HOW TO REPLACE BRAKE PADS, ROTORS, AND WHEELS ON A 1992-1996 HONDA PRELUDE

© (c) copyright 2004-2017 Trevor E. Cordes. Copying is expressly prohibited except for personal and/or archival purposes. Linking is permitted.

Disclaimer

I am in no way responsible for any consequence of your choice to read and/or use the instructions contained in this document. I am not a mechanic and do not claim to know what I am talking about! I am just relating my experiences with the procedure in the hopes that it might add some insight into the task for someone else. Working on your car, especially your brakes, can have serious consequences including injury and death so please be careful. I am not liable for anything as the result of this document!

Credit

I based my install on the document by Todd Marcucci of the North Texas Prelude Owners Group (NTPOG) provided at http://www.ntpog.org/mods/fourth-brakes/index.shtml. Those instructions were the best I had found and enabled me (a total non-mechanic who had never even changed a tire) to successfully complete the task. My instructions are based on his, but elaborate on many points that, with hindsight, would have been nice to know ahead of time.

Experience Note

I am not a mechanic. Up to this point I had never done any work on my car except for car stereo stuff. Everything was figured out from info from the net and from common sense. For that reason, there are many points in this document that I had to trust the info I found, or guess at something. Any points I am not sure on I point out with questions and guesses. If someone more knowledgeable ever reads this and wants to correct me, please email webprelude04 at tecnopolis dot ca, and I will update the site with corrected info. Also, I am not a racer -- I just drive my car on normal streets in a semi-aggressive way. Your driving style may lead you to different choices than I made.

Rationale

I had two main problems:

  1. My 11 year old stock wheel rims were looking pretty ragged. The machined aluminum really started oxidizing and scuffing, especially around the hub, nuts and outer edge. They just didn't do my near-mint Prelude justice. And I've always meant to move to two sets of rims/tires -- summer and winter -- since we have cold/snow here for more than 6 months of the year. All these years I've stuck with the stock Michelin Pilot XGTV4 tires and have been pretty happy with them as all-seasons. I got 75000 km's on average out of each tire. However, being all-season they are less than perfect in both summer and winter. So I thought I'd use the old rims in winter with some Alpins and some shiny new rims with some summer-only tires in summer. Then the change twice a year is a piece of cake -- just mount the proper set with no need for balancing, etc.
  2. I was getting really bad wobble under braking (even light braking). I had gotten new Honda pads about 3 years ago and they had machined some rotors saying they were "rough". Ever since then my brake performance went downhill and the wobble started slowly building up. But hey, my rotors were 11 years old so I'm not too shocked. A friend said that the problem actually could have been faulty tires, which also were changed around the same time, but I will not be able to prove/disprove the rotor/tire question until this winter because I changed rotors and tires simultaneously (but will put my old tires back on this winter).

Major Part Choices

Rotor choices: When I started looking into rotors, I quickly realized there are basically 4 types: blank or plain (ie: like stock), cross-drilled, slotted, and cross-drilled AND slotted. After much reading on the subject and talking to local dealers, I came to the conclusion that blanks were the best choice for a driver like me: no racing, semi-aggressive to aggressive driving style. Cross-drilled and slotted rotors have the disadvantage of much shorter life (from what I read) for both the rotor and pad. They also can lead to worse brake performance under normal driving conditions when the brakes don't get hot enough. However, they do have the advantage in looks and greater resistance to rust (again, looks). If you race, do tons of heavy constant braking or think cosmetics are the most important requirement, perhaps the fancier rotors are a better choice for you.

I ended up buying blanks from a local racing/tuning dealer. The fronts were Brembo OEM (in genuine Brembo boxes) and the (much less important) rears were some other brand. Strangely enough, when I broke open the boxes of the rears I noticed the two rotors were shaped differently yet were the same part number. I guess they switched looks for a new model year or something. The actual fitting/contact dimensions were identical so I didn't worry too much. However, you may want to make sure your dealer gives you identical units. I will be calling my dealer about this when they are next open (I did all this work on a long-weekend).

