I just received my pads and rotors from Rockauto to replace these on my 2004 Dale Jr. I went with AC-Delco Durastop Professionals on everything. The pads are ceramic and the rotors are non-slotted or drilled. The rotors are supposedly high performance/heavy duty versions. They seem well made even though they are made in China. Rear pads are made in China with the front ones made in the USA.

I have done quite a few brake jobs in my time but not on a newer Monte Carlo. I have done them on a 98 Grand Prix which I imagine is similar but I don't know for sure. It has been about 13 years ago so I don't remember anything I did on the GP.

Is there anything special I need to know on doing this job? I do have the factory service manual so I will be looking at it but sometimes things come up in the actual job that the manual doesn't really address.

I will be doing this tomorrow so I hope I remembered to get everything I need. I will also be putting all new brake fluid in the system so I hope my bleeder valves are not rusted closed.

Wayne

 

It's super easy and nothing is luckily reverse threaded.

Just at matter of taking the rims off, breaking the 4 bolts free on the calipers and doing the swap. Don't forget the white lithium grease for the slide bolts.

And don't forget to clean the rotors if they are packaged in oil (to prevent rust) and to do the proper brake pad break-in procedure.

 

It is always a good idea to work on one wheel at a time so you can look at the other side if you get into trouble putting it back together. Good luck.

 

Damn I was gonna say don't get ceramics they make noise but true they last the longest. On our cars it's pretty easy to do a brake job only 4 bolts to remove and caliper comes off. It Uses both metric and standard bolts do heads up. Get a C clamp to compress the piston and maybe if u want paint the calipers while u at it and finally don't over tighten the nut caps they break so easily just use hand power to tighten them till u feel them hooking then stop before they brake.

Also some antisize for the caliper and bracket bolts, a metal wire brush to scuff any surface rust on the caliper and bracket, brake cleaner sprayed on everything of corse and ok that's all there is to say the rest is common sense.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. It sounds like it won't be a very hard job but with my luck lately, something will go wrong.

I kept going back and forth on Ceramic or semi-metallic. There seemed to be more votes on the posts that I read for Ceramics so I went that route. I also never could really determine what kind of material the stock pads were made out of. Hopefully these won't be too noisy.

I have the semi-synthetic caliper grease that I always use so I'm good there.

These rotors are in plastic bags and appear to have oil on them so I will clean them off.

I will let everyone know how it goes. Thanks again.

Wayne

 

The hardest part for me was removing the brake rotor itself. It tends to bond itself to the hub after a few years of use...BFH may be required here.

 

Are you sure it wasn't just that extra bolt that is on the face of the rotor of the 06 SS?

 

I actually did take that torx bolt out thinking it was holding it on...

 

Oh it was holding the rotor on. I found that bolt to be so strange when I was changing the rotors on my Father's 06 SS.

I just see that it could be easy to miss

 

Well, I did not get to work on the car today. I ended up in the emergency room this morning with Kidney stones. Not a fun day. Maybe next week.

Wayne