03 Base Front Brake Shims

pljenkins · Post by **pljenkins** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:25 am

Greetings gurus. Well, I've torn into the brakes here on the front of my Vibe and found quite a few things. First, don't ever wait 130,000 miles to do a brake job, no matter how well the pads are wearing! Remarkably I STILL have about 30%-40% of the pads left, but I found a LOT of corrosion and it took me a can of Power Blaster and 30 minutes each side of pounding the snot out of the rotors to get the off. Pads were pretty seized up in the races... Anyway, my issue of the day is the anti-squeal shims that back the pads are, for all intents and purposes, disintegrated from corrosion. NAPA of course doesn't have these parts, so I figured I'd call the Pontiac dealership. Parts guy had no idea what I was talking about. Imagine that. So, for you guys that have actually DONE brake jobs on the Vibe, are these shims included with the pads, or do I just need to search a little further for a competent parts guy? Brake squeal and other assorted funky noises are why I tore into this to begin with, so I want to make sure I'm not taking any short cuts with this.Thanks!

Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:44 am

you might not get shims... just use some anti-squeal or brake grease on the back of the pads, should do the trick.. I've never returned the shims to the backs of the pads after they've fallen apart... lol.. and I thought I was putting off a full brake job... I need rotors mine are warped..

pljenkins · Post by **pljenkins** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:32 am

Thanks Sublimewind! Yeah, my friend thought I was nuts and had me doubting myself, so I looked back on my maint records and sure enough, no brake jobs in there. And judging by the hardware I pulled off, I'll believe they've been on there for 6 Chicago winters. Just for giggles I weighed the rust and corroded material that came off the assemblies after beating them with a hammer and it's close to a pound of material. Time to closely inspect the undercarriage while I have her in the air!Anyway, just what I needed to hear.. I won't worry about the shims then.. Thanks!Paul

lovemyraffe · Post by **lovemyraffe** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:43 am

Quote, originally posted by pljenkins Â»Greetings gurus. Well, I've torn into the brakes here on the front of my Vibe and found quite a few things. First, don't ever wait 130,000 miles to do a brake job, no matter how well the pads are wearing! Remarkably I STILL have about 30%-40% of the pads left, That's good to know. I was a little confused when I pulled the pads off my '05 with 73,000 miles and found they hardly looked used. Maybe I will do a brake job soon.

bodhi_tree777 · Post by **bodhi_tree777** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:53 am

Quote, originally posted by lovemyraffe Â»That's good to know. I was a little confused when I pulled the pads off my '05 with 73,000 miles and found they hardly looked used. Maybe I will do a brake job soon.My driver's side caliper froze up at just about 73k miles and destroyed the pad and rotor so I had to do a brake job that early. The passenger side pad looked almost brand new, which I thought was a little weird as well. I guess the ol' Vibe is just easy on the brakes.

Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:26 pm

No, they just have ridiculously hard pads.. the rotors usually go first.. lol.. usually warping..

pljenkins · Post by **pljenkins** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:53 am

oops. Double post. Just got the rotors and pads today...working on installation now.

pljenkins · Post by **pljenkins** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:34 pm

Done. Remarkably easy once you get the seized on rotors off the car. Found that the passenger side pads had seized in the guides and cashed the rotor/pad. Of course, the coup de gras was my hammering the snot out of the old rotors to get them off the car. None the less, for all my hammering and abuse, the alignment is still straight as an arrow! Probably gets far more abuse running over the quality roads we have here. Anyway, went out for a test and did the pad/rotor bedding and found the car stops MUCH better then it did before!Now to the rear brakes next week... This ought to be interesting...

djkeev · Post by **djkeev** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:59 pm

If the fronts were seized, my guess is that your stopping ability was poor at best and that your rear brakes took most of the wear for many many miles.I replaced my 08 front pads at about 40,000 miles and they were gone! I live in a relatively flat area and am NOT an aggressive driver on the brakes all of the time.Dave

Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:20 pm

Quote, originally posted by pljenkins Â»Done. Remarkably easy once you get the seized on rotors off the car. Found that the passenger side pads had seized in the guides and cashed the rotor/pad. Of course, the coup de gras was my hammering the snot out of the old rotors to get them off the car. None the less, for all my hammering and abuse, the alignment is still straight as an arrow! Probably gets far more abuse running over the quality roads we have here. Anyway, went out for a test and did the pad/rotor bedding and found the car stops MUCH better then it did before!Now to the rear brakes next week... This ought to be interesting...Tell me you are doing a proper bedding and seasoning on the pads/rotors... I personally feel it's VERY important, to maximize both pad/rotor life and there general performance..

pljenkins · Post by **pljenkins** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:30 am

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind Â»Tell me you are doing a proper bedding and seasoning on the pads/rotors... I personally feel it's VERY important, to maximize both pad/rotor life and there general performance.. I agree, though there seems to be some differing opinions on a proper procedure for bedding brakes. I used the process described at http://www.stoptech.com/tech_i...shtml. Seemed relatively straight-forward and since I live near some rural areas was easily accomplished without interference.

Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:34 am

That should work and you should net longer lasting better performing brakes...!!

03 Base Front Brake Shims

03 Base Front Brake Shims

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