Pad choices: This was a tough one. Everyone and their dog makes semi-metallic pads which are almost impossible to compare to each-other. There's no real measurable performance ratings. I wanted longevity with good (ie: stock or better) performance under my driving style. Also, low noise and dust are always desirable. Consumer reports (consumerreports.org - pay subscription required) had a good article about pads and chose new style ceramic pads as the top pick. However, absolutely no one in my city seemed to carry or even heard of these pads! For that reason, and because pads are relatively cheap, I chose to go with the "house brand" of the company that I bought the rotors from: PBR semi-metallics from Austrailia. Worse case scenario is I track down and order some ceramics or a different semi-met brand next time. Beware of full metallic and kevlar/carbon pads as they may not perform well until your rotors are hot.

No one at the stores really wanted to talk to me about this, but perhaps some pads go better with some rotors -- in other words, there must be an advantage to a better matched set? Or not. I've since been told it's not terribly important. Anyways, this is another reason why I bought the rotors and pads at the same place -- they knew the combination to be compatible after years testing. It would seem that as long as you stay away from organic pads with slotted/drilled rotors you should be ok no matter what you choose as long as you get pads that match your driving, which would mean "street" pads for most people.

Wheel Rims: This is almost all a cosmetic decision. If you're racing you want light wheels, but otherwise just pick the ones you like. Sizing can be tricky. There's some great helpful info at preludecrazy.com: look for wheel & tyre specs/recommendations. Based mainly on the fact that my city's streets are notoriously bad for potholes, I wanted to upgrade to "only" 16" wheels. 17"'s would be so low profile that they would dent in a month I'm sure. Also, I'm a ardent Michelin fan and hot tires in 17" extreme low-profile size would be $50-$100 (Canadian) more per tire. If you decide to go 16" like me, your wheel choices become very limited, but this is actually a benefit as there are literally thousands of wheel styles to choose from and it's nearly impossible to pick a favorite. However, if you live somewhere with perfect roads and you are choosing cheaper brand tires, you probably want to go 17's for the better look and wider wheel selection.

One thing I learned is you can vary the wheel size but you have to make sure that you keep the same ride height (aka rolling radius) or overall outer diameter of the tire. That means that as your wheels get bigger, you must decrease the tire height to compensate (lower ratios). There's a good chart at that preludecrazy.com site. I chose 16x7 wheels with 205/50/16 tires mainly because the alternative 225/45/16 Michelins were $50 more per tire and 245/40/16 is so wacky I couldn't find anyone who made them. 17's let you choose from 215/40/17, 195/45/17 (wacky) and 245/35/17 (wacky). 18's aren't recommended. If you don't stick to these rules, your odometer/speedometer will be off, your ABS may become dangerous and other nasty things may occur.

The other big dimension issue is bolt hole count/spacing. You'll need 4 (or 8) holes with 114.3/114.4mm spacing. It seemed to me that almost every 4/8 hole wheel had 114.4mm spacing. The 8's are just two sets of 4's with one set 110mm and the other 114.4 so they can fit more cars.

The last big dimension issue is offset which tells you how far in or out the mounting point of the wheel is in relation to the center point. You need a positive offset (also known as front wheel drive offset as all FWD vehicles use this. The stock 15's have a 55mm offset and it sounds like you can go as low as 40mm. With my 16's I ended up with 42mm offset, which mostly all 16's seemed to be. If you have lowered your car you may have to get something close to the 55mm stock offset, which may be tricky and will severely limit your wheel choices. If you get too small an offset your tires can actually rub against the inside of your wheel well during aggressive driving!

I ended up choosing 16" Motegi MR7 chrome wheels. I thought the super shiny chrome look would go great with my stock Brittany Blue-Green Metallic (a dark-ish color) paint job (and it turns out I was right!). The MR7's are a simple, elegant 7 spoke design that should be very easy to keep clean as they lack all the fancy in's and out's and grooves of some styles.

