does anyone else have this problem?
the brakes take a lot more pedal pressure to stop when it's raining out, my 94 formula, and a friends 96 T/A. both cars 4wheel disc.

 

First off, 4th gen brakes suck to begin with. Second, any brake system is going to be harder to stop when it is wet. The water makes it slippery. Unless you can't stop I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Workaround:
When its wet out, if you think you may be in a "need to stop" situation coming up, give your brakes a tiny bit of pressure just to wipe the surfaces. I find doing that before I actually need to break gets rid of the slipping feeling I find this mainly happens when driving on the hwy at a steady rate for a few minutes... ie. no brakes.

 

Nothing wrong with your car, my 95 Z28 has the same issue.

 

I always thought that was one advantage of disc over drum, was the performance didn't change when wet?
My old firebird ('73), I put a rear disc axle under it from a 80 T/A, and it stopped great wet or dry, I couldn't tell a difference.

It's not been a huge deal to me, it is obvious, but not horrible, but a friend of mine says his brakes get horrible when wet (96 T/A). He took it to his mechanic, they told him it had the wrong pads, and put ceramics on it, but that didn't change it.
I think he is just getting old and weak, but he swears that is not the case.

 

The problem (for me) isnt really their wet stopping performance.... i guess its more their responsiveness. The intial brake on them feels like really bad break fade.... then it comes back after a few seconds.... Its just scary as hell on the highway when you need to stop and you dont know the car well enough to know its going to do that

 

My son's old 95 3.8 acted this way but it had rear drums. It would also only do it if you had driven through a large puddle or if it was raining real hard. I've never had this issue with my 94 Z.

 

Mine only does that after I wash the car and the rotors get really wet. But after a few seconds of braking it is back to normal again.

 

It is just the LT1 front brake system, it sucks to say the least. 10.4" single large piston cast iron calipers with low piston force just isnt that great, especially for our 3600lb cars. This is one reason GM went to 12", alum 2-piston smaller bore brakes on the 98+ cars, much more efficient braking forces with the 98+ setup. This is one reason why a lot of LT1 autoxers upgrade to the 98+ setup, it is a much better system, the biggest problem being some spreading of the calipers under extreme use, which is why I went to a full C5 front conversion. I used to have the same problem when it was wet out running Performance Friction carbon-metalic pads from Autozone with stock setup, then switched to C5 with Hawk HP+ pads, and now trying the lesser HPS pads. Never have a problem in the rain with my brakes anymore.

Moral of the story: The stock 93-97 brakes simply are not that good, I would invest in a 98+ conversion. It can be done very cheap, just need to swap spindles, calipers, mounting brackets and lines. Pretty easy and straightforward install.

 

very cool, this helps to understand the situation much better.

 

You sure 93-97 aren't 11" and 98+ are 13"?

 

Yup. LT1 Rotor: 10.8”, LS1 Rotor: 12", C5/C6 Rotor: 12.8”, C6 Z51 Rotor 13.4", C6 Z06 Rotor: 14".

 

Doesn't the C5 upgrade require 17" wheels, whereas the LS1 upgrade can still use the 16" wheels ?

Doug

 

yes.