Brakes, and retardation....

[chrisfullwood]

a plea to all members who read...

I have a 90 galant, that i finished a conversion on. of course the previous owner was about 12... and did everything wrong, as such ive slowly been finding out how wrong, and trying to fix it.It seems he had a dual piston brake setup front and rear, before he sold it to me (didn't know this till recently) he swapped it out for some other parts, that are apparently from an 89. (plus 1 rear brake caliper that was from an eclipse, that i replaced years ago) so basically took the good stuff off and sold me crap.

Well now i'm trying to decide to A. Part it out if i can find people to buy as much of the car as possible. B. try to arrange transportation while i tear it down totally... and try to not give away all my money that ive spent on it or C. try to sell it as a project car.
Regardless of option im going to end up spending more money than i want. so, im appealing to your advice. to i quit the galant world, in favour of a car that wont break down when i need it... and let someone with more time and enthusiasm have at it, and enjoy the thousands of dollars i have put into it.

i cannot for the life of me, find anywhere that sells complete brake upgrades. I did see the roller for $900 in OKC, which is only a few hours away from me, but if i buy another car my wife will kill me. So not an option, although i wish it was.

 

[cheekychimp]

Do you actually need brake 'upgrades' at this stage or could you manage with a half decent stock setup to get the car back on the road?

If I recall correctly replacement calipers for the VR4 were not that expensive and I would think if you put up a WTB ad that quite a few members would at least have front calipers at a reasonable price.

I don't really have much experience with DSMs since we did not get them in Hong Kong, but people do 5-lug hub swaps all the time. Consequently I presume that even if you can't find any Galant specific front calipers, with or without a hub swap, there should be a host of possibilities out there regarding front and rear DSM calipers. Just remember that you need to find a Galant specific brake proportioning valve and decide whether you want to keep or delete the ABS if you do a 5-lug swap since the ABS sensors on a 5-lug hub are different.

If you really do need 'upgrades' then those can be expensive but if you can find or make new brake brackets you can make a host of other calipers work. People have used 3KGT brakes, Vette/Camaro brakes. You can also use the rear trailing arms off the 3KGT, they bolt straight onto the Galant and if you use the 3KGT 5-lug hubs you can use the 3KGT rear twin pot calipers. You just need to swap over and use the 3KGT e-brake cable as it is longer and needed to fit the drum e-brake in the 3KGT hub.

If money is the issue and you are competent working on the car yourself, I'd get down to the junkyards and see if you can find a 3KGT and any 5-lug DSMs with decent front calipers.

As for your other questions ... read this: -

Quoting Red_Bird:
I have . . . spent almost $3000 on a car that I paid $1700 for.



Quoting DR1665:


Dude. I feel your pain. Everyone who daily drives a GVR4 does. Today it's the TPS wigging out causing the car to randomly die in traffic. Tomorrow it's a bad outer tie rod end preventing you from getting an alignment. Next thing you know, you forget to latch the hood and have to get a new windshield (and hood). All the while getting a measly 22mpg around town on $4/gallon gas. LAMEPANTS.

It's easy to start thinking about buying something else. Something more reliable. Something more fuel efficient. But do the math, dude.

Suppose you get 22mpg combined in the Galant, gas costs $4/gallon, and you drive 1500 miles a month. You spend $272/month on gas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif

You also said you've spent $3000 on this car. Okay. Over what period of time?
- If you spend that much on maintenance every year, that's $250/month.
- If you've spent that much over 2 years, it's $1500/year on maintenance, or $125/month.
- If you've spent that much over 3 years, it's $1000/year on maintenance, or $83/month.

So what's your monthly cost to operate this Galant?
- $250 + $272 = $522/month?
- $125 + $272 = $397/month?
- $83 + $272 = $355/month?

Now, think about replacing the Galant with something else.
Suppose you replace it with something that gets 30mpg combined. You still drive 1500 miles a month, and gas is still $4/gallon.
You pay $200/month on gas, saving $72/month. YAY!

What is your loan payment for this replacement vehicle?
- If it's $300/month + $200 in fuel = $500/month, so a savings of $22/month.
- If it's $200/month + $200 in fuel = $400/month, so a savings of $122/month.
- If it's $100/month + $200 in fuel = $300/month, so a savings of $222/month.

