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How To: Brembo Brake Pad change

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158K views 253 replies 113 participants last post by  TheNEWB 
#1 ·
How To: Brembo Brake Pad change.

Parts Required:
- new brake pads, we decided to go with HAWK HP+ for DD and occasional track events.

- PN Front: HB453N.585 Disc Brake Pad; HP Plus w/0.585
- PN Rear: HB615N.535 Disc Brake Pad; HP Plus w/0.535


or something a touch more streetable,

- PN Front: HB453F.585 Disc Brake Pad; HPS Performance Street w/0.585
-PN Rear: HB615F.535 Disc Brake Pad; HPS Performance Street w/0.535


can be obtained via forum sponsors like FREDBEANSPARTS :+1:

Tools Required:
- 800 grit sand paper (not required if you will bed the pads slowly)
- shop rag
- brake cleaner
- brake lube
- center punch
- hammer
- vice grips or pliers
- jack stands and car jack

Recommended Number of People:
- 1 person

Difficulty
- 1.5, hard part is getting the metal pins out of the caliper without scratching it. I taped off the end of the center punch with electrical tape to facilitate an extra safety measure.

Time to complete
- 15 minutes per wheel taking your time.

Step by Step Instructions

1) Jack up the car, and remove the wheel your going to be working on and open up the brake fluid reservoir.



2) VERY Lightly hammer the retainer pins until they hide into the caliper body.



3) Using a set of vice grips or pliers pull on the retainer pins while pushing on the spring loaded clip, start with the top one first.



4) Once the top pin is out, slide out the spring loaded retention clip and remove the lower retainer pin.




5) Slide out the outboard side pad first and remove the metal backing, you will reuse the backing once you clean it, also clean the spring loaded retention clip and pins.




5) Slightly burnish the new pads with 800 grit sand paper (NOT REQUIRED if you will bed the pads in slowly)



6) Place the backing on your new pad and apply brake caliper grease to the round circle areas, to the top and bottom of pad edge and to the front small indent.



7) Push back the outboard pistons with pliers if you don't have a fancy caliper spreader. Also slightly grease your retention pins.



8) Repeat the above procedure for the inboard side pad, then replace the lower retainer pin and spring loaded retention clip.



9) Putting pressure on the spring loaded retention clip slide in the upper retention pin back in.



10) Hammer the retention spring into place until the back is flush with the caliper body. I used a piece of plastic to prevent the hammer from scratching the caliper paint.



11) Thats it you are done...........one wheel :D LOL



12) Repeat for the other three wheels, close the fluid reservoir and then tidy up your work space.





13) Slowly test your brakes and follow manufacturers bedding in procedure and ENJOY your new stopping power :godance:

PHOTO BY PHOTO SLIDE SHOW
 
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#73 ·
next time I jack up the car I'm gunna have to check my pads.. I don't hear any squealing, but if RyanNowosielski didn't hear anything and had that thin of a pad, I am a little worried (my braking power has definitely decreased recently & I'm just over 24k miles)
 
#76 ·
^ Oh, I LOVE the improved feel from the SS lines. I swore up and down it wouldn't be noticable, just a better way of dealing with the high temps at the track, but dang, the pedal is REALLY hard now, not just "HARD". It's incomparable, nothing I've ever driven has had this hard of a pedal. I sure hope I can modulate braking with racing pads on!
 
#78 ·
My X has strictly been a DD with some spirited driving. I have rarely had to stop from high speed with heavy pressure on the brakes and generally let the car coast as much as possible when slowing down. I am hoping I won't have to change the pads til at least 30k miles, which would take me to the spring. By that time I'm hoping to have the cash saved up for some new summer wheels/summer tires/brakes & I'll do it all at once (Prob going with the HPS pads unless something better comes out by then). After changing over to my A/S Continental DWS tires, I desperately miss the dry grip/cornering ability of my stock advans & will need to go back to summer tires for next summer! Anyway, enough off-topic for me here haha.
 
#80 ·
this may sound obvious - but double check your pads are installed with the metal plates facing away from the rotor. i had some major distractions while doing mine a while back and actually installed one side backwards :)wallbash: - quickly realized and fixed though) and it makes a squealing sound and then the little clips on the backside of the metal plates hit the ridge on the inner edge of the rotors.

that's the only thing i could think of.
 
#84 ·
What pads did you get?
And did you use the anti noise shims?
 
#86 ·
On many pads, the shims are pre-installed. But to minimize brake squeal, they should have some brake lube (special stuff for brake calipers sold at the front of the Autozone in tiny packets) added to the pad backing so that they don't "chatter" when applied. The noise won't hurt anything though, just annoying.
 
#88 ·
Wow I remember when my calipers and rotors looked nice back in the day lol.
 
#89 ·
The idiot that I am thought to clean the calipers really nice so the pads wouldn't have any junk in the guides during a change yesterday; the pads are DTC-60's. So after the bed-in, you can imagine how the calipers look now. NOT so shiny. But I did clean the backs and insides, so after I pull them off again after the track this weekend, they ought to be "not so bad" to clean back up. Lil buggers sure can get dirty fast.
 
#90 ·
New "affordable" rotor review - first impressions

So far, the "Winhere" brand of rotors, heavy blank one-pieces, are positive. No run-out, able to withstand the first day of use not to mention the bed-in procedure (pyrotechnics) of the Hawk DTC race pads. There was a little coloration after the bed-in from heat, but shined up totally after a normal day. After the track weekend, they're coming off and I'll post a final review. For $50/wheel, I couldn't NOT give them a try.
 
