# Cruze ECO Brake upgrade



## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...2/3's of *all* braking is done by the _front_ brakes; hence, rear drums--while not 100% fade-resistant--are more than adequate for normal driving...and stopping.

...but, yes, you can get all the parts from a wrecked Cruze and make it a DIY upgrade.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

70AARCUDA said:


> but, yes, you can get all the parts from a wrecked Cruze and make it a DIY upgrade.


Then the question becomes...Will the 17" ECO wheels clear the calipers of the rear disk brake assemblies? 

Jim


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## shawn672 (Oct 31, 2010)

If they clear the front, they'll clear the rear right?


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

Jim Frye said:


> Then the question becomes...Will the 17" ECO wheels clear the calipers of the rear disk brake assemblies?
> 
> Jim


 And the next question becomes................what are you going to accomplish by changing them?


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## shri2222 (May 13, 2011)

Rear Calipers will clear the 17"s because if you get a 2LT with a RS package you get 17"s with 4wheel disk.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

shawn672 said:


> If they clear the front, they'll clear the rear right?


Don't know. Are the front brakes on the ECO the same as on the other models and what is the clearance? Are the rear calipers smaller than the fronts? I'd guess so, but don't know. I brought it up because I got caught out on my Civic. The HX (ECO equivilance) calipers were smaller than on the EX, so the HX forged alloy wheels would not clear the larger calipers without 1/4" spacer plates. Even though the HX and EX wheels were the same size, the backside of the EX wheel was machined for the smaller caliper.


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## Dwnshft (May 16, 2011)

The thought was to have overall better pedal feel. I've never had rear drum brakes and while I understand most of the brake balance is towards the front, I find the brake feel to be a little soft.


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## InsaneSpeed (May 7, 2011)

I actually have all the parts coming from a wrecked LTZ right now to check fitment. The salvage yard is sending me every part possible to see if it works, I will keep you guys updated.

Edit: not doing this just for performance, rear discs look a heck of a lot better than drums.


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## osiris10012 (Feb 4, 2011)

i would check to see if the ltz has the same size front brake assembly because if the ltz's front brake assembly is larger than the eco you may run into an unbalanced braking set up do to the upgraded rear set up on the eco delivering more or equal braking power than the front....not positive what would happen when the upgrade is performed...just something i thought would be good to think about before you pull the trigger on the upgrade....my guess is you may need to also upgrade the front to keep the front and rear braking ratio correct...


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

Going to lose fuel economy...


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...according to GM, the _front_ disc is *10.8"* dia and the _rear_ disc is *10.5"* dia, which is the _same_ diameter as _rear _*drums*!

Chevrolet News - United States - Cruze and Cruze Eco


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

Depending on the setup, you may have to change the MC, Lines, then there is the issue of ABS and if they connections are the same, ect. 

Also the rear suspension is different on the Eco, and the suspension from the LTZ doesn't fit on the Eco from what I understand. This may affect how everything bolts up.

This seems to be a bit much for appearence, and I believe that the brakeing difference is less than 5 feet. And this is actually due more to the tires.

This would probably void any and all warranties on the vehicle. 

What about Chrome drums, shoot for the work you could probably have your drums plated, or just a chrome backplate between the drum and wheels.


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## 98sonoma (Nov 30, 2010)

70AARCUDA said:


> ...2/3's of *all* braking is done by the _front_ brakes; hence, rear drums--while not 100% fade-resistant--are more than adequate for normal driving...and stopping.


This may be true for the Cruze but I heard it was the opposite on a VW Jetta...the rears provided most of the braking. Not every car is engineered the same obviously


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

I would be curious to know if that was true about the VW, however, from a physics standpoint, you have more friction and weight at the front of a load then at the rear, so front brakes will always have the ability to stop you quicker.


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## InsaneSpeed (May 7, 2011)

When I looked at a LTZ while buying the Eco, they looked to be exactly the same.
Later
Steve


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## Mrk9182 (Apr 8, 2011)

98sonoma said:


> This may be true for the Cruze but I heard it was the opposite on a VW Jetta...the rears provided most of the braking. Not every car is engineered the same obviously



who ever told you that is wrong. the only car that even comes close to being rearward biased on the brakes are porsche 911 because of the rear engine layout when brakes the weight balance is very close to 50/50 which allows them to run very close to a 50/50 split on the brakes. but they are still slightly biased forward, along the lines of 55/45 or 60/40


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

I figure by the time my rear brakes need to be serviced there will be enough Cruzes in the junkyards to find a complete rear disc set up to snatch up.


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## eagleco (May 3, 2011)

Insane_ECO said:


> Edit: not doing this just for performance, rear discs look a heck of a lot better than drums.


I can relate to your point. After my "01 Miata, and then Mazda 3, I told myself that I would never again buy a car without 4 wheel discs and 4 wheel independent suspension. 

After doing some research about the pros and cons of drums vs discs, and comparing stopping distances, I decided that for the way I am going to drive this car (not like I drove my Miata), rear drums will work just fine. Sooner or later one of my fellow car nuts will dis me for having rear drums, but I can live with that.

As for the lack of IRS, oh well, nothing's perfect.

Good luck with your brake swap. I can easily imagine doing the same thing years ago when I enjoyed working on cars.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Subscribing... drums look pathetic to begin with, and only get worse as they rust with time. I don't even own an Eco (yet) and this has crossed my mind.

Pedal feel and cosmetics are the only reasons to bother switching; anyone looking for a real-world performance increase would likely have to be lapping a track to tell the difference.

