How To Change Brakes On A Car

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Changing your brake pads is a much cheaper option than taking it to a car shop, which can ordinarily lead to an expensive fee for anyone. For the cost of materials, yous'll exist able to go your car stopping properly later post-obit these steps.

1
Become the correct brake pads. Pads are available at whatsoever machine parts store or your local motorcar dealership. Just let them know the year, make and model of your motorcar and select a pad in your toll range. In general, the more expensive they are, the longer they last.
- Some very expensive pads with a higher-than-desirable metal content may be aimed at the 'Rally' market for use with performance Rotors. Y'all'll probably want to avoid these because they are likely to cause premature wear of standard Rotors. Also, some people discover that less expensive pads are noisier than "brand proper name" pads.
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Make sure the vehicle is cooled down. If you take recently driven, you may exist working with extremely hot pads, calipers and rotors. Exist sure that these parts are rubber to touch before moving on.

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3
Loosen the lug nuts. Using the lug wrench provided forth with the car'due south jack, loosen each of the lug nuts that hold the wheels onto the car virtually ii thirds of the way.
- Don't loosen all the tires at once. Generally, you'll modify at least the two front pads or the two back pads, depending on your car and how evenly the brakes wear. So either start with the front or the back.
4
Carefully jack the machine up until it can be removed comfortably. Consult your possessor's manual to make up one's mind the correct position for the auto jack under your car. Put some blocks behind the other wheels to stop the machine from rolling forward or dorsum.
- Place a jack stand under the frame of the vehicle. Practice Not trust the jack alone. Repeat for the other side of the car so that both sides are securely supported.
5
Remove the wheels. End loosening and removing the lug nuts when the car is raised. Pull the wheel straight out towards you to remove it.
- If the wheel rims are blend and on the studs, you lot should clean the studs, stud holes, rotor mounting surface, and the rear mounting surface of the alloy wheel with a wire castor and apply anti seize compound before refitting the cycle.
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Remove the caliper bolts using the correct size of socket or ring-spanner. ^[ane] The caliper fits over the brake rotor like a clamp and its job is to dull the wheel using hydraulic pressure. The brake pads will create friction with the rotors to tedious the vehicle to a stop. Calipers generally come in one-piece or two-slice designs, secured with between 2 and four bolts at the inside of the stub axle housing, where the tire fits onto the beam. Spray these bolts with WD-xl or PB Penetrating Catalyst to aid in removing them.
- Bank check the caliper pressure level. The caliper of a car at rest should move back and forth a little bit. If not, the caliper is nether pressure and it may fly off when you lot remove the bolts. Take actress precaution when checking to keep your body to the side of its path, even if it is loose.
- Check to see if there are any shims or performance washers fitted between the caliper mounting bolts and the mounting surface. If there are, remove them and proceed track of them to supersede afterwards. Yous will need to refit the caliper without the brake pads and measure the distance from the mounting surface to the brake pad to supervene upon them accordingly.
- Many Japanese vehicles use a two-slice sliding caliper that only requires the removal of two forward-facing slider bolts, with 12-14mm heads. Yous volition not need to remove the unabridged caliper.
7

Carefully hang the caliper with a minor piece of wire to the wheel well. The caliper will still exist continued to the brake line, and so hang information technology upward with a small-scale slice of wire hanger or other scrap metal, so that it won't hang and put pressure on the flexible restriction hose.

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one
Remove the onetime pads. Finally! Note how each brake pad is attached. They typically snap or clip in with attached metallic clips. Remove both pads. They may take a picayune strength to pop out, then take care non to damage the caliper or restriction line while getting them out.
- Inspect restriction rotors for warped, heat impairment or cracks to surface and supersede as needed. Rotors are recommended to be replaced or resurfaced during brake pad replacements.
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Put the new pads on. At this point, you tin can spread anti-seize lubricant on the metal contact edges and on the back of the pads. This will prevent a lot of squeaking. Even so, exercise non get whatsoever lubricant onto the within of the brake pads. If any lubricant touches that fabric, the brake will not provide friction, and will be useless. Attach the new pads exactly the fashion the old ones were attached.
three

Check the brake fluid. Check your vehicle'south restriction fluid level and add some if necessary. Supersede the brake fluid reservoir cap when finished.
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Supercede the caliper. Slide the caliper slowly back over the rotor, proceeding hands so as not to harm anything. Replace and tighten the bolts that hold the caliper in place.
v

