Replacing front rotors/pads
 

Hey,
98 Civic, need to replace front rotors and pads. Does anyone have any instructions and/or diagrams on how to do this?

Thanks.

D

helms for your car will help greatly

this is such a joy to do!! I love doing brakes!

take wheels off obviously, do one side at a time so you can compare in case you get confused

use a 1/4 inch ratchet and a philips screwdriver to remove the rotor nuts

remove the large caliper BRACKET bolts (no need to remove the sliders since you're doing the rotors too)

now, lift the caliper away from the rotor, and the rotor shoud just come off. put a new one on (rememeber to wipe it down with brake cleaner to remove the oil from shipping)

then, remove the old pads... now see the stainless spring clips that are at each corner (4 of them) where the 'ears' of the pads go into. take those out and use scotchbrite and brake cleaner to clean them well - they should be shiny!! Do one at a time so you don't lose the order in which they go in. Then put each one back, and use silver grade anti-seize on the surface of each one. This allows the pads to slide easily when you step off the brake... so your pads don't drag. Then, load the pads in, being careful not to get antiseize on either the rotor or the pad surface.

You should push the caliper piston back into the caliper so to give you enough room to get the new pads over your rotor. I can do this by hand, but who knows, maybe you're weak and may need the help of a pry bar or something. Just don't nick the seal, that's all. Then slide the loaded (that means caliper + pads) caliper assembly over the new rotor and install the bracket bolts. Torque according to specs (I forget what they are at the moment).

Do the other side.

I know this seems like a lot, but this is really about 1 hr of work for a novice. Before you drive the car, pump the brake a few times to seat the pads. Then follow proper break-in procedure for bedding your new pads and rotors, so that you prolong their life. Make cleaning those spring clips a twice yearly procedure from now on, or every 24,000 kms.

You should pulls out the caliper slide pins and clean them and lube them up with Sil Glyde. Your pads may slide on the clips, but if the "floating" caliper cannot move because the pins are seized then you will have uneven brake wear, and they will not last as long.

I've found as long as the rubber on the slider pins is intact, then you can leave them. But what do I know, I have fixed calipers :D

holy honda charges like 110 bucks to do that.. big rip off

Honda charges $110 to do what????

service brakes = $110

The biggest scam is a rear brake service....let me see that includes shaking all of the dust out of the drum, cleaning the shoes and drum assembly, sanding the drum contact surface and adjusting the shoes. It literally takes about 7-10 minutes to do this and you pay like $80 for it.

The joys of being a licensed mechanic!!! My shop charges 1/2 and hour to clean and adjust rear drums, at $72 an hour. Servicing disc brakes should be about 1 hours labour.

it's called flat rate, the book say's it's a 1 hour job etc even though you might be able to do it in 30 mintues..yada yada. Rear drums are easy I can do them real quick, first one I ever did I just let all the part's fling off and had a bitch of a time getting everythign back together but on the next one I kept **** intact and replaced all the parts in peices. GET AN IMPACT DRIVER!!! and save yourself a pain or drilling out your rotor retaining bolts like I had to do last time I did fronts. Impact driver is the only way to fly for that, and it's wam bam thankyou mam.

yah its all about the impact driver, those screw heads become really soft, and the threads really seized after heating and cooling a couple million times... I love beating on the old impact driver, its a great agression channle :D

ratchet w/ philips end totally works for me cuz I hook it up with antiseize every time I take it off. But should it be a lil difficult, say if it's a car I've never worked on, so there is no antiseize on there... I take a regular philips and WHACK!!! with a good hammer.... this breaks the rust apart inside the threads, and also re-establishes the philips grip a lil. Then work the ratchet again and it should come out with little to no effort.

my original rotors came off for the first time at around 150k 6 years old. I had to beat on the driver, oil, torch, the works. twas a biatch! New screws and anti seize all over :D nextime shouldnt be such a chore.

my new rotors thank god didnt' have retaining screws cause one little ***** of a bolt broke off had to drill it out to the hub but just left it broke off in the hub. I first tryed withotu an impact driver and tweaked the threads on the one bolt so it went by by with an impact driver