Hello:

 

I really like your site and it has a lot of good information on the Grands in there that has educated me since I purchased mine.  I read with great interest about the brake upgrade using better pads and cross drilled rotors.  I would very much like to get the part numbers of the items used on that for when I decide to upgrade mine.  As I read the article, I noticed a few things that I thought should be brought up to help the users of the site.

 

In that article, the author described using a C clamp to push in the pistons of the calipers.  I have found this to be a bad practice.  I used to use C clamps for this task all the time and it worked fine on my collector cars that use stainless steel pistons in the calipers.  However, I found that when I used a C clamp with the newer brake calipers that have plastic pistons, the results were not good.  Basically, the plastic pistons are very susceptible to getting off center in their bore if they are not pushed in exactly straight.  When the brakes are put into action with the pistons crooked in the bore, they wear at an angle, overheat and start squealing.  This happened to me twice until I purchased a disc brake pad spreader tool for $10 at Sears.  Since then, I have had no problem and the $10 I spent was far less than what the new calipers I purchased twice cost me.

 

The second thing I noticed was how the author dealt with the brake fluid that gets forced out of the calipers when the pads are spread.  He forced the fluid up through the brake system and into the master cylinder.  This is not a good idea for two reasons.  First, the fluid in the calipers is old and has also had the hardest life because of the heat that is constantly put into it from braking.  Pushing this fluid back into your master cylinder merely contaminates the other fluid in the system.  Secondly, and most importantly, I have been told by mechanics that if you have an antilock brake system you should not force fluid up into the master cylinder because it can destroy your ABS sensors!  I can think of nothing worse than being in a panic situation and applying your brakes thinking the ABS is there and finding that it is not.  ABS sensors are expensive to replace and probably quite complicated.  The best practice is to crack the bleeder screw and attach a hose to it and drain it into a jar.  Better yet, if you have a MityVac brake bleeder pump, you can use the bleeder cup and hose on that.  The pump also makes a much easier job of bleeding your brakes.

 

I hope these words of advice can help others using the website.  I would like to add that I think the author of the article should be applauded for having the initiative to work on his brake system without prior experience.  Working on cars can be a little daunting and frustrating but it is well worth the effort.

 

Sean P Streeter