Scary to drive in rain?

[PCGUY112887]

Does anyone else find it very scary to drive in the rain? I mean like... hard rain.

Reason it's scary for me is becuase as soon as it starts to rain hard, my brakes take SECONDS to react. I push the petal and there is no stopping action until the pad dries the rotor off. I used to have this happen in my sedan after going through the car wash, but the rain never did it. Now as soon as it's raining in my coupe I have to be so careful when braking, I have to overestimate everything by an extreme ammount to ensure I stop.

What gives? I could understand if I had huge rims that exposed a large part of my rotors to the water, but I have stock rims!

[IsaacHayes]

I only have that problem when the car has been sitting while raining then I drive it. The rotors dry off pretty quick but the rear drums always get rusted after a rain and when you hit the brakes the rear bites down hard and drags. That sucks in snowy weather when you cant brake hard to burn off the rust without the rear sliding sideways each time you brake.

But when driving in a big rain I never have that problem. Are your pads/rotor's worn excessively? I do a lot of stop and go city driving so that keeps them clean and warmed up I guess.

[geldartb]

i hate driving in the hard rain on the highway cause people are friggin stupid and i seem to atract the asshole that like to ride my as even though im already doing the speedlimit.

i encountered that similar brake action on the highway when its raining, every now and then i touch the brakes enough to heat the rotors a little.

isaac i know what your talking about the drums, i used to hate that with the beretta. step ont he brakes when im leaving the house and the ass end locks up and drags.

[PCGUY112887]

All my brake hardware is fairly new (from last summer) so I shouldn't have any pad problems. Maybe it's just these rotors... or these brand of pads... hummm....

[geldartb]

thats what i figured with mine on the beretta all the brke hardware and drums were new within a few months.

the grand am couldnt tell you about that its got disc brakes all around. maybe they cooled off from not having the pad applied.

[gpchris]

I have cheap autozone stuff on my gps and they stop fine in any kind of rain. Sure the car slides under hard braking but it never slips on the rotor.

[pbeck]

The middle of last summer I did the up-graded brakes on my 89 cavalier to the newer style......when I did this I put new brake pads on(cheap one's from auto zone and the brakes did seem better but not what they should have been. Later that week I was driving down the high way when it was pouring rain, I hit the brakes to get off on my exit it there was pressure but I wasn't stoping. When I got home, I pulled it in the shop and pulled the brakes apart to find one of the pads was cracked. I took them back and they put my money towards the better brand and it made a world of difference.....and I mean world.

Paul.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah I went from brake best to wagners and the car stops a lot better, and there is less dust on the wheels. The brake best would make the wheels brown/black in a week and wore fast. They would also brake fade at high speed stops.

[Z26-T]

Wont ceramic pads help him out the most? Last longer, brake harder, tear up the rotor .

[pbeck]

I just run duralast golds right know. Yeah, I get brake fade alot when I come down from 120 a few times in a row....I don't go over that to often. But right know I am looking at up grading the brakes again. I'm thinking gto brakes? We will see how fast I can fab up the parts I need though.

[gpse3400]

I find PepBoys ProStop Ceramics to be a very good pad and they are reasonably priced. Wagner ThermoQuiets is a good Semi Metallic along with Bendix.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah the wagner thermoquiet I think is what I have. Brakes pretty good. Not much dust either.