Tires: I've had stock Michelin Pilot XGTV4's for 11 years and have gotten great performance and longevity out of them. That makes me a satisfied customer and I wanted to give summer-only Michelin's a go. Since there is no summer-only V-rated tire, I went to Z-rated and chose the Michelin Pilot Sport. It had decent reviews (most only complained about the price and longevity), was moderately affordable in my choice of 16" size, and scored 3rd best in a Consumer Reports lineup (the top pick was Goodyear, and I hate Goodyear...). If you're on a budget, you can get most Japanese brands for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Michelins, but watch out as almost all of these are H-rated, which isn't the same as V or Z. They also are usually at least slightly all-season which degrades performance. Other than that, it's all really subjective. I'll report back after a while when I have a feel for these new Michelins. As for sizing, you have to choose based on your rim size choice (see above).

I bought my wheels and tires from a mail order place here in Canada: 1010tires.com. They have a pretty good web site with lots of info and reviews and quick pricing. They also do all the mounting and send you a ready-to-mount-on-car finished product that is balanced and comes with all mounting hardware (weights, hub rings and tuner nuts) free! If you buy from elsewhere or separately you'll need to make sure you get hub rings of the correct size (to fit 64.1mm center bore). Most fancy wheels also require tuner nuts instead of the stock lug nuts. A set of wheel locks is also probably a good idea.

Shims: If it's been 6 or so years since you last had the shims (usually with the pads) replaced, I would advise ordering new shims ahead of time so that you're not stuck having to do some of the work twice. The reason I say this is that when I got the rear brakes off, I noticed the rear shims were nearly completely disintegrated. Normally you would reuse the shims off the old pads. Strangely enough, my front shims were ok, so either they were replaced 3 years ago when I had the dealer do my pads, or the fronts don't rust as bad as the rears. In case you don't know, shims are these thin little metal (stainless steel?) things that are shaped like a brake pad and fit between the pads and the caliper. From what I gather, their purpose is to stop "brake chatter" (whatever that is) and/or squeaking, and generally result in a better overall brake system. I also gather that they are somewhat optional. In fact, I ran my car for 3 days with no rear shims with no apparent braking problems while I waited for my Honda dealer to get them in stock. Since they are so cheap (relative to the other costs involved), next time I would just order them regardless to have them on hand just in case. Some brake pads include shims free in the package, though the ones I got did not.

Part Purchase Breakdown: Here's exactly what I bought, from where and the cost in Canadian dollars. To convert to approximate US$, divide by 1.4.

Tools Required:

Even after all the preplanning and research I did, I had to make three extra trips to the tool stores while work was in progress because I found I needed something no one had mentioned. Here is the list of everything I used with brief explanations where applicable:

