Beware 09-10 Vibe owners or What's wrong with this pic?

[GammaFlat]

Vibe rotor and pads.jpg (52.39 KiB) Viewed 3025 times

It seems someone installed 2.4 liter calipers instead of 1.8 liter calipers on my 09 Vibe before I bought it. That may sound funny but if you look up parts for the 1.8 and 2.4 liter versions of the 09-10 Vibe, you'll find that the calipers, rotors and pads are different. The 2.4 liter version of the car has larger rotors and calipers that move the brake pad out about a third of an inch.

The larger rotors have a different lug pattern?! I'm scratching my head thinking I should change the hub/bearing to match the rotor. Then I'm thinking my wheels won't fit. I wound up on one of the parts sites to compare photos of the different calipers. Based on the pics I figured out that the caliper had the piston positioned further out from the mounting holes. Eureka! Not only did someone put the wrong calipers on the car before I bought it.. but to add to my confusion the parts store sold me the "2.4 version" of the rotors. What a "why me" moment . This may sound like it was easy to figure out but it had me confused for a while.

Installing the new rear calipers (100 bucks each) was much easier than I expected. I gravity bleed them for a while and finally lost patience and had someone gently push the brake an inch at a time until I was satisfied the bubbles were done. Brakes now work better than ever. If anyone wants/needs more info on this or how all this went, I'd be happy to oblige.

Everything went smoothly on the front.

[joatmon]

wild pic, kinda scary too. Its more important that car be able to stop than be able to go.

Good troubleshooting. I'd be baffled if I found that on a car.

Bleeding brakes without a helper is a pain. I once had to macguyver something with lumber and ropes. Glad you found a helper

[tpollauf]

interesting find and glad you got it corrected. All 09-10 Vibes with the BIGGER 2.4L engine as an option, were factory supplied with the larger brake system. In theory, a bigger motor means more curb weight, faster acceleration and top speeds, and brake components need to be bigger to safely bring said vehicle to a complete stop! All first gen Vibes (2003-08) had the same 1.8L engine so only one size braking system was needed for all those models.