QuestionQUESTION: I have a pontiac grand am 2002 and since ive had this car all it ever does is eat up my front pads and rotors with in about three months or 10,000 miles. and now my front brakes are locking up ! I have changed pads,rotors,calipers,master cylinder,booster,booster vacuum valve,front brake lines,ABS unit,fuses and I have ran out of options. I have been told this car has diverted brakes so I bled my brakes to the correct sequence which is right rear, left front,left rear,right front . Still nothing ! Keep in mind this car does not have a proportioning valve. I've been reading up on these cars and it looks like they are known for this problem but nobody has the answer. Can you help me ? There has to be a solution !
ANSWER: Hi Alex:
is this a Se or a GT? does it have disc all around or drum in the rear? Yes they do go through brakes quickly but as a rule the Gt's are not as bad with disc brake all around. is one side or the other on front have more signes of wear or do both front about at the same rate? when you have an issue wlike that and just start throwing parts at it especially aftermarket remanufacutred parts sometimes you complicate the problem even more. I'm not a fan of any kind of aftermarket parts.
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QUESTION: Its a SE model with a 2.2 liter front wheel drive and has disk in front and drum in rear. Both my fronts are breaking the same. The rear wheels spin freely . It is also equipped with Trac control and has a wire connecting to the wheels. If this car has diagonal brakes then why are my two front brakes sticking and not the back ? Could it be a electrical problem ? No cluster lights come on....
ANSWER: Yes this has diaganal braking. so if it were a master cylinder issue then it would effect the rear brakes as well as the front. If the rear brakes are not adjusted up the fronts will wear quickly. If the wheel cylinders are bind the rears are not working right and the fronts will work harder. I would suspect possably brake hose issues. If the hoses are restricted in some way it may allow the brakes to "drag" I have see it happn on cars with a ton of miles on them in a cold climate area the metal ends on the hoses start to rot out and pich down the hose and cause and issue like this. try this pump up the brakes and then go out to the front calipers crack open a bleeder screw the brake fluid should flow freely out of the bleeder. Not a spurt first then flow. If you open the bleeder up and nothing is comming out you have a restiction somewhere. do the same thing and then try a rear wheel cylinder same thing.
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QUESTION: I did everything you told me. I changed rear hoses adjusted the brakes and they are grabbing good and checked pressure and its good ! Still the front pads start to stick and the rotors get really hot . I heard that sometimes you have to reset the ABS system or calibrate it or something... Is this true ?
AnswerNo there is no ABS reset. What happens when you open the front brake bleeders does fluid drain out or does nothing happen. if no fluid drains out I would suspect the hoses in the front may be bad which is what I stated in the last reply not the rear hoses. to the brakes actaully drag on this if you drive it for a few miles and then stop the car and were to raise up both front wheens are the brakes actaully dragging? are the rotrs discolored to a blue tint? what type/brand of brake pads are on the front of this organtic/ceramic/semi-metalic?