Directions

Fronts

  1. Clean your new rotors. Spray them with brake cleaner spray and then wipe off as per the instructions on the can. Do this a couple of times if there appears to be lots of grime coming off.
  2. Spray no-squeak on your new rotors and shims. Follow the instructions on the can. I coated both sides of all rotors. I didn't spray the inside hub part of the rotor. I did spray the outside (visible) part of the rotor for cosmetic purposes, though I won't know the efficacy of this until they've had a chance to weather. If you bought new shims, spray these both front and back. If you are going to use your old shims, you'll have to wait until you get them off first. Let dry. The no-squeak I used appeared to take forever (probably a day) to dry and was very messy and came off easily on my fingers. Be careful when spraying so that you don't accidentally remove the stuff you just sprayed when doing the other side.
  3. Wax your wheel rims. If you are putting on new rims, and the rim is wax-safe, apply your normal high-quality car wax or special rim-type wax. Ask your rim dealer for details. Both my dealer and the net stuff I found said it was safe and recommended to wax chrome rims. Almost certainly painted wheels should be waxed. However, I'm not sure about machined aluminum. I waxed every part of my chrome rims except for the part that touches the hub, including the inside. That should help protect the entire rim against brake dust, scratches, etc.
  4. Break the torque on the front lug nuts. With a 19mm socket loosen the nuts just enough so that they will be easy to unscrew after you jack the car. If you don't loosen them, it's really hard to break the torque once in the air. Trust me, I kept forgetting this step and had to relower the car many times. There may be some other reason you should break the torque before jacking, but nothing I read explained the issue.
  5. Put the emergency brake on. This will (hopefully) help keep your car from rolling while jacked.
  6. Insert the wheel chocks. If you have chocks, put them in place at the rear wheels now. If you do not have chocks, maybe put a 1x2 or some other wood as a wedge between the wheels and the pavement.
  7. Jack up the front of the car. Position the jack under the front tow hook, which from what I read appears to be the best front support point. It's obvious where/what the tow hook is once you look under the front in the middle about 1 foot back or so. For hydraulic jacks, you'll need someone to manually lift the front of the car a bit so it will clear the 5.5" jack clearance that most jacks appear to have. Anyone can lift it as the springs/suspension make it very light. Be sure to read and follow the instructions on your jack first. I found I had to jack the car up quite a bit to get the stands under the mid-position support points. I used nearly the whole extension of jack (especially in the rear), and I bought a mammoth one. In case you didn't read my point in the shopping list above, the spare tire jack will be inadequate for this job.
  8. Immediately insert the jack stands under the factory recommended support points. Your manual describes where these are. They are about 8" behind the wheel well and 5" in from the sides. There's an arrow molded into the plastic trim to indicate them. I found that the jack points were too close to the plastic to allow me to use the axle jack stands I had bought in the correct orientation and instead turned them 90 degrees. This resulted in less stable and safe-looking support but seemed to do the job ok. I still haven't found jack stands that have tops shaped like you'd need to properly support the Prelude. You'd need something that was essentially flat. Position the jack stands so that they are as centered as possible. Then slowly lower the jack until the car is resting on the stands. Double-check both sides to make sure the stands are centered properly under the supports. If not, jack it up and try again. Again, make sure you read and follow the instructions that came with your jack stands.
  9. Reraise the jack slightly so that it provides backup support in case the stands fail. Make sure you don't raise it so much that all the weight is still on the jack as that is bad for it. Just raise it such that it is snugly in place. This seems like a good idea as you occasionally hear stories of people getting crushed because of failed jack stands.
  10. Remove the wheel nuts and then the front wheels.
  11. Remove the lowest slide bolt on the first caliper. Use a 14mm socket. You'll know which bolt this is as it's the lowest one of the only two 14mm bolts on the caliper.
  12. Swing the caliper up away from the rotor. It should move fairly easily. Have someone hold it up for you (or hook it somehow), and/or be very careful it doesn't fall back down, which it seems prone to doing.
  13. Remove the old pads. They just fit into place and easily come free if you move them away from the rotor.
  14. Note which shim is attached to the inboard versus the outboard pad (they are different).
  15. Remove the old shims from backs of the pads. Skip this step if you are going to install brand new shims you bought from your dealer. Be careful with the shims, they are very thin pieces of metal and if rusty/worn they may easily break. If the shims are heavily rusted or corroded, consider ordering new shims as I suggested above. If the shims are ok and you are reusing them, spray them now with no-squeak (both sides, see above) to allow them time to dry. You might want to give them a light cleaning first if they are dirty. A little Naval Jelly might help.
