i am looking for some help. want to change my stock pads for ceramic. i think it Looks easy enough but i have never done it before . which brand and where can i get them at the best price. also, are there any threads or can someone walk me through how to remove and install.

 

Well, I just happened to come across these pictures I took when I was taking off my calipers to paint them a few days ago. To see the results of that project, click on:
Calipers Painted DSOM

Butt....to the point, after you take off the wheel you can look on the backside of the caliper and see 2 large bolt heads (I think 18mm). There are actually 4 bolt heads, but 2 of them are smaller and are the long pins that slide into the bracket to hold it on. If you start trying to undo them, they will just spin around and you will know you are working on the wrong bolt.

After you take them out you can just pull the caliper off the rotor and the following picture is what you'll see:




You can just reach your fingers around the bracket and slide the pads toward the center of the bracket and they will pop right out. Well, sometimes they require a little prying - especially if some "anti-squeal" goop has been applied to them when they were previously installed. The following picture shows the outboard pad already removed and the inboard pad still in the bracket but I've popped it loose out of the clips:





Here's a picture of the caliper after both pads have been removed. You can see the round piston (this is the rear caliper because there is only one piston - the front caliper is larger and has two pistons). This piston must be pushed back into the caliper with a C-clamp or some such tool. Use a piece of wood on the piston so you don't damage it when you push it in. It will probably only go in 1/8 inch or so if you're replacing fairly new and thick Z51 pads, but that should be plenty so you can get the new thicker pads onto the rotor. If you're replacing thin worn out pads, the piston will push in farther:




Here's a picture after I've removed the inboard pad. You can tell it's the inboard because they commonly have that spring you can see extending from it, whereas the outboard pad won't have that:





After you've pushed the piston in, just pop in your new pads. As I mentioned, if one in the pair has a spring extending from it, that is the inboard pad. There are little "ears" on the ends of the pads that must be inserted into the clips in the bracket. The following picture shows a pad with the ears on the end inserted into the clip. This picture is with the bracket removed from the caliper, which you will not have to do. I removed the bracket from the caliper so I could paint them and took this picture to show how the ends of the pad go into the clips:




So, you just pop your new pads into the bracket, slide the whole caliper/bracket assembly with the new pads onto your rotor, screw the 2 bolts in from the backside and torque to 125 ft-lbs, reinstall your wheel and torque lug nuts to 100 ft-lbs, lower the car, and you're done.

The only other things I can think of are:

1. When you push the piston back into the caliper, you are pushing fluid up through the system and into the master cylinder. This is mainly a problem if you are replacing thin worn out pads and have added brake fluid, in which case you can overflow fluid out of the master cylinder and into the engine compartment.

2. Be very careful after servicing the brakes when you first drive the car. After starting but before putting it in gear, push on the brake pedal and make sure you have brake pressure. The pedal may go down farther than normal for a push or two until the pistons are seated up against the new pads. When you do start driving, test the brakes from a slow speed and be ready to stop with the parking brake if the brake pedal is soft and ineffective.

3. You must "bed" the pads. Read here from the FAQ files about one way of how to do that (the box that my new Hawk pads came in had a slightly different but very similar procedure):

Bedding New Brake Pads

That's all there is to it.

Have fun wrenchin' and modin'!!!

Bob

 

beezeye,
Excellent instructions and pics.

On those bolts that "spin around", if you check the other end, push back the boot a bit, you'll find a flat spot you can get a wrench on (forgot the size, I use a small adjustable crescent). If you remove the upper bolt, you can pivot the caliper out of the way, to allow a pad change. Much lower torque than the caliper bracket bolts you removed.

 

TooMany

Right you are! I believe those bracket guide pin bolts are only torqued to 23 ft-lbs.

I forgot to mention that I used blue Loctite on the big caliper bolts when I put them back in.

Bob

 

It is much faster to *not* remove the entire caliper and mounting bracket if all you want to do is replace the pad. Just remove the top slider bolt and pivot the caliper up and back and away thus exposing the pads...this way there is only one bolt to deal with and the whole assembly remains properly located...plus if you are new to this you don't need to worry about retorqueing the bolts that actually hold the whole caliper assembly on...