Hi fellow Hiveians,
Today I wanted to share a first brake job on the new car!
Doing standard maintenance on our vehicles and bits around the house has been a hobby for me for a long time. I really enjoy being able to get my hands dirty and in the mix of it all! I as well also make sure that the little man is right there at my side, learning and getting exposed to all of the stuff along the way!
We got a car a few years ago and it wasn't the daily driver, we had a different one that was dedicated to that. We ended up selling the second car since it was a bit of a hassle keeping both of them and all the expenses that come along with it, so when we went down to one it became the only way for us to get around. This meant that it's gotten a fair bit of miles on her, but that's what the cars are for I suppose!
With the miles on the car going up, one of the things I knew I needed to do was to change the front brakes. I hadn't changed them yet, they still felt great so I knew I wasn't in a mad dash hurry to get them changed. We don't stand on the brakes a lot like some people do, and speed up to slow down on the highway and shit. I often times will let the car slow down on the highway by just letting the foot off the gas unless there is a need to step on the brakes. All of these things are just some of the easy and basic things we can do to extend the life of the various parts on the car such as the brakes.
Still though, it had been over the "recommended" life of the brakes so I knew that I needed to do them at some point or face the negative consequences. I decided to get it going one day last fall, and didn't remember that I had the pictures to post until the other day! As I mentioned, the little man was with me as long as he could. He was having fun sorting the tools and all that, jacking up the car and helping me get things ready.
Once the car was up, I made sure to not only put it on a jack stand but I also love my handy bottle jack here. I think this is one of my best purchases for cart maintenance purposes! Sadly it's a little rusted from being exposed to water because of a bad bucket lid but it's still in working order with a little grease and movement. I always use the floor jack to get the car up to a point where I can put the jack stand on it at the very lowest level. Then once it's relaxing on the jack stand, I bring in the bottle jack and bring it up another couple inches to an even higher level. This is overkill for sure but for me it's about convenience. I don't want to be busting my ass and back trying to get in and out of a spot that's simply too low when I could just raise the damn thing. As well, I always stick the tire that I took off under the car for good measure but it also helps to just get it out of the way.
Now it's come to take the brakes off! These ones are definitely interesting and I actually do like some aspects of it. I was not at all used to the fact that they had a screw on them keeping the rotor to the hub! I whacked the thing a few times to get it off, not realizing there was also a screw in there. I took a few overall glances and pictures of it to see the standard layout it has. I'm really hoping not to go back to drum brakes in my life if I can prevent it lol those things are a royal pain in the ass. I had them on several of my cars. Disc brakes are such a blessing haha.
So I dismantled the rotor and one of the things I do every single time now, is check the fit of the new rotors! I've been burned where they gave me the wrong damn part and it sucks to get all the way through the damn install and realize that it's wrong. Its easy to grab the old, put it ontop of the new and make sure it lines up nicely. Thankfully the rotors here were the exact match, so we were good to go! That was a huge headache avoided lol.
Next up is getting the brake caliper out of the way! I actually did this before taking the rotor off but the pictures were already sorted, so screw it here it is. One of the things I learned many years ago from a friend of mine is keep a small spool of wire in your car tool box for these repair jobs. You use the wire to hang the caliper up on the suspension and it doesn't put strain on the brake line. You do NOT want to bust a brake line when you are trying to do this work, at least if the other part doesn't work you can just put the old ones back on and drive to the parts store and swap them out but if you bust the brake line then you are fucked and need to get a ride from a friend or have a second car. Two minutes of work saves you hours of repair later, it's such a common statement lol.
Now that the caliper is up and out of the way, rotor is off, it's time to depress the caliper piston since it was fitted to the old brakes instead of the brand new ones. There are a bunch of ways to do this but there is specifically a tool they made for it. I don't think I am using it the exactly intended way.. but it does the job lol. I think I am missing a piece to be honest but whatever. The main purpose is that the metal plate there on the right pushes up against the outside of the caliper and you turn the screw which then pushes down the caliper piston. I have partially worn out the threads on the one I've got so I know I'll need a new one eventually but this one does the trick right now, and it works.
So remember how I said that we don't go crazy on the brakes? Yeah, you can tell! I've still got a little less than half the brake left, and I am well beyond the timeframe recommended to replace the brakes. I was actually pretty happy with seeing this, as it provide my suspicion that the brakes we have are in pretty good shape actually. I still changed them though, because it's not a bad idea. Plus I will take it off this spring when I do the back brakes, this time was only the front that I did. I know the back brakes are likely a lot better than the front ones, since the front takes 80% of the stopping force and the back assists. It also was to line them up for fitment, and they were indeed a match here as well thankfully!
The configuration of the brakes here was definitely different. The springs are on there to keep pressure on the brakes to always push outward which is good, since the brake caliper is pushing them inward and the springs are pushing them out and preventing them from sticking against the caliper. I know I could have done a few things differently like put brake grease on the outside but I've never done that and this wasn't the chance to learn it, as I was on a time constraint and weather watch. It rained not too far after I was done lol I was thankful I got completed when I did!
The little man made it about half way in the job with me before he wanted to go home, but he was a trooper and helped out as much as he could which was awesome. I pointed out a bunch of things to him and helped him learn a bunch and use his hands to get off some of the bolts with me. Overall it was a great time, learning about the new brake configuration and getting my hands dirty on something around the house to get a project done, save some money and exercise my brain and muscles a bit!
What about you, have you changed brakes or other things on your vehicles? I'd love to hear about it!
-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI.
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