Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Hi, I'm Mike Green. I am one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I am going to use my 20 plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly, that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video we're going to replace pads and rotors, the front on this 01 Chevy Malibu. This is a pretty easy process. Pretty much regular tools. You'll need a lug nut wrench or your tire iron. You'll need some millimeter, probably metric sockets. I use the 1/2 inch on a couple of bolts which I didn't think was right. I'm pretty sure it wasn't. You'll probably need 12mm and maybe like a 15mm socket or if like on our car, your car has been worked on you will need some different sizes. Some brake parts cleaner or mineral spirits and a large C-clamp.
This car is a Malibu it's got the aluminum wheels, screwdriver right into this little key here. We're going to remove the wheel. If you are using hand tools, loosen the lug nuts while your tire is on the ground first then raise and secure the car. Follow the instructions on your jack and jack stands and I got the benefit of air tools so I am going to remove this wheel now. With my wheel off, I have now turned my wheels all the way to the right and you can see here's the brake caliper. Now, what you could do is you can check your brakes yourself. Just some light and right in here you can see that is your brake pad, okay. Actually on this car the pads look good on this side but don't let one side to be your deciding factor because now I am looking over here on the driver's side and you can see there's the pad on the driver's side. There is hardly anything left between the metal here and the rotor there. The driver's side definitely needs to be done and you should always do your brakes in pairs so we'll end up doing both sides. What you are going to want to do is you are going to want to loosen up or remove 4 bolts. The first 2 on this car, there are these inner ones here. These are actually 1/2 inch in size.
There is one there and there is one up here. That, when you remove those 2, this whole assembly will come off and you also want to remove these 2 here, these are 12mm. Those will just allow the caliper itself to come off with the bracket. I will remove those. Again, the inner ones are 1/2 inch and then these ones here are 12mm. I was kind of surprised by that but that is the way it is. Just so you would see it can be done. I am just going to use regular hand tools to get these apart. That's the inner one. Then up here, that is the upper one. Before I pick those all the way out, I am going to remove my upper ones. Once I got that loosened up, I basically just use my fingers. I just support the caliper a little bit. This will come out. If you do just want to change your pads, you could pull really hard on this caliper which forces the piston back in and now allows the caliper to come up and off because there is a little peg on your pads that hold the caliper on but I'm just going to remove these 2 inner bolts here. After removing those bolts all the way, the whole assembly comes up and off. Your pads are right inside here. Pull them out because that actually allows this whole assembly. This is your caliper. You want to hang it up here and the other pad will come out.
On this point the disc actually comes right off. New disc from 1A Auto. You could see it's all the same, same dimensions. I'm going to go right on there. What I like to do is just take 1 lug nut and put it on. It just makes things easier to go back together. You want to use some brake parts cleaner or mineral spirits and just wipe down the disc could mean the grease or playing it conservative that was in the packaging off. Now, you actually have to force this piston back into the caliper. You're going to need a large C-clamp. Now, we have the piston down with the caliper. Now you're going to stick your smaller 12mm bolts and bolt to your bracket back on here. You can just have it be hand tight. Here is our caliper and the inside side is the side with the cylinder here. You want to put these ones that have the wear tabs and these bumps here those go to the inside. My caliper's upside down so I am going to put my curve side down. Then, I am pushing this just right into their respective brackets. Push in. Then your outside ones don't have the little wear indicator on them. Let me just go down in and then push it into place.
Sometimes you got to start one side and force them into the other side. Now, assembly down on and I have already got my larger bolts kind of in place. I have got the top one started and now the bottom one. I got the bolt started and just a little, tighten them up. You want pull them tight, but not incredibly tight. You don't want to break the bolts or anything but probably about 55 to 60 foot pounds. Make sure our 12mm bolts are tightened here. This side is all set and now I am going to do the other side and then we'll put the tire back on. Now, with the car back on the ground. You are going to tighten your lug nuts and I am using a breaker bar. You want to tighten them to about 75 to 85 foot pounds. I just make it nice and tight and use a star pattern. Then, you put your cap back on. Now, when you road test the car what you want to do, first start it up, press the brakes 3 or 4 times. Then, put the car in gear. Make sure the brakes just hold the car still. Then, do like a back up, give yourself plenty of room. Do like a 5 or 10 mile an hour and stop. Make sure the brakes are the stopping the car and then go out on the road.
The first few times you press the brakes after you have done your front brakes. The brakes will not work that well so you want to pump them a few times and then be careful on the road test. We hope this helps you out, brought to you by www.1AAuto.com your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We're the company that is here for you on the internet and in person.