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In this video, we're going to show you how to do a front brake job on this Chrysler Pacifica. We show you the front right hand, or front passenger side. Obviously, the driver's side is the same process, and we always do recommend that you change them in pairs. The tools you'll need for this job are jack and jack stands, 14 to 21 mm sockets, ratchets and extension, large flat blade screwdriver or small pry bar, large C-clamp, small wire brush, and a torque wrench.
Start by removing the cover. Next remove the lug nuts. You'll probably want to start with the wheel on the ground, loosen the lug nuts first, then raise and support the vehicle, and then remove them. Fast forward, here, as I just remove the rest of the lug nuts and then remove the wheel and tire.
Now, you can inspect the brakes and even though these brakes look a little rusty, that's not a big deal. It looks like this car has just been sitting for a while. You want to take the back of your fingernail, run it up and down the rotor. You'll feel some small groves, but you shouldn't feel anything deep. Then, also, you can look right in here and spin the rotor. You can see, here's the brake pad in between the metal here. It's nice and thick on the inside, as well as, you can see it's nice and thick here. This actually has good brakes on it but I'll take them apart and put it back together just to show you.
Turn your brakes. Here, on the back side, you'll want to remove these two bolts first. Before you remove those bolts you can take a large screwdriver or a small pry bar and put it here and just press this way, pry this way. That just helps push the pistons back into the caliper some and it makes it easier to get the caliper off. These bolts are 14mm, so they should not be too hard to remove. Speed up here as I remove those the rest of the way. Once you have those off, you can get the pads to just pry right up easily. Like I said, you can see these lines in the middle are wear marks. You can see these have quite a bit of life left.
If you want to replace the caliper you want to remove these two large bolts here. These two bolts are 21mm. I'm going to put my ratchet on there and use a piece of pipe for some extra leverage, slow and easy. These are actually coming apart pretty easily, maybe a little too easily. Fast forward here as I remove those bolts. Those bolts, as you'll see later, are tightened to 110 foot pounds. I have a feeling that whoever put this together before didn't tighten them up as much as they should have.
Before you put this back together, sometimes new pads will come with these slides that you'd actually just pull them right off with just a little bit of force. If your new pads don't come with the slides then you'll want to take a wire brush and just clean them up a little bit. Put the rotor back on. Put this back in place. Start the bolt from the back side. Just move this around until you get the bolt going in. I like to take just one lug nut and put it on. It just helps keep stuff in place. I'll speed up here, as I just tighten those bolts preliminarily. Torque these two bolts to 110 foot-pounds. Now, you want to make sure these two slides go back and forth nice and easy. If they don't move freely, then you can pull them out, clean them up, and grease them and put them back together to get them to move free.
Now you want to reset your caliper. What happens is, as the brakes wear, these two pistons actually work themselves out of the caliper. What you'll want to do is take your old inside pad and put it in place. Get a large C-clamp and put it on, and as you tighten the C-clamp it pushes those pistons back into the caliper. They just go right into place. To put the pads in place, the caliper just goes right down on them. You push these slides in a little bit and calipers slide on. Then put the two bolts in. These bolts should be tightened between 22 and 25 foot-pounds.
Fast forward here as I straighten it up, take off that lug nut, then put my wheel and tire back in place. Thread all the lug nuts back on hand, make sure don't cross thread them, and then tighten the lug nuts preliminarily. Now, torque your lug nuts using a star pattern to 100 foot-pounds. And last, but certainly not least, make sure after you do your brake work, obviously, we showed you the left hand side, then do the left hand side, then pump your brakes up. Get a nice hard pedal before you road test the vehicle.
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