  16. Remove the caliper bracket bolts. Use a 17mm socket preferably with a 1/2" connector. They are located in the back of the caliper (the only 2 17mm bolts in the assembly). They are hard to get at and require tons of torque to loosen. Make sure you are turning your ratchet the correct direction (because you are coming at it from the reverse). I used some Liquid Wrench here to help get these off. Even with that they took an amazing amount of force. If you can't get it with your hands, try your legs if you can find a way to get some leverage.
  17. Remove the caliper assembly. It should slip up and free from the rotor. Be extremely careful not to put stress on the brake line (the rubber hose). Take one of your prop-up boxes, hook or a friend and prop up the assembly as much out of the way as the brake line allows without undue stress. Spend a moment to check the brake line for cracks/wear/damage and replace if necessary (contact your dealer or see other articles on the net).
  18. Remove the 2 rotor retention screws. Use your impact driver and a #3 phillips bit. Perhaps put a little Liquid Wrench on the screw first. See the instructions that came with your impact driver for correct usage. For mine, I had to turn it a certain direction manual first where it would lock into the unscrew position. If you fail to do this, you may end up tightening the screw instead of loosening! Now put the driver against the screw and hold it firm and apply pressure counterclockwise. Now hit it as hard as you dare with your hammer and after 2 to 5 tries it should be loose. Remove both screws in this way and set them aside where you can find them as you will need them for the new rotor if you did not get extras with your new rotors.
  19. Remove any rust/debris buildup where the hub and rotor meet. My ancient rotors had tons of something built up there. I at first thought it was glue that was supposed to be there. But then I realized it chipped and came free easily and was just some hardened dust/rust or something. I took a little flat head screwdriver (you could use a small chisel) and carefully chiseled away the stuff. You don't want to damage the hub or rotor doing this so be careful.
  20. Remove the rotor. If you wiggle it a bit, it should start coming free without much effort. If it fights you, you could try Liquid Wrench between the rotor and hub.
  21. Clean the rotor mounting area and hub. If your car is like mine, there will be tons of rust and debris buildup on the hub and surrounding area where the rotor rests against. I cleaned every area the rotor contacts with Naval Jelly (rust remover). Follow the instructions on the jar. You might need to repeat it twice to get it really clean. I used an old toothbrush to help work in the jelly and water on a really wet rag to rinse.
  22. Mount your new rotor. Your new rotors should be dry (from painting on the no-squeak) by now. Mine were still a bit wet and I put them on anyway as the no-squeak is not mission-critical. I have not had any squeaks at all (yet) so this seems safe. Be extremely careful with the rotors as you do not want to ding/dent/damage them in any way.
  23. Screw in the retention screws. Put in new ones if they came with your new rotors (my Brembo front's came with new ones), otherwise use the old ones. If the old ones are horrid looking, you'll probably want to source new ones. Or don't worry about them at all as I've read they are pretty much optional; used only to hold the rotors in place on the assembly line. That said, I did put them back on and think it's probably a good idea. If you want new ones, I'd look at a dealer or a screw specialty store. Just make them hand-tight with your #3 phillips bit. Do not use the impact driver again. Supposedly the heat/wear of the rotors will cook them in solidly again. Try to position the rotor precisely in the middle and tighten the screws a bit at a time, alternating between them and turning the rotor/hub to help work it into centered position.
  24. Clean the caliper assembly pad area. Where the pads touch the caliper, look for rust or debris and gently clean both away. I used a couple of files to gently remove any buildup. You want the area clear so that the pad can slide within it freely.
  25. Reinstall the caliper assembly. Be careful not to scrape or damage the rotor. Work it into place as best you can without touching the rotor. Put the 2 17mm bolts back in and tighten with your torque wrench to 80 ft-lbs. You may have to do some tricky maneuvering to get the long torque wrench in the cramped space, but I managed to get it eventually. Try coming at it from below or the rear. Since these bolts are the only thing holding your front brakes in, you don't want to screw this up!
  26. Compress the piston. Under your hood, remove the brake fluid reservoir cap and check to make sure it's not too full. Have someone keep an eye on it for overflow while performing this step. I didn't have any problems with the fluid, but I read you had to be careful of overflow. Use your C-clamp to push the piston into its housing a little bit. Put the screw-part of the clamp onto the piston (the round looking thing in the recessed area) and the fixed part of the clamp around the back. Screw the clamp tight and keep screwing until the piston is fairly flush with its housing. I read that 1/4 to 1/2 inch is the required distance to compress but it seemed like I had to go a bit further or I was unable to get the pads in later. I'd be careful how far you go. Try to compress only as much as you need to. See my comments in the UPDATES section near the bottom of this page. Don't forget to rescrew the fluid cap after you are done. Be super careful not to get any fluid on anything as supposedly it is extremely corrosive and nasty.
