Diy: Change Your Own Brake Pads (front And Rear)

[benm]

First of all I don't take any responsibility do this at your own risk (as I did).

This guide is for the front pads on an R33 GTS-T. Although i suspect other models would be extremely similar.

FRONT PADS

1. Put a brick behind your rear wheel and then release the handbrake. Loosen your wheel nuts and then grab your jack and a jack stand ($20/pair at Supercheap) and jack car up to suitable height, then remove the wheel.

2. Remove the spring at the back of the caliper by pulling upwards and then slide it towards you to remove.

3. Push the bottom of the metal bracket inwards to loosen the tension and then slide the bottom pin out towards you. Then remove the top pin taking the metal bracket with it.

4. Slide the brake pad outwards in an even manner removing both metal shims as well. Note the position of these shims. (You can figure out the way the shims go by looking at the marks on the back of the old pads if needed.)

5. Do the same for the pad on the other side of your rotor and then reverse all of the instructions to put everything back together.

(If you are just checking your pads or want to remove the glaze from them grab some 80 grit emery paper -$1ea page- and rub the pads in up/down/circular motions for 30sec to roughen them up)

6. Check, check again and then check everything again 3 more times before driving.

7. Pump your brake pedal 2 or 3 times.

REAR PADS

8. Literally exactly the same as the front only the caliper and brake pad are slightly smaller. Everything else is near identical.

9. Find a suitable street/area to bed your brakes in (I did 6x 100km/h -> 50km/h and then 2x 60km/h -> 20km/h brake sessions and then drove using no brake pressure at all for 15mins before returning home). Some people will say different things and I couldn't remember exactly so thats what I done. Basically you are burning off the resins used in manufacture of the pad and matching the pad to the disc face.

The whole process above took me the best part of 40mins and it was the very first time I took the wheel off my car let alone removed the brake pads. Most mechanics will charge $40-60 for this (from memory) and I seriously would say its easier than changing your oil (and heaps cleaner haha).

The next time I do this (everytime I change my oil from now on) it will take me the best part of 20-25mins so Mark Skaife you better boot 1 of your chief mechanics coz im on my way !!!

If you have any constructive criticism or feedback lemme have it.

Edited February 7, 2007 by benm

[nismoman18]

sounds quite easy, did u use a gclamp to push the pistons in or just let them sit there ? thats all im afraid of the pistons popping out, but my mech said they wont pop out unless u push the pedal. its easier on a GTST it seems, for NA we have to take the caliper off the mount!

[Guest RedLineGTR]

sweet thanks for all your time and photos

[benm]

Originally posted by nismoman18

did u use a gclamp to push the pistons in or just let them sit there ?

No I didn't they just stayed where they were. Besides you'd need a pretty small sized G-Clamp to fit it in there.

my mech said they wont pop out unless u push the pedal

Well that was my theory too and it seemed to be correct.

[nismoman18]

i just want to put sum anti squeal stuff on my pads and backing plates, great bit of info thanks a heap man

[red900ss]

Great stuff Ben! Thanks for posting it.

A word of caution to all:

Try not to breath in any brake dust.

It may contain asbestos. A good idea is to wet down the area with water to stop the dust becoming airborne.

[dan_the_man]

I snorted brake dust

[nismoman18]

my pads dont contain asbestos THANK GOD

[JimX]

If your old pads are worn, you will have to push the calipers back. You can use a small G-clamp as already suggested, or a screwdriver for the bush mechanic method.

If you use a screwdriver, alternate the sides from which you push the piston back or else it'll go in crooked and may stick. The instructions with my new brake pads also say not to lever off the disc, but don't say why. Presumably so that you don't scratch the disc or put too many stresses across the disc, though I don't think you'd warp it with such minimal pressure.

Edit: There's actually a tool designed specifically for pushing brake pistons back, but unless you got it really cheap I don't think it'd be worth getting.

[benm]

I've updated the initial message to now include both FRONT and REAR instructions/pictures.

[nismoman18]

i might do one of these for NA cars tomorrow, gonna take mine off to have a looksie and make it stop squealing !

[sfitzy]

Shouldn't you do a bleed on the brake fluid and replace at the same time?

[benm]

If you haven't changed your fluid in the last 12mths then probably yes. Although my fluid was only changed about 2-3mths ago and i didnt actually change the pads in this DIY (I only sanded back the current pads to remove the glazing).

[coco69]

omg - last time i bled brake fluid and got it on my hands, it felt like it was burning my skin, i've never felt anything like it. it kills. so i presume that brake fluid is rather acidic. any suggestions?

[nismoman18]

i heard if u mix brake fluid with baking soda it blows up or sumthing, so i presume its quite dangerous!

[EnricoPalazzo]

Nismoman18: Where can u get anit-beake squeal? My brakes squeak yet there is alot of pad there, obviously a hard pad??

[benm]

Just trying sanding them back like I have done above.

[coco69]

sometimes sanding back works well yeah, and most of the time when i've tried anti squeal on my friends cars, it doesn't help much at all...

but its available from most automotive accesorry shops, e.g. super cheap auto / autobarn

[nismoman18]

$10 supercheap auto, either spray on stuff or bright red/ orange gooey stuff, i sanded mine back and that was it, gone gotta do the left one tomorrow taking the pads off an NA car is heaps easy

[Edge]

To depress calipers back so that you can put fat new pads in if you don't have the special tool - just turn the old pad sideways and lever the calipers - only use your finger power - it hurts your fingers only a little bit and its only 4 pads you are doing not a fleet of cars. Don't use a screwdriver because you run the risk of damaging your caliper seals!

Accidents with tools in cars happen so very easily.

nismoman18 - that was pool chlorine and brake fluid - eventually the chemical reaction heats up real hot - releases gas - likelyhood of auto ignition is very high especially if stored in a container. Be very careful where you store fuels and oil - keep it away from fertiliser and other chemicals! You could blow up your house.

Don't bother sanding your pads if you are getting squeal - first check you havn't already burnished your disks. Cause if you have the squeal will come back within 3 weeks. Best thing to do is to buy slotted brake rotors which will keep your pads de glossed all the time, and provide better braking at the same time.

You get squeal because your brakes are getting too hot - what do you expect going from over 220kph to 0kph in one non stop hard braking! This seems to take twice as long as the acceleration and is a whole lot scarier too!

By the way the brake caliper depressor tool looks like the letter Y and has a prong for the calipers on the top of each side of the Y.

Never bothered using it myself, just too lazy to dig it out of which ever tool box it ended up in.