Car repair Sherbros gtfih - Replacing brake pads.....easy? - UPDATE: It's Easy

When I was poor I used to fix things myself. Now that I have money I'm still ugly. Hope that helps, bro. Good luck!
 
buy the pads and pay a mechanic $40 per axle
 
Rhood said:
I like your answers.
What's the easiest way to do a coolant flush?
Click to expand...

I've never done it on a newer vehicle. On my muscle cars I just disconnect the lower radiator hose (or there is a drain near the bottom of the radiator, it just works slower) and drain the anti freeze. Then I remove the thermostat and take a hose and spray it inside the coolant passage of the engine until the water runs clear. After that I install the thermostat, reconnect the hoses and fill her up with coolant.

Just an FYI in case you don't know but the thermostat needs to be removed because the way it works is when you park your car there is coolant inside the engine passages, as well as in the hoses and in the radiator. Your thermostat blocks the coolant from traveling from the radiator to the inside of your engine until the engine reaches a certain temperature. The reason for this is it would take much longer to get the engine up to temperature without the thermostat because your radiator and fan would constantly be trying to cool the coolant while your engine is trying desperately to get warmed up so it can run efficiently. So the thermostat blocks the coolant from traveling from the radiator to the engine, essentially keeping any colder coolant from entering. Once the thermostat senses a certain temperature, it pops open and allows the cooler coolant from the radiator to now flow through the engine to keep it at a consistent temperature. Your vehicle will run with no thermostat but it'll take much longer to get to operating temperature. On the flip side, if your thermostat gets stuck and doesn't pop open at the specified temp, it'll keep any of the cooler coolant from the radiator from entering and your engine will overheat because the hot coolant is stuck inside and can't circulate.

On a newer vehicle you'd probably just want to drain the coolant and then pour in some of that radiator cleaner stuff you can get at your local auto parts store. It'll tell you what mixture to do, whether it's one bottle and a couple gallons of water or whatever and then it'll want you to cap your radiator and run the engine until it gets good and hot. Then you'd let it cool down and drain the radiator again to get that stuff out and refill with coolant and be on your way. Don't take my word for that since I'm an old school car guy but you can find your answers easily on youtube.
 
TheNinja said:
Hi Car Repair Sherbros.

So I'm fairly handy with fixing things and working on vehicles. I've replaced a lot of parts in my car (alternator, starter, water pump (pain in the ass), electric window motors/rail kits, etc.). So I'm not clueless and know how to fix stuff around my car and my house.

However I've always been scared to do my own brakes and brake pads. I drive down a really steep hill every day on my drive home and drive pretty fast. The turns don't have guardrails so if my brakes fail it's "bye bye TheNinja" off a cliff.

Is this a difficult or scary thing to do? Is it fairly easy? I read and watched some videos and it seems pretty straight forward. I shouldn't need new rotors or calipers at this point as there is only ~50,000 miles on the car and I don't feel the shimmy and shake when I brake. I just have that annoying squeak from the brake pad indicators (at least that's what it sounds like).

My only concerns are around bleeding the brakes and avoiding air in the lines and having to readjust the calipers for thicker pads (I'm probably down to 5-6mm on most of my pads). However I also get sick of paying these repair shops a bunch of money for stuff that's easy enough to do myself.
Click to expand...
Some calipers require a special tool to turn the piston as you push it in.

Auto parts store will loan it to you free
 
Pads are typically easy (make sure you have something to set the caliper on when you remove it, you should never let a caliper dangle on the line) but might require a special spreading tool to compress the piston. Rotors are usually a simple change but can be difficult if the rotor has seized itself to the hub. If that happens be prepared for a lot of swearing and hammering to free it.

As far as technical difficulty goes you've already done waaaaaaayyyyyyyy worse jobs.
 
Do brakes have asbestos you can breathe in and die from?
 
MoparOrNoCar said:
I've never done it on a newer vehicle. On my muscle cars I just disconnect the lower radiator hose (or there is a drain near the bottom of the radiator, it just works slower) and drain the anti freeze. Then I remove the thermostat and take a hose and spray it inside the coolant passage of the engine until the water runs clear. After that I install the thermostat, reconnect the hoses and fill her up with coolant.

