I decided to attempt my first ever pad & rotor replacement and have a whole new respect for people that do this day in and day out. Here are a few things I encountered.
NOTE: I have a 2017 Cruze Premier w/ just under 30k miles. Also, I live in the Northeast where the roads become more salt than actual road in the winter.
Problem #1: All 20 out of 20 lug nuts were swollen and would not fit my 19mm breaker bar in the trunk. Nor would it fit my 19mm driver socket or impact socket. The next size up in my socket kit was 21mm and it was too big. My local Harbor Freight, Autozone, and Advanced Auto didn't have a 20mm 1/2" so had to order one from Amazon.
Autozone had a 20mm 3/8" drive socket, so I gave it a shot and this happened... I'm a dummy for even trying. Some WD40 & a locking oil filter wrench was able to yank the broken socket out thankfully.
I knew the backs were all gouged so those went first. Nothing too unusual here.
However, my fronts were squealing which I thought was really odd because both fronts had plenty of pad and the rotors looked like this:
But, when I got the rotor off, the backs on both were HORRIBLE!
You would think this was a picture of an old pad and a new one, but these are from the same corner. The one of the left is from the backside of the rotor and the right is from the front facing side!
Clearly something is majorly wrong. This was the same on both front brakes.
The guide pins on the front felt stiff and grimy so I pulled them out, cleaned them and re-greased them. I'm hoping that fixes this uneven wearing.
Anyone else see anything like this? Will my re-grease of the guide pins prevent this from happening or is something more wrong? Maybe a frozen piston? It went back in okay it seemed.
NOTE: I have a 2017 Cruze Premier w/ just under 30k miles. Also, I live in the Northeast where the roads become more salt than actual road in the winter.
Problem #1: All 20 out of 20 lug nuts were swollen and would not fit my 19mm breaker bar in the trunk. Nor would it fit my 19mm driver socket or impact socket. The next size up in my socket kit was 21mm and it was too big. My local Harbor Freight, Autozone, and Advanced Auto didn't have a 20mm 1/2" so had to order one from Amazon.
Autozone had a 20mm 3/8" drive socket, so I gave it a shot and this happened... I'm a dummy for even trying. Some WD40 & a locking oil filter wrench was able to yank the broken socket out thankfully.
I knew the backs were all gouged so those went first. Nothing too unusual here.
However, my fronts were squealing which I thought was really odd because both fronts had plenty of pad and the rotors looked like this:
But, when I got the rotor off, the backs on both were HORRIBLE!
You would think this was a picture of an old pad and a new one, but these are from the same corner. The one of the left is from the backside of the rotor and the right is from the front facing side!
Clearly something is majorly wrong. This was the same on both front brakes.
The guide pins on the front felt stiff and grimy so I pulled them out, cleaned them and re-greased them. I'm hoping that fixes this uneven wearing.
Anyone else see anything like this? Will my re-grease of the guide pins prevent this from happening or is something more wrong? Maybe a frozen piston? It went back in okay it seemed.