Disclaimer: The following is provided for theoretical discussion, potential inspiration and/or robot adult entertainment. The reader is entirely responsible for the safety and integrity of themselves and their vehicle. Any damages occurring from or during repairs or modifications made similar to those shown will not be responsibility of the author. Safety first. If you aren’t sure….don’t.
Once again our good friends in Detroit have created a self-destruct system, in this case regarding the rear right caliper with integral parking brake on 04-08 models. This is problematic in that case of Comp-G vehicles for which factory red calipers are no longer available as this issue renders the caliper invalid as a core. I invite you to inspect the integrity of your right-rear park brake cable and replace it as soon as possible.
Due to geometry of the parking brake and exhaust systems, the mounting bracket for the right-rear cable at the inboard cable end where the cable goes through the wiper and into sleeve is directly over the exhaust pipe. Brilliant! A simple bent flange added to bracket as heat shield might have mitigated this issue. Now, in this area the cable coating cracks from heat damage, the cable then rusts and swells thus binding in the wiper and housing. This causes the e-brake to remain partially engaged resulting in additional heat and failure of caliper. (Do not dismiss this as a similar issue caused by environmental damage typical to areas where the roads are salted. This is a Pacific Northwest vehicle and the main brake cable whose end is centered on the vehicle just left of this one looks absolutely pristine, as shown as do the similar cable ends on my 1995 pickup).
New brakes and cable were installed with a Thermo-Tec head shield (p/n 1160) over exhaust. Now the brake cable will survive the exhaust heat, but the pipe will likely rust through sooner due to support brackets from heat shield. I guess I will just have to upgrade exhaust when that happens…….
Also, if anyone has a functional rear right Comp-G caliper for sale, let me know. I’ll wager however that these are rapidly becoming extinct due to this design flaw.
