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Please help question on brakes

jsaylor

New Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2021
Messages
6
New to me 2008 avalanche LTZ 140k miles, First snow, pulling out of snow/ice covered level to slight slope driveway. less that 5 MPH touch brakes front locks while rear spins. If I was to head down our hill I would have slip all the way down the hill. Brakes were replaced 5 k miles ago. My tires are about 75% worn, putting new tires on in a couple of day's however I'm hesitant to drive on our snow covered roads. Any help and opinions is appreciated
 
Any ABS codes?
How do you know the rears are spinning while front is locked? Someone outside the vehicle looking?

The traction control / ABS system is rather impressive (compared to older vehicles I've had) and will send brake input to specific wheels to keep the vehicle under control and driving the direction it's steered. Awesome when trying to keep control, annoying when 'playing' in the snow lol.

Tires make a huge difference, glad you're getting those replaced.

And welcome to the site!
 
When you say while the rear spins, do you mean you have the gas and brake pressed at the same time or rear just rolling? ABS didn't come on and modulate? Both front wheels or just one?
 
under 5mph I do not think ABS will kick in.

not much you can do with ICE/SNow covered roads as tires have to get a little bit of traction to move and stop.
 
I was thinking the same. I had a caliper stick not too long after a brake job I assume because of a little corrosion on the sides of the piston on my wrangler. But sounds like that may not be OPs situation.
 
A sometimes missed step in a brake job is to ensure the pads slide easily along the slides and caliper grease needs to be applied along both the slides and anywhere the metal parts of the pad backing plate touches the metal surfaces of the caliper and pistons.

When I installed my new front brakes a few weeks ago, the slot in the new brake pads were a little too tight and would not allow the pads to freely slide back and forth along the new slides.

When you applied the brakes, the pads clamped down on the rotor just fine, but when the caliper retracted, the pads stayed hung on the rotors.

This was something I learned to check for a long time ago.

So, I spent some time with my grinding stone on my Dremel tool and I opened up the slots on the brake pads where they were not sloppy loose, but would slide nicely along the greased caliper slides.

The other grease on the metal touching parts helps to prevent any squealing and squeaking when the brakes are applied.

When test driving after a fresh brake job, I take my laser temperature tool and after I bed the brakes and drive around for a while, I check the rotor and caliper metal surfaces for even and not too high temps on both sides of the truck.

I will even carry my temperature tool around and randomly check the temps after a drive for a few days

The temps of a binding brake will obviously be way higher than a good functioning set of brakes.

A good set of brakes actually does not get really hot during normal operation.
 
Correct I did have someone outside watching. Did a little more testing today found ABS is working as it should when driving over about 10 mph, so if not extremely soft on the pedal when coming to a stop ABS won't engage (front slides and rear spines) does help if I put it in neutral.
At this time I don't think anything is wrong, I'm use to newer cars that function a little better and new tires might help. Perhaps I just need to learn how to drive the truck? By the way I did lift the rear to make certain the rears stopped.
Thanks everyone for the help.
 
go try on dry parking lot somewhere
 
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