Re: James' 1995 Manual CDX V6 Saloon
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:07 am
Right then. It's high tide I got this thread fully up to date!
I've been sifting through my photos today remembering everything that I've done in the last two years.
Just for clarification, this post contains everything I've done to the car since my post in July 1018 here: viewtopic.php?p=166569#p166569
Up to May 2019 when I posted this:
viewtopic.php?p=168887#p168887
Despite being very quiet on the forum during that period, I actually got a lot of really good stuff done on my cars. I've got big updates to do on the Diplomat, CD auto and CD manual too, as well an an entire new thread to create for Lizzie's 'New' CD. (Not really new any more, we bought it 18 months ago and still haven't introduced it yet ).
2019 was probably one of the busiest and most exciting year of my life; I moved to a new house, performed in an am-dram play and got married. That's my excuse anyway!
Anyway, we pick the story up in about July 2018.
The brakes on the V6 , although fairly decent, never really lived up to their up-rated spec in my mind. Plus the fact that putting on the handbrake felt like placing a wedge of soft cheese under the rear wheels.
Having some spare cash at the time and with an MOT looming, I took the plunge.
A few days later this tasty package arrived at my door:
Contained within was everything required for a complete brake overall; new front and rear, disks, pads and shoes. Part numbers are in the photo for reference:
The work was carried out by a really nice local mobile mechanic called John who has become a bit of a mate of my Father's.
What was rather shocking to discover was that the last person to work on the bakes has decided to cut off the brake pad wear sensors.
Yep, so yet another cowboy bodge job. How many more are there left to discover on this car?
What makes it especially annoying is that they could have just unplugged them or at least cut them below the connector keeping the wiring loom intact.
But no, they cut them off above the connector!
Luckily the original plugs were still attached to the other end of the wire on the brake pads:
I also happened to have two new brake pad wear sensors in my parts emporium.
These were fitted along with the new brakes, reattaching the original plugs onto the wiring loom in the process.
Surprisingly, all the old parts were genuine GM items, albeit in a pretty shocking state:
You can see here that the rear pads weren't even making full contact on the disks.
The drum section looked pretty bad too:
The original front pads with the old wear sensors attached:
I suspect that the previous owner just wanted the light out on his dashboard and didn't want to pay for new pads. Either that or he was fleesed by a cowboy mechanic! Either way, not good practice.
Shiny new disks and pads fitted:
At the same time, I took the opportunity to get the rear anti-roll bar bushes replaced.
I had known how bad these were for some time:
McGrath family parts emporium to the rescue once again!
Fitted:
Yep, these weren't really doing anything were they?
The results of all this work was incredible. Two years later the bakes are still top notch.
The GM boffins did fantastic work uprating the stopping power on the V6 models. I'm always surprised at how much more responsive they are compared to my other cars.
Next little job was done back in September 2018.
I think the photos speak for themselves.
I believe I got the part from lowriderdave at some point. A lucky find as these are unique to cars with air-con I think.
Always a pain when you get your foot caught on something while your driving along. Not particularly safe either!
New and old:
Much better!
I've been sifting through my photos today remembering everything that I've done in the last two years.
Just for clarification, this post contains everything I've done to the car since my post in July 1018 here: viewtopic.php?p=166569#p166569
Up to May 2019 when I posted this:
viewtopic.php?p=168887#p168887
Despite being very quiet on the forum during that period, I actually got a lot of really good stuff done on my cars. I've got big updates to do on the Diplomat, CD auto and CD manual too, as well an an entire new thread to create for Lizzie's 'New' CD. (Not really new any more, we bought it 18 months ago and still haven't introduced it yet ).
2019 was probably one of the busiest and most exciting year of my life; I moved to a new house, performed in an am-dram play and got married. That's my excuse anyway!
Anyway, we pick the story up in about July 2018.
The brakes on the V6 , although fairly decent, never really lived up to their up-rated spec in my mind. Plus the fact that putting on the handbrake felt like placing a wedge of soft cheese under the rear wheels.
Having some spare cash at the time and with an MOT looming, I took the plunge.
A few days later this tasty package arrived at my door:
Contained within was everything required for a complete brake overall; new front and rear, disks, pads and shoes. Part numbers are in the photo for reference:
The work was carried out by a really nice local mobile mechanic called John who has become a bit of a mate of my Father's.
What was rather shocking to discover was that the last person to work on the bakes has decided to cut off the brake pad wear sensors.
Yep, so yet another cowboy bodge job. How many more are there left to discover on this car?
What makes it especially annoying is that they could have just unplugged them or at least cut them below the connector keeping the wiring loom intact.
But no, they cut them off above the connector!
Luckily the original plugs were still attached to the other end of the wire on the brake pads:
I also happened to have two new brake pad wear sensors in my parts emporium.
These were fitted along with the new brakes, reattaching the original plugs onto the wiring loom in the process.
Surprisingly, all the old parts were genuine GM items, albeit in a pretty shocking state:
You can see here that the rear pads weren't even making full contact on the disks.
The drum section looked pretty bad too:
The original front pads with the old wear sensors attached:
I suspect that the previous owner just wanted the light out on his dashboard and didn't want to pay for new pads. Either that or he was fleesed by a cowboy mechanic! Either way, not good practice.
Shiny new disks and pads fitted:
At the same time, I took the opportunity to get the rear anti-roll bar bushes replaced.
I had known how bad these were for some time:
McGrath family parts emporium to the rescue once again!
Fitted:
Yep, these weren't really doing anything were they?
The results of all this work was incredible. Two years later the bakes are still top notch.
The GM boffins did fantastic work uprating the stopping power on the V6 models. I'm always surprised at how much more responsive they are compared to my other cars.
Next little job was done back in September 2018.
I think the photos speak for themselves.
I believe I got the part from lowriderdave at some point. A lucky find as these are unique to cars with air-con I think.
Always a pain when you get your foot caught on something while your driving along. Not particularly safe either!
New and old:
Much better!