Never ending brake trouble

[JohnW63]

I believe my '95 ATX has had a brake problem since day one. The REAR brakes wear out so much faster than the fronts do. I bought the car , from my in-laws, at about 36K miles, and I don't think they had the brakes serviced during that period. Some time after I bought it, I heard the tell tale sound of metal on metal, ( Why doesn't this car have a mechanism to alert you to a worn brakes condition !? ). I took it to the dealer since I had an extended warranty. They found that the right rear rotor was trashed and the left rear was starting to scratch. The fronts were fine. When I asked to see the front pads, they had convienently thrown them away, so I don't know how far they had worn. Less than a year later, I thought I heard it again. I took the car to a third pary garage and they said the right rear caliper was hanging up. I took it back to the dealer and they supposedly cleaned and lubed the caliper and it was fine. SOme time last year, my father in-law replaced all the pads again, sine they sounded like they were squeeling. The rears would squeak a LOT after that job, but my father-in-law couldn't hear it. ( He's not as young as he used to be. ) I took the rotors off, had them all turned to be sure they weren't off, replaced all the pads with AutoZone lifetime stuff, lubed all the caliper pins , adjusted the parking brake, and still couldn't keep the rear pads from squeaking, especailly when I would turn corners. The sqeaks slowly went away, but...I was checking the air in my tires, yesterday, and saw the rear rotors were scored quite noticably.

Is there a proportioning valve that could be bad ?
Is there a way to check the pressure at each wheel and see if it was off ?

I'm REALLY getting tired of this !!!


JohnW63

 

[JohnW63]

Ooops. Sorry, wrong forum. I'll paste it over in the brake section.

JohnW63

 

[luigisho]

Sounds like the valve could be bad,perhaps the parking brake never fully disengaged, or there was/is a caliper problem.

Since you are aware of the proportioning valve then I assume you know that the rear brakes, under normal operation, should wear much slower than the fronts.

The only way I know of to check the valve is to see if you can get a rear caliper to bleed 'normally' (like the fronts) without weight on the back wheels to open the valve.

Anyone else?

 

[RStalveyARFF]

you say you get a squealing around corners. Did they check the wheel bearings by any chance? Another culprit could be the piston not turned in correctly. Some people don't know it must be turned instead of clamped. Good luck!

 

[JohnW63]

SHO91MTX,

My dad suggested the wheel bearings last year,but the opinions I got here, discounted that idea. How do you check for too much bearing play ?


JohnW63

 

[projectSHO89]

Raise the wheel, grasp it at 3 and 9 oclock and try to wiggle it. Repeat using a 6 and 12 grip.

Any play in the rear wheel is probably the bearing. If it's loose, you will feel it.

Steve