New-to-me 02 Tahoe with some problems

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Potch

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How can you not hear that and not know your brakes are completely toast??? Thats so bad their should be sparks flying out of your wheel when braking especially at night lol

Surprisingly I could only really hear it when the windows were down. Once it got really loud and the shaking started is when I stopped driving it.

I work nights so if it were throwing sparks I would think I would have seen them.

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Potch

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I'd think you should replace that rear caliper too.

What makes you say that? Just because I'd already be in there?

I just installed the new rotors and break pads today. I didn't get new calipers but I'm going to take the wheels back off after I get home from work tomorrow and make sure everything looks good. Round trip from home to work to home is about 8 miles in little to no traffic.

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Tonyrodz

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What makes you say that? Just because I'd already be in there?

I just installed the new rotors and break pads today. I didn't get new calipers but I'm going to take the wheels back off after I get home from work tomorrow and make sure everything looks good. Round trip from home to work to home is about 8 miles in little to no traffic.

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No, because one of the pistons has a crack. I wouldn't want to take a chance, being that it's cracked already. When brakes are concerned, better safe then sorry.
 

bldn10

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He said that the crack was in the boot, not the piston. Usually no big deal, but the drastic way the inside wore compared to the outside means something is bad wrong.
 

Tonyrodz

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He said that the crack was in the boot, not the piston. Usually no big deal, but the drastic way the inside wore compared to the outside means something is bad wrong.
Agreed. There might be an equalization problem concerning the caliper. I'd just change it, cheap enough.
 

SweYukon

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I've had exactly the same experience, noise from the rear when braking. The rotor looked the same. I replaced both rear rotors and calipers. And don't forget to check the brake hoses too, if they for some reason swells inside they may act like a check valve or non-return valve and cause severe wear to brake pads and rotors.
 
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Potch

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You guys have some good points that I hadn't thought of. Looks like I'll be replacing the calipers this weekend.

On a somewhat related note... When I checked my brake fluid I saw some little floaty/flaky things in the master cylinder. I tried sucking them out with a baster and replaced 12 oz of brake fluid.

If I'm going to be doing the calipers anyways, should I just flush the whole system and replace all the brake fluid?

Thanks for all of your help.

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afpj

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Honestly I would have bled the lines with a rotor/pad replacement anyway. So yes, flush the system. I had issues with bad bleeder valves recently so it was a PIA, for me, but most others have little issues with bleeding. Good luck. check brake hoses (the rubber portions) carefully. Any cracks and you should replace those too. I had 170k miles on my original hoses before I found cracks.
 

HiHoeSilver

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You guys have some good points that I hadn't thought of. Looks like I'll be replacing the calipers this weekend.

On a somewhat related note... When I checked my brake fluid I saw some little floaty/flaky things in the master cylinder. I tried sucking them out with a baster and replaced 12 oz of brake fluid.

If I'm going to be doing the calipers anyways, should I just flush the whole system and replace all the brake fluid?

Thanks for all of your help.

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Yes, flush it. Not sure how tight your budget is, but since you'll have the calipers off, it would be a worthwhile to upgrade the rubber flex lines to stainless.
 
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Potch

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Yes, flush it. Not sure how tight your budget is, but since you'll have the calipers off, it would be a worthwhile to upgrade the rubber flex lines to stainless.

Budget is always pretty tight. But, I'd rather do it right and eliminate the possibility of problems arising from half-assing the job.
 
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