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Question:

Camaro/Firebird Brakes?

Hello i am trying to get a 93-2002 camaro/firebird with the v8 engine. I have test driven a 97 firebird formula and a 95 camaro z28 and I have noticed that I really needed to push the brake pedal hard to make the car stop. I was wondering why is that? Seems like the brake pedals were not sensitive at all and even to stop a little bit I had to press the brakes all the way. Is this normal for these kind of cars? I have a 2001 Firebird V6 and the brakes are way more sensitive and I dont neeed 2 press the brakes that hard. So can anyone tell me whats up?

Answer:

The brake booster on these cars suck! I would check the vacuum line making sure it is not leaking
The brake master cylinder could be bad. However, you could also be seeing the effect of soft brake hoses leading to the calipers and less-than-acceptable pad material (either cheap-auto-store pads, or race pads that need to be cooking to brake well). My 95 Z28 had mediocre brakes; I swapped over to some SSBC rotors, and a good street/strip pad material. I also took the time to pull all the Mr. Softie rubber lines - replacing them with braided stainless steel/teflon. The stock ones swell with brake application, reducing force. After the transplant, my car has beautifully linear brake action, with just slightly higher effort, but far more predictable than stock. Finally, if there are any mods to those V8 fourth gens, or they're tired, you might be seeing lower brake vacuum near idle. This will give you lazy brake syndrome. The cure is sometimes to swap out the vacuum lines, and to tune up the car a little. 95 Z28's have LT1's, and a lot of people let the back spark plugs rot rather than replace them, since they're very difficult to get to, and these cars tend to be beaten a little ragged. Nothing that a little sensible work can correct, though (in most cases :) )
Something in the brake system might be faulty or the brake booster is not providing you much boost. Also, there was a brake components change around 95 or 96. Also, there were some models that had the Corvette brakes from factory. So you do have different brake rotors, some have drum brakes in the back, some have disc brakes. Some have single piston calipers, some have dual. There are a lot of different brake compoments.

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