Diy Automotive Repair how to Service the Brakes
This article is for people with little or no do it yourself experience so if I get a bit long winded please bear with me, I just want to make sureI am not getting someone hurt by rushing through the safety end of things.
With a little bit of elbow grease and a few hand tools you can service the brakes on your car yourself. This can save you a great deal of money as the parts are readily available for most cars and trucks. You will find that the parts cost a less than a third of what the average shop will charge you for a brake job.
OK we are going to tell you how to do this 1 step at the time. First thing you need to determine is the brake problem in the front or rear of your vehicle. As the front brakes do 70% of the work in stopping a car I suggest looking at them first.
1 .First thing to do is to get the vehicle off the ground so that you can check out your brakes. First thing you need to do is to remove the hubcaps or wheel covers.
Then loosen but do not remove the lugs nuts holding the wheel in place once the car is off the ground you will have a hard time loosening the lugs. If you have access to a garage type jack place this under the frame of the vehicle and jack both front wheels off the ground. If you do not have a garage type jack you can use the jack that came with your car, it is more work as you will have to jack each side of the car up.
Once the car is off the ground you must place jack stands under the vehicle. I can not stress this enough you must place jack stands under the vehicle.Never work under a vehicle on a jack this is a very unsafe practice as even commercial garage type jacks can fail causing a 3 ton vehicle to fall on you. Once you have place the jack stands under the car's frame (some cars the body is the frame (uni-body) place the jack stands under the body) ease thejack down so that the weight of the car is on the jack stands. Give the car a good shake to make sure it is safe to get under. OK it is up off the ground and is safely on jack stands. Now take the lugs off and pull both the front tires off the car. Check the brake rotors out look for cracks or groves cut into the rotor be sure and check the back side of the rotor as well. If it perfectly smooth then you can most likely have the rotors turned back to true (turning a rotor is done on a brake lathe and just means that the rotor is placed in a lathe where the grooves are cut out making the rotor true again) and re use them.Most service stations will turn a rotor for you as long as it is within legal specs. Be sure and price new rotors before you have the old ones turned as some times the new rotors are cheaper than the cost of having your old ones turned back to true. OK now find the caliper where the brake pads sit it will be right there on the rotor. In most cases you will find that two bolts hold the rotor to the mount bracket. Take these two bolts off and pull the caliper off the bracket. Now remove the brake pads from the caliper (be careful to keep all the parts together I will not go into all the details here but you can have anti rattle clips, shims, and other parts to keep up with) Check the pads for cracks and to see if the pads are down to metal or rivets. If any thing like that is visible it is time to replace them.
2. Step two go to the parts store and get brake pads. Also pick up your new rotors or see about having the old ones trued. You should also pickup a can of brake parts cleaner. Also pick up some shop towels.
3. Ok back home again, spray all the parts you will be reusing with the brake parts cleaner. If you have bought new rotors you should use the brake parts cleaner on them Spray the surface on both sides and then wipe them down good with the shop towels.
You need to make sure that you clean them off good as they come with oil or other Chemicals on them to prevent rust. OK put the rotors back on the vehicle. Now you will need to push the piston back into the caliper. The easiest way to do this is with a C-clamp. Can be bought at most any auto parts store.
Now replace the pads in the caliper (be sure to reuse the clips etc that you took off the old pads some new brake pads will come with new shims but most do not come with new rattle clips) OK now place the calipers back on the mount bracket. Put the bolts back and snug them down good. OK now place the tires back onto the car. Jack the car up off the jack stands Carefully pull the jack stands out from under the car. Ease the vehicle back to the ground. Now make sure the lug nuts are good and tight. Now get in the car and start the engine pump the brakes and release several times. At this point you should have a full pedal of brakes. Congratulations you have just serviced the brakes on the front of your car.
You should obtain a Chilton's or other repair manual for your make and model of vehicle. Some public libraries have these manuals that you can check out. It will just go into more detail about your specific make and model car. Thanks for reading this article I hope it is helpful to you.