G
#91 · (Edited by Moderator)
nice write up... I just did removing is loosen lug nuts. raise vehicle. remove wheel. remove 1 bolts on caliper. flip caliper open because one bolt is out it will sway freely. push back pistons to avoid having to bleed brakes. swap pads. then close caliper and secure bolt. put wheel back on. tighten lugs. lower vehicle on jack. torque lugs to 78 lbs.
 
#92 ·
nice write up... I just did removing is loosen lug nuts. raise vehicle. remove wheel. remove 1 bolts on caliper. flip caliper open because one bolt is out it will sway freely. push back pistons to avoid having to bleed brakes. swap pads. then close caliper and secure bolt. put wheel back on. tighten lugs. lower vehicle on jack. torque lugs to 78 lbs.
Don't "avoid having to bleed brakes" unless you know that the fluid is less than 90 days old. The old brake fluid goes bad. Not only does it boil, even under normal use (see tiny bubbles coming out when bleeding? That's the sign), but the contaminants from the seals and lines can be pushed backwards and into your ABS control system and foul it up. That ABS control system is very expensive on even cheap cars. So don't ignore that risk and maintenance item that's nice-to-have on low-performance cars, but MUST HAVE on this high performance beast.
 
#94 ·
the easiest way is to probably take a wheel off and check them out. it's extremely easy to do this using the steps provided on this link. another way - next time you go in for an oil change or any sort of check up with Mitsubishi / any brake location, simply ask them to check the depth for you.
 
#97 ·
do you have to bed the pads or is it just the hawk brake pads that you have to do that with? also, i've never done that before, but why do you have to uncap your brake fluid reservoir? thanks!
 
#99 ·
each manufacturer has their own bedding standards.
i believe the cap removal is so that you can push the inboard and outboard pistons back which then pushes the brake fluid back towards the reservoir.
when i did mine, it overflowed a little because i had to push the pistons in so much because my brakes were so thin.
 
#98 ·
Really great writer up. I had never done the brakes on the X before and this made it a snap. One problem I ran into was that the ceramic replacement that I bought from Autozone already had the shim on the back of the pad so reusing the stock removable one was nearly impossible, so I decided to forgo using it.
 
#103 ·
mine were really difficult at first too.
are you using anything special, or just a hammer and an allen wrench or something? i ended up using the smallest allen head on an extension to get more gusto; and used a thin rag to prevent paint chipping.

it's scary, but give it a good whack and it will eventually come off.
 
#106 ·
Might be using too large of a center punch if it doesn't come out. It'll come out, but as they all said, don't miss when you swing or you'll chip the power coat on the calipers. Not that mine are prestine at 50,000 including chips from gravel I pick up when I go up/down my driveway.

This is really easy once you get the "swing" of it. Changing pads, rotors (which require caliper removals) can be done in an hour, all 'round. Using nothing but hand tools, floor jack -- on GRAVEL!
 
#111 · (Edited)
I have some tips I used that might be helpful if anyone even reads this deep into the post.

Center-punch: small enough so you can chase the retaining pin into the caliper. I did not need pliers to pull the pin since my center-punch pushed in rather far, and with counter pressure on the spring-plate, I just pulled the pin by hand.

Caliper retraction: I use the outgoing pad to gently push against the caliper. Slow, steady pressure for about 15 sec. gives enough clearance to pop in a new pad with no issues. I hesitate to sick something blunt and not flat like pliers onto the surface of my caliper and encourage people to think about this. Your finger, as mentioned, works as well, just know the caliper does not push back quickly.

Also, the backing plate for the pads comes off rather easy. You can slip this out, prep the next pad, do the above trick, and pop the new set-up in real easy.

Rear Pads: If you using an aftermarket pad adapter, align the pad and adapter holes with the pin before you slide the pad into the caliper. That way you are not digging around with the pad installed. The adapter might need to be slip up/down just a hair to allow for the pin to slide through.

Brake fluid: if your reservoir is full with old pads, it might over-flow with the new pad intall. Be prepared to bleed/drain off excess fluid. I like bleeding since you then don't have to worry about contaminants in the reservoir. Remember, brake fluid is rather caustic.

Added: I also got both front tires off the ground at once so I could rotate the steering assembly to get at the back of the calipers better. Took off both tires at once to reduce weight hanging on the system. Just like the pistons, move the steering assembly with slow, constant pressure.

I also added two lugs back onto the rotor once the tire was off. This helps keep the assembly in place when tugging on things.

Please use jack stands. If your jack fails while doing this you can severely damage yourself and car.
 
#113 ·
New for me, too. I am coming from a Stoptech set-up. The retaining pins are threaded in that system and you take them in and out from the outside, which makes life so much easier. Feel cheap to have a pressure-based retaining pin that get friggen hammered back into place! :bowlol:
 
#114 ·
Ok, so just to get the story straight. Do you actually need to do anything with the brake fluid (i.e. open the reservoir, bleed brakes, etc) if all you are doing is changing the PADS?

I don't understand the concept of touching the brake fluid if all you are doing is a pad change (not opening/bleeding the brake lines at all). Why would the fluid level change if you are only putting new pads into the calipers? What part of the brake assembly will add pressure within the brake lines/fluid if you only throw in new pads?

I will be swapping out my brake pads this weekend, assuming they get delivered this week.
 
#115 ·
You do not have to bleed. It is recommended that you do.

..The fluid level changes... the amount of fluid in your system does not. The fluid level changes because to put new pads in, you have to push back the piston in the caliper. in some cases your reservoir may over flow. So keep an eye on that.
 
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