Thread: Suspension and brake problems, dont know where to start

Well my 2000 GTP has been nothing but problems and lately its been driving really rough. If you hit a pothole in your car, in my car that pothole would be 100x worse. I cant take how annoying and bumpy my rides are becoming, especially if I'm going down somebody's dirt driveway it feels like my cars just gonna fall right to the ground. Where do i start to fix this? I'm not too smart with cars i dont exactly know what parts are going bad.

Now as for my brakes, they just blow. Theyre rough, and when i get to slower speeds when braking my steering wheel vibrates a lot. Is this just rotors? Like i said, i'm not too smart with car tech **** so i don't know what could be going bad. Help me before i drive the car off a cliff with me in it -__-

I'd stay you got the case of blown out struts.

And the front rotors are warped/uneven.

you need to explain more. what recent work have you done or what do you know needs to be done?

Recently i got an o2 sensor changed. I also have two codes, one for a knock sensor and throttle position sensor. Both of which should be arriving at my house tomorrow from Rock Auto. Other than that, haven't done anything.

Should have ordered shocks and rotors from rock auto as well.

Install TPS and do a TPS relearn.
The Knock sensor requires specific TQ to read properly.

struts brakes and maybe lca's. all very easy stuff to change.

Originally Posted by QwikGT

How much money do you have to spend? Do you want to lower the car? Brakes can get expensive too. Where in NJ are you? I'm on SI and wouldnt mind helping you out as long as the car isnt a pail and falling apart

I'm all the way down near the delaware memorial bridge haha. I don't have that much money to spend at all, I'm just a poor college kid.

stop partying and spend teh monies on the car instead.......

or start pimpin them college girls

Sounds like you need Struts. Check the springs to make sure you don't have a broken spring either. They usually break somewhere in the bottom, check the last 1/2 coil for it broke off.

Brakes, sounds like you are going to want to look into having your rotors either turned by a brake shop, to true them back up, or replace them all together. Now would also be a good time to throw a new set of brake pads at it also. Make sure to lubricate the sliders well with brake lubricant or some dielectric grease, its almost the same thing.

Also, look at your front lower control arm bushings. If they are gone bad, they can cause a vibration while braking.


Jay

the cheap way to get your brakes done is to get the rotors cut at a auto parts store, last time i have brakes turned it cost about 8 or 10 a rotor, but they will also measure the rotor to make sure they have enough meat to still be usable after they are cut. then get some decent pads and that parts over with.

you did say they were grinding, so you may be metal on metal, if the rotors have to deep of groves cut into them, they maybe scrap.

worst case there is cheap stuff like pro stop or duralast, about 40 a rotor. but at least its new.

and i know a lot of people don't care for duralast or duracrap lol but the brake job i did on my friends 3500 dump truck were duralast rotors all around and the duralast ceramic pads, and they work like a champ after a month or so, and that being loaded to the max and more with the trailer he tows all day. last night just the truck weighed in on the dump scale at 12,500 with the 2 of us in the cab, its gvw is 12,000, now add a trailer to that mess. another 2000 lbs or more.

and bad strut mounts will also rattle around on you.

if you never did brakes yourself, search youtube, they have a vid for almost everything. lots of brake jobs, how to bleed them, strut removal is a 5 bolt job, its all easy once you watch it being done. most of the work can be done with a 30 dollar ratchet set, and a few wrenches.