rotors come off without having to remove the axle or whole hub assembly? I guess that is what I meant by floating rotor/caliper.

My mom's old Chevy FWD you could remove the wheel, take the caliper off, and the disc just slid off after that. I've done other FWD cars where after the caliper comes off, you must remove the last big nut to pull the whole hub off.

Does this question make sense?

Indeed, the rotors float on the axle and pop of after you get the caliper off. I found that new rotors were about $18 a piece and resurfacing was $15.99. I went ahead and bought all new rotors along with some Morse Automotive cermaic pads. They are ultra quiet, stop great, and leave no dust!

After getting the old rotors off, I found that they could probably be resurfaced pretty easily as it looks like they've never been - and they're original Delco parts. The "edge" of the rotor is still angled, telling me they've never been re-surfaced.

If anyone wants them, I'd give 'em up. Or they go out in the garbage Monday. I'll swap for something interesting "Riviera" or something... or nothing if you have nothing to offer.

Thanks for your help..

[allfalldown]

Originally Posted by 96riviera18

it is a floating caliper. riv's came with ceramics from the factory so its a good choice. i made a write-up for replacing the rear pads and rotors on rivperofrmance.com under the braking/handling section. the fronts are basically the same but you will need either a special tool or needle nose pliers to push/turn the piston back in.(PITA w/out the proper tool)

PS for pushing back the caliper I use my C-clamp with the old inboard pad as the place to push on since its going in the garbage anyway!

[96riviera18]

i would keep the delco rotors just incase the new ones warp out after a month. what brand rotors did you get?

[allfalldown]

I got the two year warranty jobbers from AutoZone. They had three:

1. 1 year warranty $18 each
2. 2 year warranty $40 each
3. Baer slotted/vented $218 each

I wanted to buy the Baers but just couldn't justify the expense at this time. There are a bunch of little things I wanna fix on the car, (power antenna, full tune up, couple bulbs in the car) I just wanted good clean safety for now.

I love the car, and can see in a year or so when I've gotten everything to where it needs to be, putting a pulley on the SC, doing all four brakes with slotted/vented rotors... that kind of thing.

[allfalldown]

And wow, let me say the ceramic pads are ultra quiet! Not a peep and stop just as good as what was in there before. I read 50/50 reports on them being worse than semi-metallic and better than semi-metallic.

I read also that the 96 OEM were semi-metallic up front with ceramics in the rear. I figure if I end up not liking them in 6 months or a year I can swap out but I really don't think that's gonna happen.

And I think I will go pull the OEM discs out of the garbage. The car has 100,000 and I don't think they were ever turned... but they needed to be! I'm pretty sure they had GM/Delco stamps on them.

[sprucegoose]

That's great news! I know the feeling when you have nice quiet brakes again... Ironically, I just did my front brakes yesterday also! They work fantastic now.

My rotors were a little tough getting off, as they were on there for almost 80K mi. since the previous owner did the last brake job. Nothing a little penetrating oil and big rubber mallet couldn't handle though!

Like 96 Riv said, I'd save those original rotors just in case the new ones warp. There are a lot of Chinese ones out there with flaws or bad materials... If you have a means of measuring those originals, 1.200" is the mininmum thickness. Mine were less than that so I had to discard mine. I went with the ceramic pads as well with hopes that the brake dust would be a lot less. The surface rust from that was starting to do a number on my chrome rims.

I would have loved to do the cross-drilling method I did on my Cadillac rotors a few years back, but sometimes you just got to "get er done!" Here is a link to a site I posted when I did that... http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums...-calipers.html

I have moved on to another employer since then too, so i would have to re-write the NC program for another machine. I did get a lot of compliments on the Eldo's rotors and calipers, and I would like to do that again eventually on the Riv. The brakes seemed to work much better after that modification.