Front and rear brake pad change

[SuperDave]

I know there are a few guides on brake pad changes on here, but none cover the rear pads.

Disclaimer:

Read this guide through completely before commencing to ensure that you are competent in doing the work yourself. By following this guide you are accepting full responsibility and I will not be held responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or anything else caused by following this guide.

Do not install new pads and rotors at the same time. It is always best to bed the new pads in on the old rotors before installing the new rotors. Doing this at the same time risks permanent damage to the new brake rotors! And yes I am aware that new cars come with new pads and rotors, but they also tell you to drive slow and easy for the first 1000km ;)

Front brake pads

1. Undo the front wheels nuts, but don’t take them off just yet.

2. Jack the front of the car up and support it on jack stands.

3. Now remove the wheels

4. Undo the top bolt on the caliper (circled yellow), this is a 14mm bolt.

5. Gently swing the caliper forward being careful not to pinch the bake hose. Pull the brake pads out and remove the anti squeel shims and wear indicator. Take note of the noise shim order. The image below shows the order in case you mix it up. To pull the wear indicators off use some pliers to gently tilt the loop backwards so that the little finger (shown below in the green circle) clears the notch and slide the wear indicator off.

6. Place the wear indicator onto the new pads, shouldn’t matter which end of the pad it goes onto, it just has to face the right direction. I’m open to be corrected on this. And add the noise shims.

7. To push the caliper pistons back in I just use one of those purpose made tools you get from Repco/Coventrys. But if you can’t be bothered buying one of these some g-clamps will do the job. Using the g-clamps and blocks of wood, the wood is key, place this around the caliper being careful not to clamp onto anything weak or uneven. Then wind the piston in until the piston is almost flush with the housing, as seen in the image below. During this process keep a very keen eye on the brake fluid reservoir as there is a high chance it will over flow. If it does overflow wrap a rag around it to avoid getting the fluid onto anything else and try to remove some fluid by any means without getting any debris into the reservoir. The best way would be to bleed some of the fluid out, this requires a helper. Get a ring spanner (8mm front, 10mm rear), if you use anything else I am not respsonsible, and loosen the bleed valve on one of the calipers that is easiest to get to. Attach a small tube over the bleed nipple and push down on the brake peddle, undo the bleed valve so that fluid coms out. Retighten the valve then take the pressure off of the brake peddle. Repeat until the reservoir level is below the max level. Once that is done tighten up the bleed valve and put the rubber dust boot back on.

8. When putting the new pads in ensure that the inside pad goes into its guide correctly (circled blue below). Once both pads are in squeeze them together with your hands and while still holding them swing the caliper back into place. Hopefully you have pushed the piston back in far enough not to repeat step 7. The nut where the bolt was removed in step 4 (circled green) may need to be pushed back in, this is ok as it is meant to slide.

9. Put the bolt back in and torque up to 35Nm. If the nut spins while doing this use a XXmm (I need to double check the size) spanner to stop the slide from spinning.

10.Put the wheels back on, lower the car, torque the nuts up to 100Nm and move onto the rear pads, or go for a drive to bed the new pads in.

Rear brake pads

1. Undo the rear wheel nuts, but don’t take them off just yet.

2. Chock the front wheels and then jack the rear of the car up and support it on jack stands and take the hand brake off.

3. Now remove the wheels.

4. Undo both bolts on the caliper mount. I circled the top bolt blue, shown below. I forgot to get a photo of the lower bolt. Should be easy to find, if not then I’ll have to take another picture. Get something to support the caliper on while changing the pads as you don’t want to stress the brake hose.

5. To remove the pads, the retaining clips need to be undone. Start by removing the clips circled in green. Lift these up and push towards the brake rotor, these should just pop out. Make sure to not lose or bend them. To remove the clip circled in red you will need some needle nosed pliers. Just grab one of the ends and try to pull it out with the same angle that it is in the hole with. The pins should then just side straight out, they might be a little caked up with brake dust.

6. Pull the old pads out and push the piston back into the caliper. I ended up having to push it the whole way back in to fit the new pads in. Keep an eye on the brake fluid reservoir while doing this as you don’t want it to overflow.

7. Put the new pads in with the shims. It is a tight fit, but gently using a hammer they should go into place. Put the pins and clips back into the caliper keeping in mind which way they went. The big clip uses the mounting holes. The smaller clips just loop around the pins.

