DIY Front Brake Pads?
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,151
Likes: 67
From: Mechanicsburg PA
I'm not aware of a good DIY writeup but in all honesty this is so simple you don't need one:
- Jack car and remove wheel
- The caliper mounts to a bracket with two 15mm bolts. You will also need a 16mm wrench to hold one side while you un-bolt the other side.
- Un screw the two bolts and pull the caliper off
- the pads will almost fall out
- clean everything up
- The caliper has two pistons. They will be extended. You will need to depress them back into the caliper in order to get the caliper over the new (and presumably thicker) pads. Use a c-clamp or you can rent a disk brake tool from Autozone, etc. to press the pistons back into the caliper.
- Put the new pads in. If one of the pads has a metal tab on its backing plate that sticks out perpendicular to the pad, thats the pad that goes in back (towards the engine). The pads you currently have probably have this, so note the orientation when removing them.
- Put the caliper back on and tighten down. Not sure of the torque spec but the bolts are pretty small, so I just give them a good snugging up, do not over torque them.
- Start the car up and pump the brakes several times to extend the pistons back out.
- Go for a drive. With street pads its not strictly necessary but you can do a simple bedding procedure, the new pads will likely have some mention of this.
HTH, Brad.
- Jack car and remove wheel
- The caliper mounts to a bracket with two 15mm bolts. You will also need a 16mm wrench to hold one side while you un-bolt the other side.
- Un screw the two bolts and pull the caliper off
- the pads will almost fall out
- clean everything up
- The caliper has two pistons. They will be extended. You will need to depress them back into the caliper in order to get the caliper over the new (and presumably thicker) pads. Use a c-clamp or you can rent a disk brake tool from Autozone, etc. to press the pistons back into the caliper.
- Put the new pads in. If one of the pads has a metal tab on its backing plate that sticks out perpendicular to the pad, thats the pad that goes in back (towards the engine). The pads you currently have probably have this, so note the orientation when removing them.
- Put the caliper back on and tighten down. Not sure of the torque spec but the bolts are pretty small, so I just give them a good snugging up, do not over torque them.
- Start the car up and pump the brakes several times to extend the pistons back out.
- Go for a drive. With street pads its not strictly necessary but you can do a simple bedding procedure, the new pads will likely have some mention of this.
HTH, Brad.
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,347
Likes: 4
From: Slidell La
I'm not aware of a good DIY writeup but in all honesty this is so simple you don't need one:
- Jack car and remove wheel
- The caliper mounts to a bracket with two 15mm bolts. You will also need a 16mm wrench to hold one side while you un-bolt the other side.
- Un screw the two bolts and pull the caliper off
- the pads will almost fall out
- clean everything up
- The caliper has two pistons. They will be extended. You will need to depress them back into the caliper in order to get the caliper over the new (and presumably thicker) pads. Use a c-clamp or you can rent a disk brake tool from Autozone, etc. to press the pistons back into the caliper. Open the bleed screw before tightening the clamp to allow the old fluid to exit the caliper. AFter the job is complete top off the master cylinder. This prevent contaminated fluid from going into the master cylinder.- Put the new pads in. If one of the pads has a metal tab on its backing plate that sticks out perpendicular to the pad, thats the pad that goes in back (towards the engine). The pads you currently have probably have this, so note the orientation when removing them.
- Put the caliper back on and tighten down. Not sure of the torque spec but the bolts are pretty small, so I just give them a good snugging up, do not over torque them.
- Start the car up and pump the brakes several times to extend the pistons back out.
- Go for a drive. With street pads its not strictly necessary but you can do a simple bedding procedure, the new pads will likely have some mention of this.
HTH, Brad.
- Jack car and remove wheel
- The caliper mounts to a bracket with two 15mm bolts. You will also need a 16mm wrench to hold one side while you un-bolt the other side.
- Un screw the two bolts and pull the caliper off
- the pads will almost fall out
- clean everything up
- The caliper has two pistons. They will be extended. You will need to depress them back into the caliper in order to get the caliper over the new (and presumably thicker) pads. Use a c-clamp or you can rent a disk brake tool from Autozone, etc. to press the pistons back into the caliper. Open the bleed screw before tightening the clamp to allow the old fluid to exit the caliper. AFter the job is complete top off the master cylinder. This prevent contaminated fluid from going into the master cylinder.- Put the new pads in. If one of the pads has a metal tab on its backing plate that sticks out perpendicular to the pad, thats the pad that goes in back (towards the engine). The pads you currently have probably have this, so note the orientation when removing them.
- Put the caliper back on and tighten down. Not sure of the torque spec but the bolts are pretty small, so I just give them a good snugging up, do not over torque them.
- Start the car up and pump the brakes several times to extend the pistons back out.
- Go for a drive. With street pads its not strictly necessary but you can do a simple bedding procedure, the new pads will likely have some mention of this.
HTH, Brad.
