VK Commodore brakes

[fentos]

Hi,

Just been driving around a bit doing a bit of braking (just normal city sorta driving) and a weird smell started coming from the car (Sorta like a burning smell). Then stopping at lights I saw smoke?? coming from out the side of the car. Seems like it may have been coming from under the front wheel arch?? So anyway...didnt think to much of it just wanted to get to the club...and next thing im driving along and it was as if the brakes wouldn't work!! I was like ughh! Luckily I was 2 min drive from where I needed to be! It was as if the vacuum wasn't working or something as I could push the brake in really easy but it had no affect on stopping the car whatsoever. Any ideas on this one?? Not good lol.

[fentos]

Oh I shall add after cooling down for 2 hours the smell was still there a bit but brakes worked again. And while the brakes did not work the brake light was coming on as if the brakes were on, whether they were on or not.

[Cane_It]

pull the wheels off and have a look at how much meat is left on the pads and check the condition of the hose from the brake booster to the christmas tree on the manifold (which are normally cheap ****ty plastic ones that break and leave you the fun task of extracting the busted bit from manifold. Replace that ****ty plastic christmas tree with a brass one.

while you're there measure the rotor disc thickness with a set of verniers at the same time.

if your car is an automatic check underneath for fluid leaks from the 2 lines coming out of the trans, trans fluid leaking onto a hot exhaust stinks and is a fire risk.

[yeeros]

if your VK is drum rear, (im not sure if all models came out disked rear) then you need to adjust them every 3 or 6 months for best braking, which you can do yourself easy...also, maybe your drums (and possibly front discs) have different diameters????

this is what ive experience with my VH and the adjustment always worked due to the diameter problem....
Good Luck!

[yobbo88]

if you had that smell and smoke then your disc is too thin and your pads are too worn causing brake fade which is when the whole setup gets too hot. with a too thin a disc there is only so much heat it can contain and dissapate, leaving the pads nothing to grab and cause friction between. the basic idea of braking is to turn motion into friction or heat. get new discs and pads man, and if your car has drum rears check your shoes too they last a lot longer but cant hurt to look