Put the cycle dorsum on. Slide the wheel back into place and manus tighten each of the lug basics snug before lowering the motorcar.
6
Tighten the lug nuts. When the car is dorsum on the ground, tighten the lug nuts in a "star" pattern. Tighten one lug nut, then one across from it until each nut is fully tightened to torque specification.
- Check the owner's manual to find the torque specifications for your vehicle. This volition ensure the lugs accept been tightened plenty to foreclose the wheel coming off or over-tightening.
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Start the vehicle. Making sure the vehicle is in neutral or park, pump the brakes fifteen to 20 times to make sure the pad is seated properly. Top off brake fluid levels or follow bleeding of brakes section to flush out erstwhile fluid and replace with new fluid.
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Test your new brake pads. Going no more than 5 mph (8.0 km/h) on a tranquility residential street, brake like normal. If the vehicle seems to stopping ordinarily, repeat the test and go up to 10 mph (xvi km/h). Echo several more times, gradually going up to 35 or 40 mph (56 or 64 km/h). Also check in reverse. These braking tests ensure at that place are no issues with your brake-pad installation, gives you confidence when driving on master streets and helps "seat" the brake pads into place.
- Heed for problems. The new pads may squeak a chip, but i you should hear a grinding, metallic-on-metallic sound, you probably have the brake pads reversed (i.e., the inside surface is incorrectly facing out). This should exist corrected immediately.
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i
Remove the cap from the brake master cylinder. ^[2] Restriction fluid will go contaminated with clay and other particulate from the air and the mechanics of the car. It will also absorb moisture from the air, dangerously lowering its boiling point. You'll demand to bleed the brake fluid from the arrangement before changing your pads and calipers, just you lot'll too (counterintuitively, perchance) want to brand certain the fluid is topped off earlier you practice this. Check the fill line and add a fiddling if yous need to. Leave the cap off while you bleed the arrangement.
- The reason you demand to add fluid is that you're bleeding the fluid from the calipers themselves--the fluid trapped in the line--and you still need a steady supply in the master cylinder.
2

Make up one's mind the sequence of the bleed. Generally, you want to drain the brake nigh distant from the master cylinder outset, and so you'll need to check the possessor'due south manual earlier you practice this. All cars differ in the particular club. If you lot don't take the owner'due south transmission, check with an auto parts store.
three

Fit a small plastic hose to the bleeder nipple. Cheap aquarium tubes work well for this. Place the other cease of the hose in a pocket-sized canteen or pan to grab the fluid. To go on air from flowing back into the organization, you should hang or hold the bottle to a higher place the calipers and keep gravity on your side.^[3]
4
Have an assistant pump the brakes. With the engine off, have your friend continually pump the brakes until they experience resistance. They should shout to yous to let you know they're feeling resistance, at which point y'all should unscrew the bleeder spiral slightly and tell them to hold the restriction down.
- The fluid should bleed down the hose into the bottle or pan at this point. Screw the bleeder screw back in when your friend's foot touches the floor.
- Repeat this procedure until yous see no air bubbles in the tube.^[4]
5

Double check the organisation for air bubbling. If compressing the brake pedal results in the fluid gurgling in the master cylinder, at that place are all the same air bubbles in the system. Get-go haemorrhage them again before y'all continue.

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Consider turning the vehicle'south steering bike so the front wheel beingness focused on points outward in the front after the front tire has been removed. This tin can make working on a front-wheel caliper associates much easier because of improved access. Be very careful that your jack braces are out of the way when you're doing this, nonetheless.
If you are servicing the rear brakes be careful around the parking brake system; discover the proper mode to remove and adjust.
Inspect your rotors if they are shiny or are not flat. These two symptoms may cause the brakes to squeal. If this were to happen, the rotors can exist resurfaced flat as long equally they stay to a higher place the minimum thickness.

E'er utilise jack stands and utilise supports behind the wheels to avoid rolling. Exercise not trust a jack by itself.
Practice not allow lubricant touch the brake pad material. If information technology does, the restriction provides no friction, and is useless.
Do not remove the brake line from the caliper this will cause air to enter the lines and brand a mess of things.

About This Article

Article Summary X

Before you change the restriction pads in your car, make sure it has had fourth dimension to absurd downwardly so the brakes aren't hot. Then, remove the wheel and the caliper to reveal the restriction pads. Snap off the old brake pads and insert the new ones in the same position. If yous want, you can spread anti-seize lubricant on the metal contact edges and on the back of the pads to foreclose squeaking. Simply don't put lubricant within the brakes or they won't work. Proceed reading for communication from our Mechanic reviewer on bleeding the brakes and filling the brake reservoir.

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