What are the worst brakes you've ever seen? (photos encouraged)

[XCRN]

You can pretty much figure for the vast majority of the time if you can see the chip in a caliper piston through the window in the bridge, it was done with a tool of some sort trying to pry the piston back.

That makes sense. As I keep digging into this LJ and fixing it up, there has been a lot of questionable repairs by previous owners.

 

[mrblaine]

That makes sense. As I keep digging into this LJ and fixing it up, there has been a lot of questionable repairs by previous owners.

Over the years we've had more than a few send us pics of pads with a similar chip. Always the same story, damaged in shipping. Almost always forgetting to blur out the background where I can see they were working on the rig. Always them forgetting that we pack them in a very specific manner that we developed by taking the boxes of pads and tossing them off the balcony onto the concrete driveway to see what worked. Always the same request, new FULL set of pads. Always a bit grumpy when I ask for pics so I can send out a single pad. Never happy when I ask for pics of the box so I can see the damage to the box that damaged the pad. It's almost like it doesn't sink in that they are next in a very long line of folks who have tried this before. I've even had them use the excuse that they think changing out 1 pad from the set is going to affect braking and it is going to pull to one side. What, you think they build them in 4 pad matched sets? Yeah, sorry, that isn't how they do it.

 

[macleanflood]

What, you think they build them in 4 pad matched sets?

You should sell balanced, matched performance sets and charge extra.

-Mac

 

[TN_Project_Jeep]

You can pretty much figure for the vast majority of the time if you can see the chip in a caliper piston through the window in the bridge, it was done with a tool of some sort trying to pry the piston back.

Who are you calling a tool?

 

[NskLJ]

Curious about horror stories of the worst brake issues you've seen while doing brake jobs. Redoing the brakes on my recently purchased 2003 TJ with 240,000 miles. The drum on the driver side still had the keepers on it which I found odd since those usually get pitched on the first brake job and never replaced. Upon removing the drum, it became clear that the drum may have never been off in nearly a quarter-million miles. Pictured below are the shoes. Literally zero brake surface on one shoe and only partial remaining material on the other. I'm putting in all new components - all the springs, etc., new drum, and replacing the cylinders as well. I've never encountered brakes so neglected but I'd bet some of you have. The passenger side had definitely been changed but I posted about 2 weeks ago about how on that side a wheel stud had fallen out inside the drum and damaged the drum, shoes, and broken a spring. Turns out the passenger side is also completely missing the parking brake spreader bar that goes toward the top of the shoes. It blows my mind that somebody can keep a vehicle running for a quarter-million miles (so they must be doing some maintenance!) but completely neglect other maintenance items that are so fundamental like the brakes.

View attachment 616498View attachment 616499

I’ve seen brake rotors worn all the way through so the braking surface was gone on one side. “It just. Started making noise yesterday”

 

[mrblaine]

Who are you calling a tool?

With and by are not the same words.

 

[06GEEP]

View attachment 616596

That's how I'd do it