8. Make sure that the caliper slides, circled pink below, are not stuck by sliding them back and forth gently. If the rubber boot comes off of the slide, just move it back and forth until it pops back into place.

9. Redo the caliper mounting bolts up nice and tight, 47Nm to be exact. And the finished product will look something like this. Before adjusting the brake reservoir level to be under the max, gently pump the brake peddle a few times with the engine running until it becomes nice and firm. This is to get brake fluid back into the calipers.

10.Put the wheels back on and re-apply the handbrake, lower the car, torque the nuts up to 100Nm and go for a drive to bed the new pads in.

Bedding in procedure

This is taken from Autospeed and is the easiest to understand and best method to bed pads for the street.

Brake pads and rotors should always be initially bedded to condition the pads and rotor surfaces for racing use. This "bedding in" procedure will result in greater performance, longer wear, and less likelihood of rotors cracking due to thermal shock. To bed in brake pads, start by pumping your brakes at a very low speed to assure proper brake system operation. In a safe location, make a series of progressively harder stops from moderate speeds until some brake fade is experienced. Allow brakes to cool while driving at moderate speeds, avoiding use of the brakes. The brake pads should now be properly bedded in.

Link to original article: <a href="http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_0351/article.html" target="_blank">http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_0351/article.html</a>

Just be very careful on the pads until they have been bedded in as stopping distances will increase dramatically due to green fade.

Edited December 16, 2007 by SuperDave

[JAZE55]

What a coincidence, I just picked up my Ferodo DS2500 today and was searching for a guide. Your the man Superdave. I am also doing a complete brake fluid change. I bought 3x500ml bottles of Castrol Respone Super Dot4, how much bottles of brake fluid do I need?

[SuperDave]

When I did my brake fluid I ended up using about 1L. It may very well need less, but because the 2 colours were so similar I had trouble telling when it had been done so went with caution.

Just make sure you change the fluid after putting the new pads in.

[JAZE55]

All done superdave. Must say these pads are awesome, it is raining here in sydney and the car pulls up very quickly. This is in the wet so I cant wait till it is dry outside.

I bedded my brakes by driving to speeds of 70-80km/hr and slammed the anchors. I repeated this around 10-15 times. Should this be enough? It is quite hard to find a quiet street where i live, so im hoping its ok.

Should the bedding procedure be done only once or is it okay for me to resume it tomorrow?

[MT]

i'd add that when u jack up the rear of the car u should really chock a front wheel.

Did u bleed the brake system after changing the pads?

[JAZE55]

i'd add that when u jack up the rear of the car u should really chock a front wheel.

Did u bleed the brake system after changing the pads?

All new fluid and bleed out old.

[saintly]

nice guide superdave.

me dad does the brake servicing himself, I could ask him to show me but it will just end in tears...

having a guide with pics to go with, is excellent! :)

[SuperDave]

Should the bedding procedure be done only once or is it okay for me to resume it tomorrow?

Sounds like it'll be fine.

i'd add that when u jack up the rear of the car u should really chock a front wheel.

Did u bleed the brake system after changing the pads?

Because of the coilovers I just jack the car up in one go and take all the wheels off But I'll add it anyway.

I didn't bleed the brakes since the fluid is still fine. Or do you mean to reduce the level in the reservoir?

[Avenger]

Alternativelly you can open the bleeder nipple of each caliper when pushing the piston back in to prevent overfilling the master cylinder reservoir.

Also im not convinced of the need to bed new pads in with old rotors when doing a complete change ie. pads and rotors.

Simply replace both (making sure to correctly clean off any wax on the new rotors) and then drive normally using the brakes in a sensible manner to simply clean off all the minor imperfections in the mating between the 2 new surfaces ie. brake rotor and pad faces.

[SuperDave]

It isn't necessary to bed old pads with new rotors since all new cars come with pads and rotors unbedded. However it is ideal as this will reduce the chances of the rotors 'warping'. When bedding pads or rotors what you are trying to achieve is the transfer of a small amount of pad material into the surface of the rotor. This does not require temperatures that are exceedingly high to achieve. What can possibly happen when this transfer is done wrong is 'warping'. What occurs is an uneven amount of pad material is transferred into the rotor, if you look closely it'll even look the same shape as the pad. It is easier to cause uneven pad transfer with new pads since they are more likely to out-gas (green fade) then older pads that have already out-gassed previously. The uneven transfer causes the rotor to have a hardness variance (patches of cementite) and thus wears at a different rate. This difference in wear is what people call 'warping', when it is actually a thickness variance.

