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RedFury · 04-04-2003, 09:58 PM

Most reputable shops may refuse to put shoes and pads on your car if the rotors are too far gone for liability reasons. You might be able to get them to do it only if there is enough material left on the drums/rotors for the wearing down on the new brake material. Otherwise you're stuck doing it yourself.

Worst case scenario: front rotors wear through to the cooling veins and cause potential brake lock up ( although you should know something is terribly wrong before that happens ), rear drums could potentially disassemble themselves if the drum gets any kind of taper to it ( Currently dealing with a Spirit with this problem, and had an old Tempo that would launch the brake shoes every other day on one side until I just disabled that brake ).

Depending on what/where you go, see if there is a possibility of swapping out your unturnable drums/rotors for something usable out of a scrapyard since you don't plan on keeping it long term.

Personally, if the car runs well, and hasn't given you any indications that it is going to give up the ghost anytime soon, it might be worth fixing on your own. Brakes at the shop cost $$$, home repairs are dirt cheap and quite easy to do with a chiltons/haynes manual. Anyone with a handful of tools would most likely have most of the tools needed to accomplish a pad/shoe change.

Oh, and one more thing and then I'll stop rambling...
If you don't feel that the rear brakes are making any noise, just get the fronts done first. My assumption is that this car nosedives pretty good during braking and most of the stopping is done with front brakes ( the discs ). The rears on most cars are more for vehicle control than anything...they seem to last forever on front wheel drive vehicles. I went through 3 sets of front pads before I touched the rears on a car I delivered pizza's with to give you an idea.

You can get brand new rotors for 20-30 bucks a piece for that car, which is cheap considering my 77 Wagon rotors will run me about $75 a piece because my front wheel bearings are part of the rotor. As I suspected, you have extremely easy front brakes to work on. A rotor and pad change could be done in 2 hours tops by someone with no brake experience. Seriously.
prices were checked at CheckerAuto.com, the most expensive rotors listed were Raybestos for $45 a rotor.

04-04-2003, 09:58 PM	#3 (permalink)
RedFury Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: mInN3$0t@ Posts: 1,303	Most reputable shops may refuse to put shoes and pads on your car if the rotors are too far gone for liability reasons. You might be able to get them to do it only if there is enough material left on the drums/rotors for the wearing down on the new brake material. Otherwise you're stuck doing it yourself. Worst case scenario: front rotors wear through to the cooling veins and cause potential brake lock up ( although you should know something is terribly wrong before that happens ), rear drums could potentially disassemble themselves if the drum gets any kind of taper to it ( Currently dealing with a Spirit with this problem, and had an old Tempo that would launch the brake shoes every other day on one side until I just disabled that brake ). Depending on what/where you go, see if there is a possibility of swapping out your unturnable drums/rotors for something usable out of a scrapyard since you don't plan on keeping it long term. Personally, if the car runs well, and hasn't given you any indications that it is going to give up the ghost anytime soon, it might be worth fixing on your own. Brakes at the shop cost $$$, home repairs are dirt cheap and quite easy to do with a chiltons/haynes manual. Anyone with a handful of tools would most likely have most of the tools needed to accomplish a pad/shoe change. Oh, and one more thing and then I'll stop rambling... If you don't feel that the rear brakes are making any noise, just get the fronts done first. My assumption is that this car nosedives pretty good during braking and most of the stopping is done with front brakes ( the discs ). The rears on most cars are more for vehicle control than anything...they seem to last forever on front wheel drive vehicles. I went through 3 sets of front pads before I touched the rears on a car I delivered pizza's with to give you an idea. You can get brand new rotors for 20-30 bucks a piece for that car, which is cheap considering my 77 Wagon rotors will run me about $75 a piece because my front wheel bearings are part of the rotor. As I suspected, you have extremely easy front brakes to work on. A rotor and pad change could be done in 2 hours tops by someone with no brake experience. Seriously. prices were checked at CheckerAuto.com, the most expensive rotors listed were Raybestos for $45 a rotor. __________________ do it right, do it yourself. If that doesn't work, prepare to pay for your mistakes. Last edited by RedFury : 04-04-2003 at 10:00 PM.