Just throwing this out there but does anyone make a rear disc brake conversion for the Gen 5 Malibu's. I have never changed the rear drum brakes in my 02 which tells me they really haven't been doing to much as I've had to change out the front discs about every 15-20k. I thought maybe adding disc brakes in the rear might alleviate the wear and tear on the front disc's. Any thoughts are appreciated....
I have not converted to rear disc, but did look into it. The website I was using when I looked into it is no longer around. It had a detailed write-up of the swap.
I did a quick google search and found a couple links. One is even in this forum.
Thanks man, I appreciate the info. I've already found a ton of info and from the looks of things it's not that hard of a thing to do, all it costs is money...
The thing that puzzles me the most is since the Grand Am is built on the same platform as the Malibu why did Chevy not offer disc brakes on the Malibu???
Well, I ran in to a glitch here. I got all the parts together even though half of them are no longer available from GM. Now my major problem is the ABS.
The ABS is controlled by the EBCM(Electronic Brake Control Module) which is integrated in to the PCM. There are two parts to the ABS system. The first one is the ABS Pressure Modulator Valve which is the same for the Malibu, Alero and Grand Am. The second part is the Electronic Brake Control Module Assembly which bolts to the PMV. In this case because the Malibu had Rear Drum brakes this part, even though it looks the same has a different part number, is different than the Grand Am's and Alero's that had Rear Disc Brakes.
Since braking characteristics are different between rear disc and rear drum, if you use the EBCMA from the Malibu with the rear disc brakes, the ABS plus any other actions taken by the computer system in the car when heavy or panic braking takes place, you could potentially lose control of the vehicle.
I'm doing some research with the service manager at my dealer to see if we can come up with a solution to this problem, but I can't believe I never thought about this issue before I jumped head long into this and spent a bunch of money and time getting these parts only to find out about the ABS problem.
If anyone has any ideas or search info, I would appreciate if they could forward it on to me. Thanks in advance
PS-If anybody is looking for an almost complete set of rear brake parts for their 1997-2005 Alero or Grand Am, let me know...
Got another question and I'm hoping someone can answer this...
Will the OEM 15" aluminum wheels from my 2002 LS fit over the rear disc brakes?
The rear disc brakes use a larger rotor than the front and that front rotor is real close to my 15" wheels. I've also noticed that all the Alero's and Grand Am's with rear discs had 16" wheels which leads me to believe that my 15" wheels might be too small a diameter to fit over the rear discs. Does anyone know for sure. Thanks
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