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First brake job?


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1 hour ago, Tarheelquality said:

Okay, I have a 2017 2wd LT that I pull a 31 ft camper with. Never had a problem with stopping the trailer.  Just had the tires rotated and oil changed at 20,000 miles and the front brake pads only had 2mm left. I have never had brake wear like that on anything I have driven before. Any ideas what might cause that type of wear and how to relieve it? Are there upgraded GM brake pads to use? Going to have them changed at the dealer next week. 

There are not...If you put aftermarket on you get far better options than OEM for about the same price and major performance increase in braking.  

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I'm at 73k and the dealer just changed the rear pads, only because the rear rotors were warped, they cut them, and then didn't like the resulting thickness, so they changed everything (including parking brake shoes).  It was all under warranty, so not like it was a money grab.  Fronts are still original, and have ~75% thickness remaining.  If I get less than 100k on a set of pads, I'm not angry... I'm ashamed.

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4 hours ago, mikedeezxxx said:

I’d think it’s from the camper. Truck uses more stopping power with the camper attached. Front brakes are gonna take the most braking. You should prob look into a 2500 for towing that camper around.


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Thanks, I am probably going to a 2500 or 3500 when my lease is up. When I bought the camper I just made sure the weight was well within the towing capacity but didn’t think about the effects of braking, especially with all the hills I go through in SoCal. That being said, never had an issue stopping in a reasonable distance.

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4 hours ago, mookdoc6 said:

There are not...If you put aftermarket on you get far better options than OEM for about the same price and major performance increase in braking.  

Thanks, I will take a look. In the past I would have just done it myself, these days finding the time for working on my truck is pretty tough.

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On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 12:38 PM, Jullian is not my name said:

I got only 36k miles on my brakes on my 2014 Sierra. I feel like some people are able to go much longer, but they probably also have tires that last the entire claimed tire-life too (my tires lasted 39k miles). I do think the brake life should have been much better than 36k miles with no towing.

 

I've posted about this before, but I should not have allowed the dealer to resurface the rotors. I think the rotor's life is much better than the pads, and by surfacing the rotors, you loose the FNC coating that keeps the rotors from corroding as quickly and helps with brake dust. I can vouch that I'm getting a LOT more brake dust all over my front wheels now with my resurfaced rotors.

Most reputable mechanics are advising against resurfacing the rotors.  I fully trust my mechanic, and when he did the brakes on my 07, he said nobody advises resurfacing, so I got new OEM rotors.

Edited by slimjim2525
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I just replaced both tires and front brakes at 45k as everything needs to be replaced, casual towing a race car with trailer every 6 months? The fact to stress is that all these 45k were driven on BFG KO2s, 35x12.50R17.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm at 115K miles on factory brakes and tow a 20' Key West boat frequently. I have no brake noise yet, but am getting a little high-speed braking vibration. Probably going to break down and do a brake job on all 4 wheels anyway. Does no one change calipers on these 2014 4x4 Sierras when doing brakes? I had a 2001 Z71 Sierra before this one and had to do that. And yes, I cleaned and lubbed the pins, but the caliper was still sticking. The guy at the tire shop told me to replace calipers when doing the brakes on that 01', but I had never heard of that, so I didn't. When it wore out the new pads in a month I replaced them calipers. The new pads last over 100K after that.

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2015 1500 SLE Double Cab 5.3. Heading into towing season with 28,213 miles. Had vacuum pump replaced a few weeks ago under warranty. Dealership said the onboard pads front and rear were all wearing oddly and the rotors were crusty. I did not notice any issues when I undercoated in the fall last year. I think the salty roads in NH do not help, and I have been lazy and not taken the brakes apart and cleaned them after each winter. The odd thing is that the outboard surface of the rotors, pads looked great. Even the swept surface was even, shiny and went right to the edge of the rotor. I think a lot of junk collect behind the rotors and despite my low miles/usage in the winter and frequent washes the insides crust up quickly.

I replaced rotors and pads, cleaned and filed calipers, flushed fluid, greased everything up real good. I will clean and recrease annually from now on. I bet then I can get a full life out of the parts.

While I was at it, I did front and rear diff fluid, t-case, transmission filter and flush, coolant flush, cabin air filter, engine filter. It’s my first truck and I have not treated it badly. I do use it for truck things primarily, but not aggressively. Hopefully it will last me another 15 years!


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Pads and rotors, should be good to go after that. As mentioned, lube your caliper pins up with some automotive bearing grease. Do you feel a caliper sticking? It will pull towards the side that sticks when you hit the brake.

If the wear seems even from driver side to passenger, your calipers are ok. A sticking one will burn the pads up faster.

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8 hours ago, Swampman said:

I'm at 115K miles on factory brakes and tow a 20' Key West boat frequently. I have no brake noise yet, but am getting a little high-speed braking vibration. Probably going to break down and do a brake job on all 4 wheels anyway. Does no one change calipers on these 2014 4x4 Sierras when doing brakes? I had a 2001 Z71 Sierra before this one and had to do that. And yes, I cleaned and lubbed the pins, but the caliper was still sticking. The guy at the tire shop told me to replace calipers when doing the brakes on that 01', but I had never heard of that, so I didn't. When it wore out the new pads in a month I replaced them calipers. The new pads last over 100K after that.

Most likely, assuming the caliper could slide on the pins easily (which is simple enough to test, just bolt it in lightly without the pads in place), I would guess the pads were held again the rotor by rust on the pad guides (either the snap-in pieces, or rust on the caliper itself, pressing the snap-in pieces against the pads).

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