  27. Put the shims on the new pads. When you install new rotors, you must always install new pads (or so what I read indicated). So put your no-squeak painted shims onto the backs of the new pads. It should be pretty obvious which side of the pad is the back. The inboard and outboard shims are different. Either from noting the shim shape earlier or from trial and error, make sure you put the correct shim on the correct pad. If you have trouble, try installing the pads with shims on one way then the other. They will only both fit one way. I had some problems with the new shims not quite snugly fitting the new pads. I used some light hammering to get the clip things to fit more snugly. Be careful not to damage the pad!
  28. Install the new pads. With the caliper arm swung up, they should easily slide into place against the rotor. Which orientation they go in should be obvious. The pad part should rest against the rotor. Make sure you put the inboard one (with the wear indicator) on the inboard side (of course!). The wear indicator (the funny bent metal tab) should be aiming towards the rotor.
  29. Swing down the caliper arm. It should swing with not much force over the new pads. Make sure the pads are tight against the rotors for easier maneuvering. If it fails to swing down, you'll have to compress the piston a bit more first. If this step still fights you, be careful now to put on too much force or you'll damage the piston if that's what's blocking it.
  30. Install the lower caliper slide bolt. Torque it to 40 ft-lbs.
  31. Check the rotor/pad fit. Turn the wheel hub by hand. It should move freely. If it doesn't make sure your car isn't in gear. I didn't do this but Brembo recommends (and now that I know it sounds like a good idea) that you screw on and properly torque the wheel nuts before running these tests. That will more accurately mimic the condition the brake will be under after the wheel is reinstalled. Test to make sure the pads do not scrape more on one part of the rotor than the other (listen carefully or look at how the tightness between the pads and rotor changes while you turn). If a certain part of the rotor scrapes more than the rest then you should loosen and retighten the phillips retention screws until you get a good centered rotor (see Screw in retention screws area above for details). I had no problems with the fronts going in perfectly but the rears took a few tries. Perhaps this step isn't that critical as once you install the wheel nuts their force will tighten and hopefully center the rotor. The Brembo instructions recommend using a "run-out" tool or "micrometer" to ensure the rotor is mounted perfectly. I couldn't find either tool (both of which are probably expensive) so had to skip that step and rely on audible and visual clues.
  32. Install your wheel. Tighten the nuts with only a small amount of force. Make sure you tighten them in a criss-cross pattern. For instance, do one then the one diagonally across from it, then the one adjacent to that, then the last one (which should be across again). This ensures that you the wheel and rotor get well centered/positioned. If you have wheel locks, make sure you tighten them last.
  33. Turn the wheel and repeat the "Check the rotor/pad fit" instructions, but this time with the wheel on. It should turn smooth and have no abnormal noises. I noticed that there was a slight pressure against it turning, but I attribute this to the new pads/shims and the reduced play area, and I assume it will disappear as the pads wear a bit. If you hear that a part of the rotor rubs more than the rest, you may want to remove the wheel and play with the retention screws a bit to try to better center the rotor. It took me a few tries to get this right, especially on the rears.
  34. Tighten the wheel nuts to a fairly tight measure with your ratchet. Don't try to tighten them to the required torque level, just get them most of the way there. Make sure you tighten them in a criss-cross pattern as described above! The reason I say "most of the way" is because it's hard to torque them to the specific level while they are jacked up. It's much easier to torque as much as you can here and finish it in the following steps (see below).
  35. Repeat the above steps for the other side of the car.
  36. Jack up the front of the car a bit and remove the jack stands. Then lower the car so the tires are just touching the ground, following the instructions for your jack. If you have a hydraulic jack with a turn-handle valve release, turn it SUPER gently until it starts lowering extremely slowly. A tiny bit too much turning and your car will start lowering too quickly for comfort! You want to lower the car just enough so that there is some, but not all, of the weight of the car on the tires. This enables you to easily do the next step. If you screw this up and lower it all the way, don't worry about it. I like this partial lowering idea because it lets you get those nuts tightened without pressure from the weight of the car possibly putting lateral forces on some of the nuts. This is just what I like to do, after doing it a few times, and is probably not necessary.
  37. Finish tightening your wheel nuts with your torque wrench to 80 ft-lbs.
  38. Lower the jack the rest of the way and remove.
  39. Now you're done the fronts!

