product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

[firebird19_99]

im planning on changing my brakes and rotor so i just needed to know what types of lubricants/grease i might need for the pads and i remember hearing that you should spray some type of liquid on the rotors before you put them on? sorry, never done this before so not really sure how correctly im saying this. Also when replacing the pads and unbolting the two bolts that hold the caliper on does it matter how tight i tighten the bolts when putting them back on? thanks

[Inferno]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

any kind of brake parts cleaner will be sprayed on your new rotors to get the factory grease off. You'll want some sil-glyde to grease your caliper pins and abuttment clips. I like to shoot my pads with the brake cleaner as well, just to get all my greasy handprints off.

Take your time, and it's a cinch. Just 5 lugs and 4 bolts per wheel. ALso, make sure you wire the calipers up to the suspension so they're not hanging by the brake lines.

There IS a torque spec, but pretty much make those bolts 'really 'effin tight' with an 1/2" ratchet (NOT impact gun). You need to be able to get them off later, but you sure as **** don't want them coming loose on the road. (Some guys use blue lock-tite)

[cam98aro]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

any kind of brake parts cleaner will be sprayed on your new rotors to get the factory grease off. You'll want some sil-glyde to grease your caliper pins and abuttment clips. I like to shoot my pads with the brake cleaner as well, just to get all my greasy handprints off.

Take your time, and it's a cinch. Just 5 lugs and 4 bolts per wheel. ALso, make sure you wire the calipers up to the suspension so they're not hanging by the brake lines.

There IS a torque spec, but pretty much make those bolts 'really 'effin tight' with an 1/2" ratchet (NOT impact gun). You need to be able to get them off later, but you sure as **** don't want them coming loose on the road. (Some guys use blue lock-tite)

i agree with everything, but i wouldnt put them "pretty effing tight"

i usually just hand tighten them, and hit the wrench with a rubber mallet a few times, you dont want to crank them on as hard as you can, but you want them tight enough so that normal driving wont make them fall out.

just my opinion though

[Cammy98]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

I mean even when you apply as much torque from your arms as humanly possible on any bolt it doesn't require too much strength to pull off again.

I hand tighten my calipers all the time when i check my brakes, and I do something similar to cam98aro reach that point where its as tight as it goes and give it a few extra nudges with a mallet.

Then the next time I go to check a few quick tugs and boom! its loose

[firebird19_99]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

alright i got that down, thanks guys. How about prep work before installing them?

[EarlR]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

Easy guys...we're talking caliper bolts here, not head bolts. For the record, the torque specs on the caliper bolts are (from Haynes): front ('93-'98) 38 ft-lbs, front ('98 and later) 23 ft-lbs, rear ('93 and later) 27 ft-lbs. Even 38 ft/lbs is not all that tight, and can easily be reached by hand with a 3/8" drive ratchet. Oh, and I almost forgot - on my '02 (and I assume most of the others) you'll need one wrench to hold the caliper pin (5/8" I think) and one to loosen the bolt. The pin has two flat sections on the flange, so you'll have to work the wrench around until it slides over those flats.

Prep work - if you're going to replace the rotors you will need to remove the caliper brackets (now those bolts you want "really f'ing tight" - 74 ft-lbs to be exact, and I use thread locker on them), so you might as well pull out the caliper pins, clean them and the pockets they slide into, and put fresh caliper grease on them. I usually go ahead and get the hardware kit for the calipers too - they're cheap and it's nice to know you have all new hardware. I'm pretty sure you get new rubber boots for the pins too, so that's one less thing to have to worry about. If you don't get the hardware kit, make sure to clean up the old stuff pretty well before reinstalling it. You also want to inspect the dust boot around the caliper piston, as well as the ones on the caliper pins. Make sure the pins slide in and out easily.

If you're installing new rotors and pads, you just need to clean off the new rotors (all you need to worry about are the two faces where the pads make contact), and if they don't have some kind of shim already you'll want to put some kind of "anti-squeal" on the backs of the pads. They make one kind that you spray on the back of the pads, and another that is like an adhesive you squeeze onto the back of the pad; I don't know that one is any better than the other. I like the spray stuff because I'm lazy. Follow the directions on whichever one you get. Other than that, just take your time putting everything back together and you should be good to go. Oh, and do take note of which pads go on the inside versus outside when you take the old ones out; there is a wear indicator on one of the pads, and you'll want to put that back on the same side. I'm also pretty sure the backs of the inner and outer pads are a little different, but without looking I can't say that for sure.

[Cammy98]

Re: product suggestions for changing brakes and rotors

Well that and they usually wrap up the pads that go together. :D