On the way to dinner last Friday with my fiance, four deer ran out in front of my truck so I slammed on my brakes and ever since then I have been hearing a slight grinding noise coming from my drivers side rear brake. I knew I had to get new brakes sooner or later, but now its going to be sooner than later. I stopped by advance auto parts and got some near pads and two new rotors. While i was there, I picked up a pair of front rotors (i replaced the front pads less than 10k miles ago so they should be fine yet) and picked up some new spark plugs. My truck is a 98' and never has had a tune up i figured it wouldnt hurt since my gas mileage has been starting to suffer some according to my scan gauge. While doing this work to the blazer, should I be aware of anything? I know that the #3 plug is going to be a PITA but otherwise I have done brakes on many different cars but I thought there was something on the rear's of a blazer that was tricky...just cant remember what.

 

unless its drum in the rear it should be pretty easy

other things to consider while you're in tune up mode:

new fuel filter
new pcv valve (they're like 3 bucks)
new spark plugs(ac delco platinums-only use ac delcos in blazers IMO, some have had some luck with NGK)

also dump a jug of that fuel injector cleaner in after you change that fuel filter and before you fill up with gas. that stuff will do wonders.

 

as you are changing the rotors make sure the calibers are floating as they should be...when i replaced mine both my rears were completely frozen...i had to buy completely new mounts and bolts, just something to watch out for

 

thanks for the tips, i am really hoping that the brakes come apart like they should and not have any issue's. i am just really worried about that dragging rear caliper, i hope that slamming on the brakes did not screw up the caliper, i am thinking that a piece of rust or something is preventing the caliper from retracting since the caliper was working just fine prior. the brake is dragging just enough to get the rotor hot to the touch, no smoke or anything and it doesnt even smell hot but you cant touch the rotor for more than a second or so.

 

From that it just sounds like one of the pads is riding on it, when you slammed on the brakes it could have caused it to jam the mechanism somehow, even then it shouldn't be a very hard fix IMO...

 

no it shouldnt be a hard fix, im just preparing myself for the "what-if" and so i can save some cash if i need to replace anything haha

 

something i forgot to add also.

you're gonna want to grease the caliper slide pins.

2per caliper.

they were hanging up on mine.
if i remember right it was a 13mm slide bolt you have to remove and regrease with the same grease you line the back of the pads with.

 

This is huge! And goes back to the brakes floating properly! Do not forget it

 

You might run into issues with the park brake on the rear rotors too. A lot of times they will be seized and you end up breaking or damaging your rear rotors beyond repair (from what I've heard anyway..I haven't attempted mine yet).

 

yea i know about the slide pins, i re-grease the pins every time i do a brake job. my parking brake seems to move just fine in the car so it shouldnt be seized up or anything...hell even when i have it fully applied the pads dont even touch so i should be able to slide the rotor off without worry about a groove being formed haha