The Brake Job - If I Think I Can, I Can

It's frustrating when you take your car into the shop with a coupon for a $22 oil change and come out with a estimate for a $390 brake job. Did I even ask you to look at the brakes? Makes you almost not want to answer the phone from the shop when they call with an update because you  know they're going to hit you up for additional repairs. Warranted or not, that call can ruin your day.

 

 

When this happened to me recently, I took matters into my own hands. I'm mechanically inclined and a research monkey so the first thing I did was learn all I could about doing brake jobs. After doing my due diligence, I found the procedure to be straight forward and didn't see anything overly complicated about it. My credo, "If I think I can, I can!"

 

I shopped around for the best price on the best parts and finally bought the parts from NAPA for a grand total of $90. Yes, 90 bucks. I also had to buy a torque wrench and some minor attachments so all in, I'm at $130. $390 down to $130? Let's do this. 

First off, this is not a project for the faint of heart; especially in the middle of winter when it's 25 degrees outside and maybe 30 in the garage. At least there's no wind in the garage. Also, this is not a DIY blog so if you're interested in doing this yourself I suggest you do your research like I did.

 

To start, there's a total of four bolts that need to be removed on each side of my front brakes. The first two that come out are "slider" bolts that allow the caliper to move back and forth. That top slider came out with just a grunt or two. That bottom bolt was pure, unadulterated torture. An impact hammer would've helped greatly. A hammer slamming on the end of my 1/2 inch socket got the job done slowly but surely.

 

 

Opposite story with the bolts that hold the caliper to the spindle. The bottom came out easily but because of that bottom bolt on the strut, that top bolt was near impossible to get at. Thank goodness for deep socket extensions.

 

 

All told about an hour or so into the project. That included two trips to the auto parts store for sockets and attachments that I didn't realize I needed at first. I knew getting it apart was 90% of the work. End in sight. At least on the right side.

 

That's a C-clamp and a piece of old trim from a bathroom remodel pushing the cylinder back into the brake caliper so the new brake pads can be installed. I learned this trick when I did my research. Very effective.

 

You can really see how worn down the front pads where. I can't complain, I got 70,000 miles out of the original brakes.

 

 The new rotor, pads and the old caliper bracket back on the car ready for the caliper to be reinstalled.

  

 

As luck would have it, the left side came apart in less than 10 minutes. Also, I found it much easier to remove the bolts from the left side than the right side.

 

 

I labeled everything so reassembly could be as straight forward as possible. Notice that the bolt at the top of the page, which is one of the sliders, has a boot at the end of it. Had I not labeled it I would be guessing if it went in the top or bottom.

 

 

Torque it all to 75 foot pounds, put the wheels back on and then the road test. All was good in the hood. Net savings, $260.

 

Onto the rear brakes!