[Karlwales]

Great instructions, managed to swap the front brake pads easily. However, when it came to the rear brake pads I could not remove the pins holding the pads in position and had to abandon that job until another day. The pins seemed seized in their position, any suggestions to free these is most welcome. Cheers.

[SuperDave]

Great instructions, managed to swap the front brake pads easily. However, when it came to the rear brake pads I could not remove the pins holding the pads in position and had to abandon that job until another day. The pins seemed seized in their position, any suggestions to free these is most welcome. Cheers.

WD40 (or CRC) and work it into the holes the pins go in. If they still wont budge use pliers or a hammer to lightly tap the pins out.

[Kenshin X]

hi SD, would it be recommended to change all the pads at the same time or to change either fronts/rears then change the other set?

cheers

[SuperDave]

hi SD, would it be recommended to change all the pads at the same time or to change either fronts/rears then change the other set?

cheers

Just change what's required. As long as it's the same left and right it won't pull to one side.

Unless you have really crappy $20 pads in the rear and $300 pads in the front it will annoy you having limited braking performance due to one end not being up to scratch.

[Kenshin X]

hi SD, would it be recommended to change all the pads at the same time or to change either fronts/rears then change the other set?

cheers

Just change what's required. As long as it's the same left and right it won't pull to one side.

Unless you have really crappy $20 pads in the rear and $300 pads in the front it will annoy you having limited braking performance due to one end not being up to scratch.

yeah me and my uncle just changed the fronts to TRDs and left the rears til later, both ends were prob 30% left? i'm going to bed them in on the freeway late tonight when there isn't any cars around. I have the TRD rears as well but not in a hurry to change them :) 100 bucks for both on ebay ;)

[Kernrs]

Hey great guide but im having trouble pushing back the pistons on the rear?

have u any ideas how to fix this?

[SuperDave]

If you are already using a g-clamp and you are pushing straight, and they aren't moving, I'd guess it's seized.

[Kenshin X]

I thought I'd just post this in here rather than make a new thread. This is the noise you hear from the front brakes when they need changing. The rears do not have squeal shims.

[johnnieboi]

I thought I'd just post this in here rather than make a new thread. This is the noise you hear from the front brakes when they need changing. The rears do not have squeal shims.

oh man.. that doesnt sound good at all! GG your TRD pads

[resident66]

Hi Dave your topic is good job,

i just change the rear pads my Corolla Verso 2003 but the disk is heating

i follow your guide carefully and remake it may be 3 times(((

the piston was inaf rusted - i polished it with sandpaper

the dislk thickness is 6 mm.

what is your verdict - change the disc and support!?

[SuperDave]

If the brake calliper piston was rusted (seized?) then it might be getting stuck. The brakes getting hot from brake drag are likely caused by this. Might need to rebuild the calliper/get a new calliper. 6mm sounds thin for the rear rotor.

[bwalker12]

Great guide SuperDave, thanks a lot and sorry to bring this topic up again but- I'm just fitting Repco "Thermo Quiet" disc pads to the rear of my 2006 Corolla. The Repco instructions say "this advanced brake shim technology ....eliminates the need for conventional shims". Would you recommend leaving the shims out or fit them anyway.

[campbeam]

I am sure you will find that the noise reduction shim is either fitted or built in to the back of the brake pad. Previously fitted Bendix Ultimate front brake pads to my 1998 Camry and had the same question at the time. I left the shims out but kept them just in case. 2 years later, I just noticed the shims are still in the box.

Just purchased rear brake pads and the eBay listing stated that the noise reduction shims are factory fitted. 

[trentmeyer23]

Keep them, do not use both.

[Hiro]

On 6/21/2017 at 9:36 AM, bwalker12 said:

Great guide SuperDave, thanks a lot and sorry to bring this topic up again but- I'm just fitting Repco "Thermo Quiet" disc pads to the rear of my 2006 Corolla. The Repco instructions say "this advanced brake shim technology ....eliminates the need for conventional shims". Would you recommend leaving the shims out or fit them anyway.

BTW Repco pads are generic Federal-Mogul OEM (ie Ferodo but not the expensive race stuff) pads.  I've run them a couple of times when I just wanted a cheap pad to throw in (front and rear of the Corolla, front of the Camry) and I've always re-used the stock Toyota anti-squeal shim (fairly sure the pads still have the notches for the shims to grip on to anyway)