I'm not sure if there's any truth to this or not, but apparently drums generate less friction while freewheeling... the theory is based on the springs pulling the shoes away from the drums when the brake pedal is released. If this is true, it likely explains the extra "slopiness" in the brake pedal that is present on so many drum equipped cars. Having said that, I can't see discs really "dragging" that much.

The 4 wheel discs on my GF's new 3-Series work really well with no slop, and the brakes on my Z06 are awesome; no slop and SO powerful. The (disc/drum) brakes on my '01 Saturn? Not so good...


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

Blue Angel said:


> Subscribing... drums look pathetic to begin with, and only get worse as they rust with time. I don't even own an Eco (yet) and this has crossed my mind.
> 
> Pedal feel and cosmetics are the only reasons to bother switching; anyone looking for a real-world performance increase would likely have to be lapping a track to tell the difference.
> 
> ...


Yes drums do create less friction.

On this eco this is even more true as they used smaller drums then they did on other cruzes (I think)


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## DEcruze (Apr 29, 2011)

in our world, the 5 lug itr was the ish. 
then gsr brakes in the rear.
now all the fast guys are swapping to drums hahaa!!!!


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## Nightdrv (Apr 17, 2011)

eagleco said:


> I can relate to your point. After my "01 Miata, and then Mazda 3, I told myself that I would never again buy a car without 4 wheel discs and 4 wheel independent suspension.



x1,000,000!


Yet here I am with a solid rear beam car w/drums... lol


Can't have everything.


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## oolowrideoo (Mar 2, 2011)

Jim Frye said:


> Then the question becomes...Will the 17" ECO wheels clear the calipers of the rear disk brake assemblies?
> 
> Jim


Had Corvette ZO6 brakes on my Gand AM with 16" rims... The Cruze rear brakes will easily fit with the ECO wheels.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

I've been checking on GMparts direct and the hubs/bolt patters and ABS sensors are the same. You can buy everything you need but pads/rotors (I would probably go aftermarket there) for about $350.00 brand new. I'm debating about doing this at somepoint and I'll let you know how it goes.


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## ddapra1 (Apr 1, 2011)

*Rear Brakes*

Have your dealer tighten the rear parking brake cable. It places more pre-load on the rear drum mechanism and improves hydraulic pedal feel. My Cruze Eco MT has great pedal feel.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

Nightdrv said:


> Yet here I am with a solid rear beam car w/drums... lol


The solid beam doesn't bother me as much as the drums :/ . I'd prefer IRS but it isn't a huge deal for me, car still handles good and the ECO tires will give up WAY before the suspension


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## blk88verde (Apr 30, 2011)

I would like rear discs on my ECO too, however this car stops straight and fast with the rear drums. Maybe a future upgrade. The last cars with drums in the rear for me were some 1970's Fords (never again). Once I switched to eurocars (1980 SAAB, 1991 Volvo, 1988 Alfa, 2002 Mercedes, 1984 Porsche) all were 4 wheel discs.

Current Rides:

2011 Black Granite Metallic Cruze ECO 6M
2004 Pulse Red GTO 6M
1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde 3.0 5M


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

Only thing I am balking on right now is if the wheel hubs are the same. I can't find part numbers for them and the picture I have looks like they have different bolt patterns. If they are different that adds alot of cost to the swap if the drum pieces can't be modified. Only other concern I have is E-brake function. I don't think the master cylinder will be an issue, I believe if this is like most modern ABS cars that the distribution isin the ABS block, there shouldn't be a proportioning valve like older type cars so brake bias should not be an issue.


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## Reckless (Mar 15, 2011)

ddapra1 said:


> Have your dealer tighten the rear parking brake cable. It places more pre-load on the rear drum mechanism and improves hydraulic pedal feel. My Cruze Eco MT has great pedal feel.


 
why didn't they just adjust the brakes themselves like they are supposed to ? instead of adding more load to your poor parking brake cables? 

when I got my Cruze the pedal feel was HORRID ... the rear drums were so out of adjustment it was DANGEROUS ... 

proper adjustment of your rear brakes is a major lack I've seen over the years in the shop ... I've had customers come back to the shop questioning their simple "brake maintenance" bill asking why it cost so little for brand new brakes... it's always fun to tell them that all that was done was clean/lube and adjustment... they didn't need brakes, just some love. 

90% of a disc/drum cars pedal fee is the adjustment of the rear brakes... you'll get more out of your shoes (they won't wear the top half out first) and you'll save your wheel cylinders... the common "your rears adjust automatically" is a MYTH (with rare exception vw's, some focus', I forget the years they swapped over) theres a little starwheel clicking bar in your rears, with the rare exception of the models mentioned which have a sprung wedge style clicker that once they go past a certain distance they preload/adjust to the next click .. yes the wheel cylinders will take up the slack (that's the feeling you get of first crappy pedal pump, then second right after nice and firm) .. but your putting soooo much more pressure on them that they will start to seep/leak alot faster then they ever normally would. 

as for the point of the post, rear disc swapping... other then the typical rear hardware, make sure you change the pressure valves that go to the rear brake lines (drums generally have a valve inline to the rears this holds a little more pressure in the lines then a disk brake system) .. and check the master cylinder between the two it might be slightly different. nowadays with several different models sharing parts I would bet the master, ABS unit, lines are all the same on both variants and the difference is just the rear hardware, the flex lines at the back, and the valves at either the master or the ABS unit to the rear lines. the less parts the OEM has to manufactor the more money then can make just switching over a few parts and charging more for the upgraded package.


*as a side note* keeping your rears in adjustment will also prolong the life of your front brakes, and seriously combat brake fade


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