Before we lift and support the vehicle, going to break the lug nuts free on the wheel. We take the center cap off using a flat bladed screwdriver. Take a 21 millimeter socket and a breaker bar and just loosen all the lug nuts. You don't have to take them all the way off. Just loosen them. See how tight they are? That would be nearly impossible if the wheel wasn't on the ground. It would just spin on you. We're going to raise it using our two post lift, but you can do this in our driveway with a jack and jack stands. These lug nuts should be pretty loose at the moment. I'm going to use my 21 millimeter socket and just my hand to turn them off. Once you get to the last one, hold onto the wheel, so it doesn't fall off, and pull it off the hub.
Before I remove the caliper, I'm going to pull on it outwards to oppress the piston as best I can. This will help make removing the caliper easier. Now, I will remove the 14 millimeter bolts that are here and here on the slide pins to pull the caliper off. Put a box wrench on here. If they're really stiff, we can take a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet and hit your wrench. That one's nice and free now. Do the bottom one. Pull these bolts out. Place them aside. I have a bungee cord ready because when I pull this caliper off, I want to hang it from suspension. I don't want to just hang it by the rubber hose. My bungee cord, run it around the spring. Hang it up there out of the way. Now, remove the old brake pads. Just slide them off.
I'll remove this caliper bracket by removing the two 17 millimeter bolts that are back here. Same thing, if those are really stiff, take a rubber mallet, or a dead blow hammer. This lower one is really stuck in there, so I'm going to use the 17 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. This will give me some extra leverage. There it goes. One more turn. With those loose, I can switch to a 17 millimeter socket ratchet. Finish taking them out. Hold onto this bracket when you remove the final bolt because it will be completely loose.
Remove the two Phillips head screws that are holding the rotor to the hub. Spray a little rust penetrant in here, just using a rag, so it doesn't get everywhere. Also spray some rust penetrant around the hub edge here. Take a large Phillips head screwdriver. Push it in there. Turn them out. This rotor is pretty loose. I'm going to hold onto it so it doesn't fall. If this rotor gets stuck, there are threads in the rotor part. You can thread longer M8 bolts in here to help you push the rotor off, but this one's going to come right off for us.
This is our old rotor and pads off our vehicle. This is our new rotor and pads from 1aauto.com. Can see it's got the same four lug bolt pattern as our old one. It also has the two holes for those mounting screws that hold the rotor to the hub. Same style design, ventilated rotor. Pads have the same backing plates, and the same ears. The inside ones have the same wear indicator, same backing plates. These will fit great and give you good stopping power.
Now is a good time, with this caliper bracket off, to make sure that your slide pins move freely. This bottom one's nice and smooth, and this top one feels good, so when your caliper is mounted in here, it slides on those slides when you step on the brakes. We can reuse the caliper clips that hold the pads in. Just going to pop them out. Take our brake parts cleaner. Just clean under where the clips were with a wire brush and do the same on the other side. Now you're going to clean the clips. Brake parts cleaner. Wire brush. These are stainless steel, so they typically don't rust. You can reuse them. Reinstall them on the caliper bracket.
Before you install new rotors, make sure this hub area is nice and clean and free of any heavy rust. This is in pretty good shape. Take a little wire brush and knock down any high stuff. You just want to make sure the new rotor will slide over this hub. The old one came off pretty easy. I'm not too worried about the new one going on. This feels pretty smooth. Place our new rotor on backwards. Just gives me a place to let it hang while I spray it with brake parts cleaner to get the protective oil off of it. It's shipped with protective oil so it doesn't rust. These are bare metal. Just wipe it off and we'll flip it over. Line up these screw holes with the screw holes in the hub. At this point, I can actually install the screws so it holds it in place. I'm just going to go until I feel these get tight and stop. I'll take my brake parts cleaner again. Clean this face of the rotor. Wipe it down.
Before we put this caliper back onto the bracket, this piston will have to be retracted, because right now it's all the way out because the pads had worn, and the new pads are going to be thicker, so you won't be able to get it over the new pads with this piston out. To do that, take our old brake pad and a C-clamp. I've got our C-clamp here set up with our old brake pad, and I'm going to turn it in. What I need to do is compress this piston slowly into the caliper. This takes a bit of force, but sometimes you have to just go slowly and evenly. I can see the piston pressed into the caliper. I remove the C-clamp and our old brake pad.
Reinstall the caliper bracket. Get it threaded in by hand. Install the top one. Switch to my 17 millimeter socket and ratchet. Get those threaded in. I'll now torque them. Torque on the caliper mounting bolts. It's 58 to 71 foot-pounds, so I'm going to torque them to 65. I'm going to install the inside pad first. It has the wear indicator on it. Going to make sure this stays nice and clean in case you touched it with your greasy hands, so take some brake parts cleaner. Just spray it. I add just a little bit of brake caliper grease to the ears. These should slide in just like this. Start with the bottom one. Push it in. Make sure the clips are fully seated. Hook was holding it up. Take the outside pad. Do the same thing. Spray it with some brake parts cleaner. Take a little bit of caliper grease. Put some on the ears. Slide this into place. Start at the bottom. Make sure the clips are seated in there. Clip wasn't fully seated. The pads are installed.
We're going to take our caliper off our bungee cord. Put the bungee cord aside. I'm done with it. Slide our caliper over the pads. There are little key ways here for the slide pins. You may need to rotate them. They'll slide right in when they're in the correct position. Take our caliper pin bolts and install those. My 14 millimeter ratcheting wrench. Just get these snug, because then I'm going to torque them. Now I will torque the caliper guide bolts. The torque on these is 16 to 24 foot-pounds, so I'm going to torque them to 20 foot-pounds.
Reinstall the wheel. Start the lug nuts by hand and use the socket once you get them started. Something to note on these lug nuts on this car. They're what's called the cone seat, so one side of the lug nut is tapered like this and it matches with the taper inside the wheel. The other side of the lug nut is flat. You do not want to install it with the flat side to the wheel. That won't hold your wheel on correctly. You want to make sure you install it with the cone seat or taper matching the taper in the wheel.
With the weight of the vehicle on the ground, now torque the wheel. The torque on these is 65 to 79, so I'm going to torque them to 75 foot-pounds, going cross pattern, just like that. Switch to this side. The lug nut's torqued. We'll reinstall the center cap. It's got a little round key way here. Matches up with the opening here around the lug nut. Place it in there. Get some spring tension on it. Just pop it in and you're all set.
Going to wash these wheels afterwards. After you replace the brake pads, the caliper piston is retracted into the caliper. Gently press the brake, not all the way down, just gently press it with the vehicle off, multiple times. This will bring the caliper piston out to meet the pads and you'll start to feel the brake pedal get nice and hard. Then, your brake job is complete.
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