Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Hi I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how to video helps you out. Next time you need parts for your vehicle think of 1AAuto.com, thanks. In this video we're going to show you how to service the front brakes on this 2006 Nissan Sentra, pretty much the same as any 2000 to 2006. We show you the passenger's side, the driver's side is the same procedure. We do recommend that you always service your brakes in pairs.
Tools you'll need are jack and jack stands, 14, 17, and 21mm sockets. You'll need a ratchet and you'll need a, probably need a breaker bar or a pipe for some leverage for a couple of the bolts. A large flat blade screwdriver or a small pry bar. You'll probably need some penetrating oil and a hammer to get the rotor off. You'll see on mine it's a little rusty. Southern cars that aren't in the rust belt might not require these tools. You'll also need a large C-clamp. Okay, these lug nuts are 21mm. If you don't have the benefit of air tools you'll want to loosen the lug nuts while the tires on the ground then raise and support the vehicle, then remove the lug nuts wheel cover and wheel. Okay, now you can inspect your brakes. You can see right through here; you see the rotor there and then the pad next to it. That little hole in the pas is actually a ware groove. That indicates that the pad has pretty good life left. Then also you can look here on the outer one, let's see. If you just look down right through here you can see the pad, again, has some good life left. Then take the back of your fingernail and just run it along the disc. You want to make sure you don't feel any deep grooves. Small vinyl record type grooves are fine. These brakes actually look good on this car, but we'll take them apart and put them back together just to show you how to do it. There are two bolts you're going to want to have removed; here and then right down here. These two bolts are 14mm and they actually should come off without too much force.
I'm just going to fast forward here as I just remove those two bolts. Okay, what you probably want to do is take a large flat blade screwdriver or a small pry bar and put it right in here and just pry out a little bit this. Actually if you go all the way with it you'll reset the piston, which is something that you want to do. This also, as you can see, loosens up the caliper and then your caliper will come right off. Actually I'm going to just take it; hang it right up there from the spring. Then your old pads just come right out of these retainers. Now if you either ... Now if you want to replace your rotors you'll want to remove these two bolts here. These bolts are 17mm and they are going to be, usually, more difficult. I got my ratchet here. I'm going to use a piece of pipe, gives me some extra leverage. Slowly add pressure to the pipe until you break those bolts loose. Fast forward here again as I loosen up and break loose the upper bolt. Then switch over to just my ratchet and remove the bolts the rest of the way.
To remove the rotor what I'm going to do is spray penetrating oil in my lugs and around the center. I'm also going to come back in the back show you right in here. I'm going to spray right around. I let It soak for awhile and I put the lug nuts back on. A lot of times what you want to do is use the ball end of your hammer and hit right here, because where it's really seized up is between the hub and this surface here. The lug nuts being on there help protect the studs from getting damaged by the hammer. As you saw you hit around the hub area first and then you can, it comes off easier from the backside. Then remove the lug nuts and remove the rotor. Obviously like I said this is all in good shape so I'm just going to reinstall it. Put your new rotor right on. I always like to just take a lug nut and just put it on. It just helps keep stuff in place. Your new pads will either come with new slides here or just use a wire brush and clean them up. Make sure these slide in and out nice and easy. If they don't slide out you can actually just pull them right out; clean them up, put a little bit of grease on them and put them back in. These look like they're in good shape. Just put this bracket back into place. Start the bolts on. Kick it into high gear here as I use my ratchet and socket to preliminarily tighten those bolts up.
Now we're going to use a torque wrench and I'm going to tighten these to 95 foot pounds. Now with your caliber here, you want to make sure that this piston is all the way back inside the caliber. You saw me earlier use the screwdriver and it looks like it pretty much reset it all the way. The other thing you can do is use a C-clamp; put your old inside pad in there. Actually just pushing it a little further back in and use a C-clamp to force that piston back into the caliber. Tale the C-clamp off, put the caliber back up. The inside pad does not have a ware indicator, so just put the inside pad right back in like that. The outside pad has ware indicator. As the pads ware down this will start to rub against the rotor and that's when you know your pads are in need of a change; it starts making that squeaking sound that you hear from a lot of vehicles. The pad just goes right in, just like that. Then put your caliber down on. You may need to push these in some. It should go up there pretty nicely. Fast forward here a little again as we just put those two bolts that hold the caliber to the bracket in and tighten them up preliminarily. With a torque wrench you want to tighten these to about 20 to 22 foot pounds. Fast forward here as I straighten the suspense right out. Remove the lug nut, then put the wheel and wheel cover back on and put all of my lug nuts back on. The tighten them preliminarily before putting the car on the ground. With the vehicle on the ground you want to torque your lug nuts to 100 foot pound or 100 to 110 foot pounds. After doing brake work, be sure to pump your brakes a bunch of times. Make sure you got a nice firm pedal before your road test. Also do stops from five and ten miles an hour before you drive your car on the street as well.
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