Just an FYI in case you don't know but the thermostat needs to be removed because the way it works is when you park your car there is coolant inside the engine passages, as well as in the hoses and in the radiator. Your thermostat blocks the coolant from traveling from the radiator to the inside of your engine until the engine reaches a certain temperature. The reason for this is it would take much longer to get the engine up to temperature without the thermostat because your radiator and fan would constantly be trying to cool the coolant while your engine is trying desperately to get warmed up so it can run efficiently. So the thermostat blocks the coolant from traveling from the radiator to the engine, essentially keeping any colder coolant from entering. Once the thermostat senses a certain temperature, it pops open and allows the cooler coolant from the radiator to now flow through the engine to keep it at a consistent temperature. Your vehicle will run with no thermostat but it'll take much longer to get to operating temperature. On the flip side, if your thermostat gets stuck and doesn't pop open at the specified temp, it'll keep any of the cooler coolant from the radiator from entering and your engine will overheat because the hot coolant is stuck inside and can't circulate.

On a newer vehicle you'd probably just want to drain the coolant and then pour in some of that radiator cleaner stuff you can get at your local auto parts store. It'll tell you what mixture to do, whether it's one bottle and a couple gallons of water or whatever and then it'll want you to cap your radiator and run the engine until it gets good and hot. Then you'd let it cool down and drain the radiator again to get that stuff out and refill with coolant and be on your way. Don't take my word for that since I'm an old school car guy but you can find your answers easily on youtube.
Click to expand...

The thermostat prevents the coolant in the engine from going into the radiator until it reaches a certain temperature. The water pump pulls coolant out of the bottom of the radiator, pushes it into the engine block, through the head(s) to the thermostat which allows it to return to the upper port on the radiator. Cold water won't flow through the thermostat but you can use the heater hose port that bypasses the thermostat to flush coolant out of the engine.
 
TheNinja said:
Hi Car Repair Sherbros.

So I'm fairly handy with fixing things and working on vehicles. I've replaced a lot of parts in my car (alternator, starter, water pump (pain in the ass), electric window motors/rail kits, etc.). So I'm not clueless and know how to fix stuff around my car and my house.

However I've always been scared to do my own brakes and brake pads. I drive down a really steep hill every day on my drive home and drive pretty fast. The turns don't have guardrails so if my brakes fail it's "bye bye TheNinja" off a cliff.

Is this a difficult or scary thing to do? Is it fairly easy? I read and watched some videos and it seems pretty straight forward. I shouldn't need new rotors or calipers at this point as there is only ~50,000 miles on the car and I don't feel the shimmy and shake when I brake. I just have that annoying squeak from the brake pad indicators (at least that's what it sounds like).

My only concerns are around bleeding the brakes and avoiding air in the lines and having to readjust the calipers for thicker pads (I'm probably down to 5-6mm on most of my pads). However I also get sick of paying these repair shops a bunch of money for stuff that's easy enough to do myself.
Click to expand...

I am a moron and have changed my pads on my truck at least 10 times

You should be fine my :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
TheNinja said:
Hi Car Repair Sherbros.

So I'm fairly handy with fixing things and working on vehicles. I've replaced a lot of parts in my car (alternator, starter, water pump (pain in the ass), electric window motors/rail kits, etc.). So I'm not clueless and know how to fix stuff around my car and my house.

However I've always been scared to do my own brakes and brake pads. I drive down a really steep hill every day on my drive home and drive pretty fast. The turns don't have guardrails so if my brakes fail it's "bye bye TheNinja" off a cliff.

Is this a difficult or scary thing to do? Is it fairly easy? I read and watched some videos and it seems pretty straight forward. I shouldn't need new rotors or calipers at this point as there is only ~50,000 miles on the car and I don't feel the shimmy and shake when I brake. I just have that annoying squeak from the brake pad indicators (at least that's what it sounds like).