BUT THAT is assuming you spend $3000 *every year* on Galant repairs.
- If you only spend $1500/yr on repairs, the loan needs to be less than $197/month to see any savings.
- If you only spend $1000/yr on repairs, the loan needs to be less than $155/month to see any savings.

And those figures assume you get something what gets 30mpg under the same driving conditions your Galant sees today. What kind of replacement are you looking to get? How much are you looking to spend? Is the replacement vehicle going to be more or less expensive than a stock rebuild on a 4G63T with one of those Hyundai heads that effectively increases the compression ratio, resulting in better MPGs?

A $200/month payment for 36 months could get you a $7000 vehicle, but do you want to borrow that much money? Do you want another car payment? And do you really think another sub-$10,000 vehicle is going to be any more reliable than the Galant? These numbers are purely hypothetical, but you'll notice there's no mention of a maintenance/repair budget for your replacement vehicle. One repair and you've lost money on the decision - only now you're driving a soul-less Tercel with a shitty paint job and no balls.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...
- If you part it, you lose a lot of money.
- If you sell it outright, you lose a lot of money.
- The replacement cost will eat up most, if not all, the savings for a couple years, easily.
- The replacement itself will come with its own maintenance/repair issues, likely eradicating any savings over the Galant.
- It is usually easier to keep what you have than get something new

 

[chrisfullwood]

Thanks for the post... all great points. Something new wouldn't be something new, it would be used.. paid for in cash.
but my galant.. i get maybe 15-20mpg, if i keep it out of boost, and below 40%. gas for my gar is 30 cents a gallon more expensive than the standard 87 stuff. I could drive a pickup truck, and spend less on gas than i do for this 2.0 magic induced speed machine.

Also remember, mine isnt a VR4, its a 90 GSX that was converted by someone with the automotive skills equivalent to a 3rd grader in special ed. and i brought it (had time... money and a reliable car at the time) what was i thinking when i brought the car (well i wasnt planning on it being my daily driver... it just ended up that way.

Currently reliability issues, see it driving maybe 6 months out of 12. i drive about 500 miles a month, tops. furthest trip is about 50 miles away, the rest is all in the town i live in.

Not to mention there is no-where within a state in every direction (that i have found) to tune the car at all.
Currently maintenance costs aren't much as far as regular stuff, because it usually breaks down before i get there.
i spent way over 3000 on it, mostly in getting it running properly the first year i had it, and replacing stuff that got broken, in daily usage. Ideally (im sure this is everyones ideal too... it needs to be put in my shop, on blocks, stripped down, and go through everything piece by piece... but, i have a car in my shop already, the one i really want to fix... and i want to remodel my shop as it is... i can get to neither cause the stinking galant keeps breaking down and taking all my money. i'm guessing oklahoma isn't a really good place to be to have this kind of car. Being married, 2 kids, running a piece of my own business. Time is hard to come by,

But who wants to buy this troublesome vehicle off me anyway right? lol cause if it isn't behaving for me, who is going to want to inherit the previous owner screw ups that i keep dealing with.

 

[broxma]

I feel enough of your pain to reply but I have a question before I get to offering assistance. Is this a complete VR4 conversion, as in turbo motor and AWD or just a 90 Galant with a turbo 4g63 motor? It won't matter for our purposes, I'm just curious. That being said...

You paid 1700.00 more for your car than I did mine. Mine was a gift, a non running, torn to pieces gift which over the last 2 years I have slowly put somewhere north of 6-7 (8-9) grand into. If I were to calculate time by the shop hour, we're talking 20+. To answer the question regarding you keeping or ditching the car, it's either in you or it isn't. There is very little middle ground and any wiggle room usually means the car isn't running because something has wiggled itself right off.

Now, if you are just looking for a 2 piston front, stock brake setup, I can help you out. We gots a decent junkyard round here which I am assuming given your location, you do not. If you are interested shoot me a PM and let me know what you need. And I'm not looking to profit. Just my cost+shipping if you choose to take me up on the offer.

/brox