THE CORRECT MEANS OF SUPPORTING A CAR SHOULD BE USED!
1. Support car -remember to turn wheel and remove the wheel.
2. On the inside of the caliper you will see 2 bolts about 14 mm. unscrew the bottom one ONLY!! - you might need to hold the nut with a spanner as well - now depending how worn your discs are, the caliper might lift straight off or not.
3. Best to try and pull the caliper sideways a little ( outwards) this is to try and push the pistons back in a tiny amount to make removing the caliper a little easier failing that you can always just pry up the caliper from its lower end.
4. From the lower end of the caliper, pull up slightly with a bit of effort, then the caliper will rotate around the upper bolt( the pads stay where they are)
4. Look at the pads - you will see 2 little springs that go into the top of the pads pull these out and put them to one side.
5. Have a good look at the pads and note thier positions/ orientation so that there is no confusion on re-assembly - make a drawing if you have to.
6. Remove the pads - just pull them out. one or two of the pads has a metal plate behind it - note its orientation before removing it.
7. If you are replacing your pads, clean the area where the pad sits in the caliper housing, re -fit the metal backing pad (note orientation and little arrow)- put a TINY amount of copper grease/paste between the pad and plate but dont get any on the pad material. do the same for the other pad
7a. Cleaning pads - with a cloth or something clean the mating areas of the pad/caliper and also the metal backing plate on one of the pads ( note orientation, look at the little arrow) .Now if the pads have become worn to the point where the chamfer on the ends of the pads are worn away you should re chamfer these - just use a file or if you have a bench grinder use that ( remember your dust mask) somewhere about 45 degrees should be fine.
8. Re fit the little springs that you removed in step 4.
9. If you have replaced your pads then you will need to push the caliper pistons back into the caliper - use a pair of water pump/ slip joint pliers to do this( if you have painted your calipers best to wrap the jaws with a bit of masking tape or a bit of cloth)
If you have only cleaned your pads then you may not need to do this.
10. Lower the caliper down over the pads - if it wont go on something is wrong! check!!!!!!!
11. Line up the hole in the caliper housing and the caliper itself, put some thread lock on the bolt that you removed in step 2. re - fit the bolt
TORQUE FIGURE IS 25LBS/FT.
12. Put the wheel back on and lower the car. TIGHTEN THE WHEEL NUTS
repeat on the other brake unit
14. IMPORTANT STEP - AFTER STARTING THE ENGINE (DO NOT DRIVE!!!) YOU MUST PUMP THE BRAKE PEDAL UNTIL YOU GET THE NORMAL BRAKE FEELING
14. drive the car slowly and at about 5mph test the brakes just to be on the safe side! - if you have replaced the pads, bed the pads in for a few miles.
FINISHED!
ok few tips- when you push the caliper pistons back in- if you have a leak of brake fluid then someone has topped up the brake fluid after seeing it was "low" you never need to do this unless you are changing your brake fluid because the brake system is a closed system - the fluid just moves from the reservoir to the pistons as the pads wear. wash off any excess fluid that got spilt with plenty of water as it can damage your paint.
Thanks to Mat Clawley for this guide!