Rears

  1. The instructions for the rear assume you have read about and completed the fronts first. I have cut out any repetitive instructions as they are so similar to the fronts. For extra details, refer to the same instruction part in the fronts section.
  2. Break the torque on the rear lug nuts.
  3. Put the car in gear. Disengage the parking brake.
  4. Insert the wheel chocks on the front wheels.
  5. Jack up the rear of the car. Position the jack under the rear tow hook, which from what I read appears to be the best rear support point. You'll have to jack up the car quite a bit to get the stands under the mid-position support points -- much more so than the front. I used nearly the whole extension of jack and I bought a mammoth one.
  6. Immediately insert the jack stands under the factory recommended support points.
  7. Reraise the jack slightly so that it provides backup support in case the stands fail.
  8. Remove the wheel nuts and then the rear wheels.
  9. Remove the plastic caliper cover. Use a 10mm socket and remove the 2 bolts. MAKE SURE you are turning it the correct way for loosening (remembering that you're coming at it from the back). I broke the head of 1 of the bolts accidentally by turning it the wrong way! It was a extreme hassle to get that broken bolt out, so don't make the same mistake I did!
  10. Remove the 2 slide bolts. Use a 12mm socket.
  11. Lift the caliper away from the rotor. It's a little bit tricker than the fronts. Once off, support it the same way you did the front assembly (box, hook or person), and check the brake lines for wear.
  12. Remove the old pads.
  13. Note which shim is attached to the inboard versus the outboard pad (they are different).
  14. Remove the old shims from backs of the pads. Skip this step if you are going to install brand new shims you bought from your dealer. Be careful with the shims, they are very thin pieces of metal and if rusty/worn they may easily break. If the shims are heavily rusted or corroded, consider ordering new shims as I suggested above. If the shims are ok and you are reusing them, spray them now with no-squeak (both sides, see above) to allow them time to dry. You might want to give them a light cleaning first if they are dirty. A little Naval Jelly might help. On my car the rear shims had literally disintegrated into near nothingness!
  15. Remove the caliper bracket bolts. Use a 14mm socket. They are located in the back of the caliper (the only 2 14mm bolts in the assembly). They are hard to get at and require tons of torque to loosen. Make sure you are turning your ratchet the correct direction (because you are coming at it from the reverse). I used some Liquid Wrench here to help get these off. Even with that they took an amazing amount of force. If you can't get it with your hands, try your legs if you can find a way to get some leverage. I had a way worse time with the rear bolts than the front. It takes a lot of effort to loosen them. Good luck!
  16. Remove the caliper bracket carefully.
  17. Remove the 2 rotor retention screws.
  18. Remove any rust/debris buildup where the hub and rotor meet.
  19. Remove the rotor.
  20. Clean the rotor mounting area and hub.
  21. Mount your new rotor.
  22. Screw in the retention screws.
  23. Clean the caliper assembly pad area. Where the pads touch the caliper, look for rust or debris and gently clean both away. I used a couple of files to gently remove any buildup. You want the area clear so that the pad can slide within it freely. I had to clean the rear a lot more than the front as everything seemed way more corroded.
  24. Compress the piston. This is a bit different from the fronts. You'll need to use your piston compression tool to turn the piston as though you were screwing it in. Press down (in) on it while doing this. It should recede slowly into the caliper making it flush with the surrounding area. As with the fronts, watch the brake fluid under the hood to avoid overflow. Be VERY careful that the rubber boots aren't twisting too much or getting out of whack. If you turn too fast they will start to mangle and I assume that would be bad. Best to go slowly. I'd be careful how far you compress the piston. Try to compress only as much as you need to. See my comments in the UPDATES section near the bottom of this page. I needed to make the pistons mostly flush to get the pads to fit. Make sure you align the slots of the piston with the tabs of the pad. The way to do this is picture a line from one slide bolt to the other and make sure the piston is lined up in the same orientation. Since it is a cross-pattern, one slot line will be parallel to this imaginary line, and one slot line will be perpindicular. Lots of sites don't mention this alignment thing and I ran my car for a while without bothering with it, but I now hear it's bad to be misaligned so make sure you do it right. This mixup might be why I had a later issue: again, see my UPDATES section below.
  25. Reinstall the caliper bracket. Be careful not to scrape or damage the rotor. Put the 2 14mm bolts back in and tighten with your torque wrench to 40 ft-lbs. You may have to do some tricky maneuvering to get the long torque wrench in the cramped space, but I managed to get it eventually. If you can't get at a couple, try to approximate the 40 ft-lbs as best you can with a standard socket wrench. Under-torquing here would be bad. Over-torquing a bit won't really hurt it I don't think.
  26. Put the shims on the new pads. I had some problems with the new shims not quite snugly fitting the new pads. I used some light hammering to get the clip things to fit more snugly. Be careful not to damage the pad!
  27. Install the new pads. With the caliper arm out of the way they should easily slide into place against the rotor. If they require more than a bit of force to push into place, then you'll need to reclean the pad/assembly area with files some more, or shave some of the pad "arms" off pad with a big file. You should be able to tell which part of the pad arms are causing the blockage and file just those parts. File ever so slight a bit of the pad arm at a time and then install it to check if that's enough. I hadn't really read of having to do this step, but my local brake store indicated it may be necessary as the pads must be fairly free to move towards/away from the rotor.
  28. Install the caliper arm. It should go down with not much force over the new pads. Make sure the pads are tight against the rotors for easier maneuvering. If it fails to swing down, you'll have to compress the piston a bit more first. If this step still fights you, be careful now to put on too much force or you'll damage the piston if that's what's blocking it.
  29. Install the 2 caliper slide bolts (12mm). Torque it to 17 ft-lbs.
  30. Install the plastic cover with 2 bolts (10mm). Torque it to 17 ft-lbs.
  31. Check the rotor/pad fit.
  32. Install your wheel.
  33. Turn the wheel and repeat the "Check the rotor/pad fit" instructions, but this time with the wheel on.
  34. Repeat the above steps for the other side of the car.
  35. Jack up the rear of the car a bit and remove the jack stands. Then lower the car till the tires are just touching the ground.
  36. Finish tightening your wheel nuts with your torque wrench to 80 ft-lbs.
  37. Lower the car the rest of the way and remove the jack.
  38. Get in the car and pump the brakes to seat the pads before you start the engine or move the car. Now start the engine and pump some more with the power-brake assist. Now you're done!

