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In this video, we're going to be working with our 2011 Chevy Camaro. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your vehicle's front brakes. We are doing this on the passenger's side, but the procedure will be exactly the same on the driver's side, and we do recommend you do these as a pair. If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this and many other vehicles, and, if you need this part for your car, you can follow the link down in the description over to 1AAuto.com. Here are the items you'll need for this repair.
Using a 22mm socket and a breaker bar, we'll loosen all of our lug nuts. Raise and support your vehicle. We are doing this on a lift to make it easier to show you what's going on, but this can easily be done at home on a jack and jack stands. With the tire off the ground, go ahead and finish removing your lug nuts and the wheel and tire assembly.
We're going to use a 17mm wrench, you can really use anything that fits over the lug studs, to counter-hold our rotor while we use a T30 Torx socket to remove the rotor screw. Remove the two 14mm caliper slide bolts with a socket and ratchet. Now, these caliper guide pin bolts are one-time use, so if you remove them be sure you have a new set to install. Sometimes these slides will spin. You'll either need the right size wrench or a pair of pliers to hold those in place. We'll then remove the caliper and use bungee cords, zip tie, mechanic's wire, whatever you have around to secure it up and out of the way and keep the tension off of the brake hose.
The two caliper bracket bolts are torqued to yield, so you will need to replace the two of these. Use an 18mm socket and ratchet to break them loose and remove them. Be sure to crack both of them loose before you remove either one. Remove the caliper bracket. It may be necessary to hit the rotor with a hammer, but we just had ours off recently so we can just pop it off by hand. Remove the old pads from your caliper bracket. These can get a little stuck, so you might need to tap them out.
We'll then pop off the brake shims; you may need a flat blade screwdriver to help pop these off. We'll then use a wire brush to scrub down any rust buildup and debris. We'll also want to remove any buildup off of the slides. Ours aren't in bad shape, so we can clean them up, grease them, and reuse them, but, if yours have heavy corrosion, or they're bent or rusted, you're going to want to put a new set on there. We'll then apply a thin coat of brake grease to the surface that our caliper shims sit on, and while this isn't important to the actual movement of the pads, just this thin little coat of grease is going to prevent it from rusting up so next time we do our brakes we should just be able to wipe that off, throw a new coat on, and keep going. Just a little work now will save us a lot of work later. Reinstall the shims and make sure you apply a thin coat of grease to those as well. These are a little more important, because this is actually the surface that our pad rides on. You're going to want to make sure that it rides smoothly and quietly.
We'll then hold down the boots and pop the guide pins out. If there's any old grease and debris on there, we'll just wipe that off with a paper towel. If these are heavily corroded, you will need to replace them as well. Otherwise, just toss some grease on there and pop them back in.
Now, our hub surface is pretty clean, but if you have any rust you'll want to go ahead and scrub it down with a wire brush and smoothen up the surface. Then, again, put a thin coat of brake grease on there just to keep our rotor from sticking on like last time.
Install the rotor onto the hub backwards and spray it down with brake parts cleaner to remove the coating they use to prevent it from rusting in storage. Flip it over and install it the right way. Be sure to line up the rotor screw hole with the threaded part of the hub, and spray this side down as well. Then, we'll reinstall our T30 Torx screw. I'm just using the driver and an extension for this. There's really no need to put these on super tight. It's just to hold the rotor in place to make assembly easier. It doesn't actually secure it to the hub or anything.
Reinstall your caliper bracket as well as your two new caliper bracket bolts. We'll then snug these up with our 18mm socket and ratchet before torquing them. Torque the bolts to 44 foot-pounds, then add 90 degrees to each bolt.
Install the brake pads back into the caliper brackets. Apply a thin coat of grease to the back side of the brake pads, as well. Release the brake caliper, and using a pair of tongue and groove pliers, collapse the piston slowly until it's bottomed out in the bore. Then, reinstall your caliper onto the bracket and start your two 14mm guide pin screws. Use a pair of pliers, or the appropriate size wrench, to hold the guide pin from rotating and torque the new caliper guide bolts to 20 foot-pounds.
Reinstall your wheel and tire and get all five of your lug nuts on as tight as you can by hand. You may also use a 22mm socket to help you spin these in. Lower your vehicle back onto its wheels. You can now torque your lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a cross pattern.
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