2003 Dodge Ram 3500 Truck Front Ceramic Brake Pad & Rotor Kit TRQ BKA11132

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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to show you how to do the front brakes on this Dodge Ram. This one's a 2008, but the procedure’s pretty much the same for 2006 to 2008.

You'll need new pads and rotors from 1AAuto.com, a tire iron or a breaker bar with a socket to get your tire off. 13 to 22 millimeters sockets with a ratchet, a small pry bar or a flatblade screw driver, bungee cord or cable – I'll show you how to use those – a hammer, wire brush, large pliers, brake grease, torque wrench and jack and jack stands.

With the vehicle on the ground, using the 22 millimeter socket and breaker bar, break the lug nuts for your wheel lose. These chrome lug nuts tend to be swollen, so make sure your socket’s on there good. Once your lug nuts are loose, raise and support the vehicle with a jack and jack stands. This wheel and tire assembly, being a big off road tire and twenty inch wheel, is going to be real heavy. We're only going to bring it up a little bit when we take it off. Remove the wheel and tire from the hub.

Using a 13 millimeter socket and ratchet, remove the caliper slide bolts from the back of the caliper. Using a small pry bar or a large flat blade screw driver, remove the caliper from the pads, hang it from the control arm with a small bungee cord, a zip-tie or a mechanics wire.

To remove the brake pads from the carrier, you may find it helpful to use a screw driver to help pry them out. Using the 21 millimeter socket and ratchet, remove the caliper carrier bolts from the spindle. Remove the caliper carrier from the spindle. Remove the rotor from the spindle, often these are rusted on. Where this is not going to be reused we could hit the rotor, but in case you're reusing your rotor, be sure to hit this portion. Don't hit the lugs or the machined surface.

You can see our old rotor off the truck is all pitted and corroded, it's not going to brake well. It's going to make a lot of grinding noises. Our pads however, really aren't that bad, they look fairly recent, but you can see that they've been chewed up a bit by all this pitting and corrosion on the old rotors. You can see this new kit from 1A Auto is the exact same as the parts we pulled off of the truck. It's going to go right on just like your original equipment, direct fit. If your brake pads are worn out, or your rotors are damaged or warped, this new kit from 1A Auto is going to fix you up right.

Using a heavy wire brush remove as much of the rust scaling from the hub and the studs as you can. Using a large pair of water pump style pliers, compress the calipers, one piston at a time. Be sure to go slow so you don't damage any seals or force any excess brake fluid out of the master cylinder. Also going too fast can cause the other piston to come out. Once you've bottomed it out, move onto the top piston. Like I said, sometimes the other piston will come out as you're compressing the other. If you go slow, you may have to go back and forth a few times to make sure that both pistons are fully bottomed out in the caliper.

Apply brake grease to the contact points on the hub, to prevent our rotor from seizing like the old one did. You don't need too much, just a nice thin coat to make it easier for us to take it off next time. Reinstall the rotor onto the hub and, to keep the rotor upright while we install our caliper and pads and make it a little easier to put them on, I'm going to use an axle nut, if you have one around or you can use something else to space it. Sometimes a roll of electrical tape will work, anything that fits over the stud and inside the lug nut, so you don't have to thread the lug nut on all the way to keep the rotor upright.

Using a small wire brush remove the rust scaling from the slides on the brake caliper carrier. Just want to ensure that our brake pads and hardware move freely without binding or making any noise. Now we'll check our caliper slides, if there's any rust or corrosion on them you'll have to replace them, if it's too far gone, or you can clean the grease off, bring them down with a wire brush. Ours look good, so we're just going to remove them and grease all the moving surfaces on our caliper carrier. Reinstall the caliper bracket under your spindle, start the two 21 millimeter bolts. Torque the caliper bracket bolts to a hundred and thirty foot-pounds.

Install your new brake pad into the caliper bracket. Apply a thin coat of brake grease to the backing shim of the pad where the caliper will contact it. Remove the bungee cord from your caliper. Be sure that you don't twist the brake line, and reinstall it onto the carrier. You may have to push in on the slides a little to make it line up. Reinstall your thirteen millimeter bolts into the caliper slides. Torque the caliper pin bolts to twenty-four foot-pounds.

Remove your lug nut and the spacer holding your rotor on if you used one. Reinstall your wheel and tire. Start your lug nuts by hand, tighten the lugs as far as you can, remember to bring the wheel down evenly and always tighten in a cross pattern. Once the lugs are as tight as you can get them with the tire in the air, put partial weight of the vehicle on the ground by lowering it off your jack stands. Torque your lug nuts to a hundred and thirty-five foot-pounds in a cross pattern.

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