1999 S-10 ZR2 Rear Emergency Disk Brake Failure

lobo12

Have any of you ZR2 owners out there experienced premature failure of the emergency brake disk pads? Mine were worn out with less than 30,000 miles and the vehicle was never driven with the emergency brake on. Of course the dealership insisted it had to have been to avoid covering this under warranty. Maybe this is an isolated case, but I really think it was caused by an faulty engineering design. Would really like to hear from you. Thanks

abc246

I have 99 Blazer that should use the same system as your truck. It does not have emergency brake disk pads. It does have emergency brake shoes that are located in the center part of the disk brake rotor. The brake shoes are small, but should last a long time unless the emergency brake was on when driving.

I find the real problem is that this emergency or parking brake does not hold. It is a joke of a design and should be report to the gov. I had the dealer try to fix it under warranty and it still does not work. The answer is they all work like that.

lobo12

Thanks for your response, abc246. You are technically absolutely correct. These brakes are more like a band than anything else. I still have no idea how mine wore out so quickly, other than it must have been in constant contact with the rotor. If we can find more folks who are having similar problems, maybe we can get someone's attention. Lobo12

zr2rando

I have a 99 ZR2 and don't use those parking brakes very often, Noticed that when I DID need them, they didn't work. I tried to adjust them and found that aside from the cable there is no adjustment and the cable was fine. Took it to the dealer and they showed me that the shoes were clearly overheated, at some point in the trucks life (at the time about 20k miles) the parking brake had probably been left on (or didn't retract when released) once previously...only takes once to do this.
I think that someone on a test drive or the delivery drive may not have noticed that the parking brake was set and well, there they went...
Those shoes don't actually have a hinge, they get pushed out at the ends of the c-shape is all, and they are about the poorest excuse for a parking brake design as I have ever seen,,,,and they are definitely NOT an emergency brake, they are barely a parking brake that barely works on LEVEL surfaces, forget on a hill...
Probably should go buy a boat anchor and throw it out when we need to stay put I guess

markbuck

Has the same system. I had them wear out twice in 37,000 miles. First time they told me I drove around with parking brake on, didn't but..... paid anyway. Second time they fixed em at their cost.

If you put the parking brake on in freezing weather, they will stick on and wear out fast. My only solution for yawl is double or streghthen the return spring that is on the inner brake backing plate and try not to use the brakes in winter (I had a manual so needed to)