My only concerns are around bleeding the brakes and avoiding air in the lines and having to readjust the calipers for thicker pads (I'm probably down to 5-6mm on most of my pads). However I also get sick of paying these repair shops a bunch of money for stuff that's easy enough to do myself.
Click to expand...
I'm sure it's been said over and over but if you can do all the things you listed, it's well within your abilities to do the brakes. IMO brakes are one of the easier repairs/replacements on a vehicle(disc).
You've got this
Edit- don't forget the blinker fluid
 
Easy job, you have experience so it will be easy.

Watch you tube and always have a repair book for you car.
 
I heard that you don't need to bleed the brakes just to change the pads, so I just pushed in the calipers and swapped out the pads, but once I got it all put back together the brakes just didn't feel right.

They worked, but they didn't have all the squishy-ness that let you break gently or hard. It was like you went from no brake to full brake after only pushing the pedal half an inch.

What did I do wrong?
 
JBSchroeds said:
Pads are typically easy (make sure you have something to set the caliper on when you remove it, you should never let a caliper dangle on the line) but might require a special spreading tool to compress the piston. Rotors are usually a simple change but can be difficult if the rotor has seized itself to the hub. If that happens be prepared for a lot of swearing and hammering to free it.

As far as technical difficulty goes you've already done waaaaaaayyyyyyyy worse jobs.
Click to expand...

The worst swearing and hammering I did was when I had a spark plug break off in my engine block!!! The ceramic part broke away from the threads. So for better or worse the threads and the metal part were stuck in my engine! I drove all over town buying different tools and spraying it to loosen up the rust. I finally got it out with a reverse thread tap that I pounded the $hit out of to get it stuck in the threads of the plug. Then I had to get a ratchet extension and I pushed down as hard as I could and cranked it and it finally came loose. I cheered so loud the neighborhood thought I won the lottery!!

But I digest.....back on topic. It sounds like I can handle this job and likely the rotors too when they are needed. Nothing is seized at this point. Just a little squeaky going on in what sounds like my front break pads.
 
Just learned how to do this myself two weeks ago. Super easy. Also changed out the rotors. Very simple job.

Keep in mind if you're doing the rear (giggles), you have to contend with the emergency brake. YouTube is a great source.
 
Like previous posters have mentioned, the repairs you have completed are harder than doing a quick brake pad replacement. Always refer to the YouTube University for bleeding or anything else you're not sure of. Now go get wrenching!
 
Cherry Brigand said:
Just learned how to do this myself two weeks ago. Super easy. Also changed out the rotors. Very simple job.

Keep in mind if you're doing the rear (giggles), you have to contend with the emergency brake. YouTube is a great source.
Click to expand...


When replacing rear drums I was taught to do one side at a time so you always have a reference to look at if you get hung up. I learned the hard way, now it's not hard.
<Gordonhat>
 
Yes very easy. I'm no mechanic and I've changed them a couple times.
 
Last edited:
It's super easy if you're not a retard but why wouldn't you just pay someone else to do it unless you are a poor.
 
TheNinja said:
Hi Car Repair Sherbros.

So I'm fairly handy with fixing things and working on vehicles. I've replaced a lot of parts in my car (alternator, starter, water pump (pain in the ass), electric window motors/rail kits, etc.). So I'm not clueless and know how to fix stuff around my car and my house.

However I've always been scared to do my own brakes and brake pads. I drive down a really steep hill every day on my drive home and drive pretty fast. The turns don't have guardrails so if my brakes fail it's "bye bye TheNinja" off a cliff.

Is this a difficult or scary thing to do? Is it fairly easy? I read and watched some videos and it seems pretty straight forward. I shouldn't need new rotors or calipers at this point as there is only ~50,000 miles on the car and I don't feel the shimmy and shake when I brake. I just have that annoying squeak from the brake pad indicators (at least that's what it sounds like).

My only concerns are around bleeding the brakes and avoiding air in the lines and having to readjust the calipers for thicker pads (I'm probably down to 5-6mm on most of my pads). However I also get sick of paying these repair shops a bunch of money for stuff that's easy enough to do myself.
Click to expand...

Go with a certified expert on this one.

tenor.gif
 
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