Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
Use a large pry bar for a flat-bladed screwdriver to remove the wheel cover. I'm just going to slide it between the wheel and the plastic. Pop it off. These lug nuts are a 21 millimeter socket. I'm going to use that and a breaker bar to loosen them while the vehicle's on the ground. Then, raise and support the vehicle. We're using a two post lift, but you can use a jack and jack stands. The lug nuts are loose. I'm going to take the socket and finish removing them. I'm just going to hold on to the wheel. I'll take the last lug nut off. It's going to be loose. I don't want to drop it. Drop the lug nut. That's okay. I just don't want the wheel to fall.
Before I remove the caliper, I'm just going to pull on it and try to compress the piston. That way, it will slide right off. Take a 14 millimeter wrench to loosen the caliper slide bolts. There's one on the top, one on the bottom. They're pretty tight. If they don't want to budge, you can take a mallet to break them free. Same thing on the bottom one. I've got a bungee cord handy, so when I remove these caliper slide bolts, I could hang the caliper from the strut. Let's loop it around. The caliper should slide right off. See, one of our hardware pieces of hardware is actually broken on here. It should go right in there. The pads will slide right out like this.
Two 17 millimeter bolts that are holding the caliper on. There's one on the top and one on the bottom. To break them free, you can use the box wrench and the mallet. We've got these loose. I'm just going to remove them by hand.
The rotor is very loose. We don't want it to accidentally fall. I'm just going to take one of the lug nuts. Just put it on there so it doesn't fall on my feet. Remove the caliper bracket. So we're pretty lucky. This brake rotor's really loose. I'm going to take the lug nut off that I was using to hold it on, just slide it right off the studs and the hub. If it was rusted on, you could thread a couple of small bolts into here and evenly turn them down or push against the hub and push the rotor off.
These are old pads and rotors for our vehicle. I've got brand new ones from 1AAuto.com. So the pad design is very similar. The rotor design is the same. Five lug holes, two pusher holes. It's a ventilated rotor. This will fit great and help the car stop.
Before you put the rotor back on the hub, make sure it's nice and clean, not too rusty. This one's in good shape. If yours is really rusty around the hub here, take a wire brush and knock some of the rust down, clean it off. We're going to take our new rotor, and we'll install it backwards first. Take our brake parts cleaner, and we're going to clean off the oil that they ship with so they don't rust. Grab it, flip it over, install it the correct way. I'm just going to throw a lug not on here so it's not moving all around on me. Take a brake parts cleaner. Clean the surface. I'm just going to wipe down any excess.
You need to compress the cylinder back into the brake caliper. I'm taking the old brake pad, and I've got a C-clamp, and gently compress it. This way, our new pads that are thicker will fit. We need to clean our hardware so we can reuse it. We'll take some brake parts cleaner and just spray it in there. Get a wire brush. Just repeat for the other side. We're going to reinstall our bracket. Get those started by hand. The top one's usually easier to get done first, and you can move this one in and out to line it up. I'm just going to snug them down. Take some brake parts cleaner to just make sure the pad surface is nice and clean before you install them, and put just a tiny amount of brake caliper grease on the ears of the pad. Don't need to go crazy with this stuff.
The inside and outside pads are identical, so I'm going to start with the inside one. Pop it into the bottom, push it in. Repeat for the other pad. Clean it off. Put a little bit of grease on the ears. Replace the spring hardware, put it in place. It's going to balance the caliper. Swing it down. Get the back part caught first. Push that over. Caliper slide bolts and reinstall those. Get a 14 millimeter ratcheting wrench. Tighten them up, and torque the two caliper bracket mounting bolts to 79 foot-pounds. Don't forget to remove the bungee cord you were using. Make sure the brake rotor is clean. Sometimes, you get dirty fingerprints on it. I'm just going to double check that these are tight.
I'm going to reinstall our wheel. It's important to note these lug nuts have a taper. The taper meets the wheel, matches the inside of the wheel. Don't install them with the flat side like this. That is incorrect. Install them with the taper to the wheel. It helps locate the wheel on the lug nut stud. I'm just using the socket and ratchet to bring these down snug before I put the car on the ground, and torque the lug nuts to 76 foot pounds. I'm going in a cross pattern. We'll reinstall the hubcap. I'm going to line up the opening with the valve stem, with the valve stem on the wheel. Just push it in place.
Before we start the car, I'm just going to gently press the brake pedal down. Not all the way to the floor. You need about a quarter of the way, and just pump it. And this will bring the brake caliper piston out to meet the pads, because we compressed it. And you'll start to feel it get more solid as it pumps out.
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