Let me share my brake replacement story with you guys and you tell me what you think is the problem.

In february of last year, my passenger side break caliper was sticking and i ground down my breaks. I replaced the caliper, front breaks, both front roads, flushed brake fluid, and bled all four corners (rears are drums by the way.) All with parts from autozone.
Last month i hooked up my car hauler, loaded a SUV, and headed on a 250 mile trip. As i was pulling out of town, I heard the dreaded grind. I figured my driver side caliper crapped out. I went on my trip anyway. I figured autozone wouldn't warranty it any way.
When I got to my destination, I took the driver side wheel off. Sure enough, the inner brake was toast and cut into the rotor. Loaded the rotor and brake into the car and was about to head to Autozone when I decide to check the passanger side. To my amazement, the other side was on the verge of metal to metal contact. I took it off too. Luckily, with a little bit of persuasion, they replaced everything under warranty. I went ahead and bought the driver side caliper too.

My question is this. Are autozone brakes that crappy that they went out in 10 months or do I have another problem. I only put 8000 miles on the truck with very little pulling. The brakes do get hot even when not pulling anything.

 

Same thing happened to me until I checked the rear brakes. They must not be adjusted properly and not working. It's common for the adjusters to get stuck. What happened to the front (excessive wear) is common when the rear brakes are not working.

 

Hi derceg,

Copenhagenjunkie has a very good point. My truck came from the factory with out-of-round rear drums. I didn't have 200 miles on my new truck before my front rotors were warped, blued and eaten up. To make a long story short, the dealer finally figured out that the rears were to blame for the two bouts of havoc to my fronts and stopped blaming me for the way I drive. They were extremely condescending but ended up eating the Humble Pie once someone other than Barney Fife worked on my truck. Problem solved after 2 sets of 4 front pads, two rotors, 2 calipers, 2 drums, 2 rear cylinders and 4 brake shoes were in the trash. Don't overlook the rears as possible culprit.

 

Did you lube the sliders for the front calipers? Sounds like your calipers were getting a little skewed and hanging up when you let off the pedal. This isn't uncommon for these trucks.

Kurt

 

i didn't lube them, but i did check to see the moved freely and they seemed to be. i guess i'll lube them to make sure and check rears too see if they are a problem. what exactly do i need to be looking for though?

 

Yes that too, good info!

I clean everything with brake cleaner and wire brush metal to metal surfaces. Fronts: Lubricate the flat metal slides and caliber bolt/bushing that go over the bolt with anti seize or brake caliber lube.
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/figures/05-04-97_f3.jpg
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/figures/05-04-97_f6.jpg

Rear: http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/figures/05-04-97_f7.jpg
You are wanting to check the adjuster screw assembly. You can also swap out the wheel cylinders for GM ones. They have a larger diameter.

From member Infidel "People have reported buying the 37337 cylinder in the past month with no problem."

Once you get everything lubricated and working properly get on a gravel road and drive backwards at 5-10 mph and stomp brakes coming to a complete stop, it should keep rear brakes adjusted.

 

Try this> http://www.dieseldatabase.com/read.php?id=42