Pontiac Sunfire Brakes

[rjfvillarosa]

My wife has a Pontiac Sunfire 2001 can anybody tell me what size the hex wrench is that holds the front calipers on, the car has just clocked 29,000 miles and the pads are just about gone. I have the pads but I have searched and there are no after market service books available for this year of the Sunfire. Also while we are at it where is the handbrake/parking brake cable adjuster? on the earleir models it was a part of the cable situated near the rear axle/crossbeam but there isn't one on this car. I have found what looks like a large ratchet at the rear of the handbrake lever inside the centre console, but there is no obvious way of adjusting it.

[HAL9000]

Already? I would be questioning why they are gone already... I wore my first set of brakes on my 99 Sunfire out at 131,000Km (about 81,500 miles).

[lil Jimmie]

EDIT: 10mm or 3/8 allen wrench or it could be a torx socket. Most GM cars take 3/8, as for the park brake I dunno off hand.


Hal, females tend to be harder on brakes.

[rjfvillarosa]

Hal. We live in a little, one horse, witch hunting town on an island in the Caribbean. The standard of driving here is appalling to say the least (that's coming from someone who grew up in one of the busiest cities in Europe) and every road either goes up or down hill, I am not sure if there are any level ones here, needless to say the brake pedal gets used far more than the accelerator pedal, and the car is automatic which makes it heavy on brake pad wear. Being an ex,mechanic I always thought that 25 to 30,000 miles was good for a set of front brake pads, so the mileage you got out of yours Hal is outstanding. I drove a Jaguar and an MGB in the UK and you couldn't buy a set of pads guaranteed to last more than 25,000 miles for them.


Jimmie it looks like a 3/8 allen wrench but I want to be sure because one size slightly too small will wreck the bolt head, any idea if Pontiac use imperial or metric?

[lil Jimmie]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Jimmie it looks like a 3/8 allen wrench but I want to be sure because one size slightly too small will wreck the bolt head, any idea if Pontiac use imperial or metric?

To be honest with you I still find both on GM cars and trucks, but the brake calliper bolt should be 3/8.

[HAL9000]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Hal. We live in a little, one horse, witch hunting town on an island in the Caribbean. The standard of driving here is appalling to say the least (that's coming from someone who grew up in one of the busiest cities in Europe) and every road either goes up or down hill, I am not sure if there are any level ones here, needless to say the brake pedal gets used far more than the accelerator pedal, and the car is automatic which makes it heavy on brake pad wear. Being an ex,mechanic I always thought that 25 to 30,000 miles was good for a set of front brake pads, so the mileage you got out of yours Hal is outstanding. I drove a Jaguar and an MGB in the UK and you couldn't buy a set of pads guaranteed to last more than 25,000 miles for them.

Fair enuf... I live on totally flat land.

[glc]

Have you checked out www.alldata.com ? (Subscription site)

Here's a Haynes for your car:

http://www.alibris.com/books/isbn/15...re%201995-2001

[rjfvillarosa]

Thanx glc thats brilliant, I have been looking for that Haynes manual for two years and I see that it was publised in January of this year. My local PEPBOYS is obviously not uptodate the only one they ever have in stock or listed in the catalogue is upto 1999 only. (because I thought the catalogue hanging off the rack would be upto date I never thought of looking online)
I will order one online because pepboys is all we have here.