THSCC Forums

Advice needed for good place to install new rotors and pads in the Cary/Apex area? Thx!

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/235 ... 9e63_o.gif

If you can ride it, you can race it:)
Cobalt SS/SC
CBR600F4i
BoulevardC50

Shawnee G

Mike Whitney's house!!

What kind of car?

If this is for someone else or if you want to pay someone to do it, Council and Sons near Davis & High House has been recommended to me a few times and they did some AC work for me once (before I knew how). At one point there was at least one guy working there who had autocrossed with us, but that was a while ago. They seem friendly and honest.

Now if you want to learn how to do it, I'd be happy to loan my garage, lift, and help/show you how. (As long as it's a relatively "normal" car). Best first thing to do is look up instructions online and/or get a cheapie manual.

But it's not hard. On a car I'm familiar with, it can take 30 minutes from the time the car rolls into the garage to torqued nuts. Working on a car I don't know well or if there are any issues may take an hour-plus. Also if it's older or has been in a lot of salt, minor things can go wrong. Finally, again if it's a car you care about, this is the perfect opportunity to bleed brakes. It's wise to flush fluid every 2 years.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

its my new 07 cobalt:)

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/235 ... 9e63_o.gif

If you can ride it, you can race it:)
Cobalt SS/SC
CBR600F4i
BoulevardC50

Shawnee G

You have an 07 Cobalt and it already needs pads and rotors? What are you doing, using this thing as a pursuit vehicle If you're doing normal street driving and/or AX in it. The rotors shouldn't be gone even if you wore out the pads.

If you want to use OEM parts get them from Gene Culley at www.gmpartshouse.com He's a wholesale parts dealer and can beat GM Parts Direct.

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http://www.greywinds.com

Mark at Hubcap Heaven did the brakes on a coworker's 2001ish Audi A4 - I gotta believe the Cobalt couldn't be worse. And I bet Mark would let you bring in your own parts if you had something specific in mind. You can't get too much closer to the main Cary office than his shop, either.

Good oppty for DIY though....

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

Ditto the DIY recomendation. A friend from work (not a car guy) said some place wanted to charge some large amount (~$150) to replace his front pads and he asked me if that price sounded OK. I told him no, and offered to teach him to do it himself. We did it at lunch in the parking lot at work, and now he's done the pads on his wife's car and his neighbor's car as well!

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime...

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Brand new car? Don't bother -- the stock stuff is 99% fine. If you get to a level in autocross that you're PAX-competitive (top 20) then you can start considering pads with more aggresive initial bite. But even then those rotors don't need to be changed for 50k miles.



Duh, stupid me, of course Mark would be an *excellent* person for a job like this!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Thanks for all the advice, I am goin to upgrade to some nicer rotors and Hawks. I will be waitin a while tho till the others are worn out!
Me bein picky i dont like the look of my dusty rotors, so I thought why not get some nicer pads while im at it!

_________________
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/235 ... 9e63_o.gif

If you can ride it, you can race it:)
Cobalt SS/SC
CBR600F4i
BoulevardC50

Shawnee G

My comment about Whitney's place was just a farce. Who knew that he would actually bite.

Nicer rotors? Like what? It's a steel disc. One is as "nice" as another. Unless you mean you want drilled and/or slotted rotors. If so don't waste your money on that crap.

If you plan to AX your Cobalt start saving money to replace front wheel bearings. If you want to learn how, just ask me. I'm somewhat of a self declared GM FWD wheel bearing expert.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

excellent:) right now im savin for the koni's and eibachs:)
Im still learnin about the car and am really liking working on it myself, cause it does always seem like whenever I go into a shop they try to take advantage.
Ive got a long list of 'want to do's'! Whether they actually get done is another story:)

_________________
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/235 ... 9e63_o.gif

If you can ride it, you can race it:)
Cobalt SS/SC
CBR600F4i
BoulevardC50

Shawnee G

EDIT: To specify, the Hawk pads that I hate are HP Plus compound, which is sort of a pseudo-track pad.

NO.

No, no, no, do not buy Hawks. Not if it's a street car, anyway.

I put a set of HP Plus Hawks on the S2000 about a month ago. I hate them. Granted, they stop the car GREAT - but there are several downsides.

1. They are impossibly loud. Now before people start poking fun, I fully expect performance brake components to be somewhat noisy. That's fine by me. But these things are ridiculous. They are drown out the radio loud. They are people pointing and staring loud.

To correct the problem, I put the factory shims back on the pads, sprayed them with that disc brake quiet goo, and chamfered the leading and trailing edges on a bench grinder. After the Danville Triad/CCR two-day with Eric codriving the car? The noise is back.

2. They dust like nothing I've ever experienced. Again, not such a big deal...EXCEPT, the dust turns to rust around the inner diameter of my wheels. Just like the Hawk Blues used to back in the day (proably still do).

3. They need a bit of heat in them for them to be effective. It's not a problem on the street really, they're not *that* bad cold. But the difference is incredible after that first stop.

4. Once hot, they're an on/off switch, and very difficult to modulate. Fortunately the S2000 has really good ABS.

This is not a mistake I'll be repeating. The "HPS" compound might be better, but personally I'm not taking that gamble. Not at over $200 to outfit the car.

--Karl, who misses his Carbotech Bobcats...

Karl - for a data point - HPS is all I use on street/autox/rallyx cars now. Low dust, quiet, good initial bite, good torque. Highly recommended for your S2000. Got them on the M3, the Miata, and the Subaru.

_________________
Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1