Testing

  1. Start your car and apply your brakes. The pedal will probably really go down far the first couple of times but then stiffen up quickly. Drive the car forwards and back on a private driveway or road really slowly with your windows open and/or someone standing outside listening for weird noises. You may here some slight constant scraping. I took this to be the new pads being too tight on the rotors and rightly thought it would disappear (after a few days). What you do want to listen carefully for is a more metallic scraping sound or an uneven one that seems to occur periodically, when the wheel hits a certain position in its rotation. That could indicate a rotor that isn't centered vertically and require you to remove the offending wheel and rescrew/reposition the rotor (you can do this without removing any of the caliper assembly parts). I had to do this a bit on the rears. I suppose there should be more to listen for but this is all I could think up.
  2. Take your car for a little drive, not going any more than 30-40km (20mph). Periodically apply your brakes very gently and for no more than 3 seconds at a time. They should start to feel "right" after a few uses. Listen more for weird noises. I originally got a fair bit of light constant grinding noises from the rear but it slowly went away after a few days. Any uneven grinding or chaffing should be looked at.
  3. Try progressively faster tests until you feel comfortable everything is ok.
  4. That's it! Enjoy! And don't forget to read through the Post-Install Tasks below.

Post-Install Tasks

  1. IMPORTANT: Don't hammer your brakes, or drive under strenuous braking conditions such as steep extended hills for 200-300km (150-200 miles) or so. That means driver slower than usual and try to not get caught by suddenly changing yellow/red lights.
  2. Try to apply even brake pressure throughout each braking use. Don't vary your braking pressure too much or too fast within one braking period.
  3. IMPORTANT: Retorque your wheel nuts after 40 and/or 100km (30/60 miles) and/or semi-regularly. This ensures even torque across all bolts and will help balancing and prolong the life of your rotors, as well as ensuring safety. Always recheck your torque after your wheels have been removed (because of rotation, etc). I found that the torque was off by quite a bit when I rechecked them and will be doing this step regularly from now on! The torque appears to stabilize and not change much after the second torquing, so as long as you do it as recommended after some driving, you should be ok.

Feedback

Did you use these instructions and want to comment or let me know how it went? Do you know more about this stuff than I do and want to help me clarify/correct some of the document? Whatever the reason, feel free to contact me at webprelude04 at tecnopolis dot ca ! I hope you found the procedure as fun and interesting a challenge as I did!

Updates

As a followup, I'm putting new info in here (and updating the relevant sections above) to reflect changes, results, and lessons learned as time goes on. It's been over 1 year since I did the job.


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