FRONT PADS AND ROTOR REPLACEMENT

Changing the Pads and Rotors on your vehicle can save quite a lot of money. Technically the job should be fairly easy, in my case the removal of the brake rotor turned out to be significantly harder than I first thought. In the end I was happy enough with the job in the end.

Make sure you get the correct pads and rotors. You should always do both sides at the same time
The cost savings can be fairly significant
The front brakes are significantly more robust than the rears
The lug nuts are 21mm
Loosen the lug nuts
Lift the vehicle and remove lug nuts. Insert axel stand
Remove the tire. Both the front passenger and driver sides are the same process so I only demonstrate what I did on the driver side
Loosen the brake fluid reservoir cap and leave it in place. This will ensure fluid has a place to go when you compress the piston in the brake caliper
The slide pins have caps on the protective rubber boots, this is upper
This is the lower cap
Remove the wire clip. a flat head helps
Slide pins are a 7mm Hex/allen key
Loosen top pin
Loosen bottom pin
I had to push pins back a bit so they would clear the caliper mounting braket
Remove the caliper. a flat head helps to get it going
Remove the brake caliper
Don't let the caliper hang from the brake lines
Remove slide pins
Keep track of where the slid pins came from and put them back in the same location
Remove the old brake pads
I drained some brake fluid out at the caliper
I used a wood clamp to compress the piston
Tighten the brake bleed screw after compressing the piston
The caliper mounting bracket is held in place with 17mm bolts
Remove lower bolt
Remove upper bolt
Remove caliper mounting bracket
You can try to tap the rotor off gently...Good luck
I used the mechanical puller
You can see the puller broke the disk several times
An angle grinder may help
Clean up the caliper mounting braket. I used WD 40 and scotch bright
Clean the rotor mounting surface
Definately anti-seize is a good idea
Clean the new rotors with some brake cleaner
Wipe the new rotor down
mount the rotors and add a lug nut to hold it in place
Re-install the caliper mounting bracket. I used 70 foot pounds and hod lock tite (blue) on the bolts. Add some lubricant on surfaces that the brake pads will slide on
Mount the new pads
Add some lubricant to the surfaces that come in conact with the brake pads
More lube
The inner pad clips into the piton fairly easily
Remount the caliper. apply lube to the slide pins and insert it
I torques the slider pins to 20 Foot Lbs
I added some lube to the caps for the slider pin boots
Check the fluid level after competing each brake. Once the job is complete check the level and add or remove fluid as needed. Don't forget to tighten the lid back up
Don't reuse the clips. the brake pads should come with them
All things in place
put lug nuts in place and snug them up
remove jacks and axel stands and lower vehicle
Tighten the lug nuts to spec. I used 100 Foot Pounds
Don't just drive uff after the job, test the brakes at very low speeds before getting things moving. For bed in I did 4 slow downs from 35 MPH down to 5 MPH
I then did 4 slow downs from 50 MPH down to 5 MPH. After that everything functioned well

Tools and Equipment used:

Pad Life Gauge – https://amzn.to/3AkLEmO
Breaker Bar – https://amzn.to/2PmcJ3E
Metric Sockets – https://amzn.to/3sBZ0nN
Axel Stand – https://amzn.to/3u5yx2h
Floor Jack – https://amzn.to/39qJdkg
Brake Lube – https://amzn.to/3ItC4QF
Brake Rotor Puller – https://amzn.to/3nBERNZ

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