Did the wife's brakes today

[Anduril]

Having never done it before, with only a YouTube video to guide me, the process on both front wheels only took me a little more than an hour from taking the tires off to putting them back on. Only cost $60 in parts from Rock Auto, including brand new rotors ("they're making a funny noise," she said. Honey, that's the sound of metal on metal...). I used to think brakes were some drawn-out complicated affair best left to a shop; after having done it I'm annoyed at the money I was wasting.

 

[Brybo86]

congrats it feels so good to do things yourself... 60 bucks is a good deal too

 

[The_Eric]

Crangrats! Good for you!

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
congrats it feels so good to do things yourself... 60 bucks is a good deal too

Granted, that was only the fronts (they were the only ones making noise) but I'll probably do the rears soon. With (at least) 84k miles on them, they're probably due.

Is it typical to replace the drums, or just the shoes, if there was no metal-to-metal contact?

 

[theKman]

Nice work. I could have written the exact same thing (especially "metal on metal") about a month ago, except for the part about only taking an hour. I found the piston boots on both calipers were slightly torn and decided to replace them. That and thoroughly bleeding out the system added far too much time to a relatively simple repair. But as with you, I thought "Oh, brakes, gotta take that to the shop." Until I thought about all those techs I've worked with who would be better suited to carnival work, and figured if they can do it, so can I. Between YouTube and vehicle-specific forums, it's all out there. I also now have the Haynes books for our cars.

I've worked at dealerships for over 10 years, but it took being a stay-at-home-Dad (therefore one income) to finally start doing these things myself. I love to cook, so I view this stuff as just following a recipe. You have your ingredients and tools, and just take it one step at a time. Got the timing belt planned for next month.

Have you thought about some other projects you can tackle?

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted By: theKman
Have you thought about some other projects you can tackle?

Since we got out of our apartment and into a house in April, it seems I'm either fixing, building, or otherwise re-working something pretty much every weekend. I keep myself busy, lol.

Used to have to take everything vehicle-related to a shop because of the apartment complex's "no working on vehicles" restriction. I got yelled at for so much as vacuuming out the car in my parking spot!

Originally Posted By: theKman
Until I thought about all those techs I've worked with who would be better suited to carnival work

You mean like the ones who utterly destroyed my dash in their attempt to replace a heater core?

 

[theKman]

Originally Posted By: Anduril
Is it typical to replace the drums, or just the shoes, if there was no metal-to-metal contact?


Just the shoes. If you find the drums scored or otherwise in rough shape, you could bring them to a shop for resurfacing. It's unlikely under normal use at that mileage.

 

[ram_man]

Originally Posted By: theKman
Originally Posted By: Anduril
Is it typical to replace the drums, or just the shoes, if there was no metal-to-metal contact?


Just the shoes. If you find the drums scored or otherwise in rough shape, you could bring them to a shop for resurfacing. It's unlikely under normal use at that mileage.


next time you rotate tires. Check the rear drum shoes for wear. But I bet theyre ok rear shoes live a long time. Mine are original at 127,000 they are half way worn.

 

[theKman]

Originally Posted By: ram_man
Originally Posted By: theKman
Originally Posted By: Anduril
Is it typical to replace the drums, or just the shoes, if there was no metal-to-metal contact?


Just the shoes. If you find the drums scored or otherwise in rough shape, you could bring them to a shop for resurfacing. It's unlikely under normal use at that mileage.


next time you rotate tires. Check the rear drum shoes for wear. But I bet theyre ok rear shoes live a long time. Mine are original at 127,000 they are half way worn.


What he said. I misspoke regarding replacement of the shoes. It would be unlikely that the rears would need more than a cleaning.

 

[Merkava_4]

What's really cool about doing the work yourself is having the excuse to buy tools.

 

[Ken42]

The cost of turning the drums vs new drums is only a few bucks.
Better off just getting new drums
I have found rear drums typically last twice the front pads.

Doing drums is a bit more complicated then the front rotors. Make sure you have a good set of pliers for the springs. Also watch the video twice or 3 times. Finally only do one side at a time incase you forget how it goes back together

Ken

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: Anduril
Having never done it before, with only a YouTube video to guide me, the process on both front wheels only took me a little more than an hour from taking the tires off to putting them back on. Only cost $60 in parts from Rock Auto, including brand new rotors ("they're making a funny noise," she said. Honey, that's the sound of metal on metal...). I used to think brakes were some drawn-out complicated affair best left to a shop; after having done it I'm annoyed at the money I was wasting.

I spent almost 2 hours each to replace front pads for E430, LS400 and rear pad for S2000, bleeding the brake was fast with Mityvac 7201. You spent a little over 1 hour for both pads and rotors, you're faster/better than many DIY'ers.

 

[bvance554]

Yes, if you can change a tire you can change brakes. I think the fear of brake failure is what allows shops to charge so much and feed off the people that live in fear of changing their own brakes and don't realize what a simple procedure it is.

 

[Anduril]

Is bleeding required? I didn't touch the fluid. Perhaps that's why it went so quickly?

 

[bvance554]

Originally Posted By: Anduril
Is bleeding required? I didn't touch the fluid. Perhaps that's why it went so quickly?


If you just changed out the pads there is no bleeding required. If you change a caliper its a good idea.

 

[Anduril]

I changed pads/rotors. The calipers stayed attached to the hoses the whole time.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Brake fluid should be bleed every 2-4 years. Changing pad is perfect time to bleed the brake because you already have the wheel off, time to bleed 1 wheel is less than 5 minutes with Mityvac 7201.

There are 2 type of fluids in a car that many drivers ignore: brake fluid and power steering fluid.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Brake fluid should be bleed every 2-4 years. Changing pad is perfect time to bleed the brake because you already have the wheel off, time to bleed 1 wheel is less than 5 minutes with Mityvac 7201.

There are 2 type of fluids in a car that many drivers ignore: brake fluid and power steering fluid.


GM does not require brake fluid changes on DOT3 vehicles. Power steering fluid changes are not required either -- by most manufacturers.

Yes, changing DOT3 brake fluid may not be a bad idea - but it's definitely not required for every application. I am sure that GM came up with their recommendation after lots of testing and studying of the failure rates over the anticipated lifespan of the vehicle.

I've seen many 10-15 year old cars with the original hydraulics and the original fluid and they worked fine. In fact, they worked better than the ones where people had changed the fluid - as many brake fluid changes result in people letting some amount of air into the system.

And once you add the possibility of broken bleeder screws, complications with ABS and the additional time involvement - most beginner to moderately-skilled DIYers are better off leaving the system alone... if the OEM does not require brake fluid changes.

 

[Donald]

Always nice to complete a job on your own.

I hope you lubricated the pins that allow the caliper to "float" with syl-glide or similar lubricant.

Some people advocate opening the bleeder when pushing the piston back in as it good to get rid of the brake fluid in the caliper since it likely to have some rust in it. At the least its a good idea to see if you can open the bleeder so its not rusted shut for eternity. But don't snap it.

The uglyness of changing brakes is when the rotor includes the hub or has a small drum built in for the parking brake.

 

[Donald]

So with all the advice on BITOG about brake pads, what did you go with? (I hope you skiiped over the RockAuto economy section of brake pads).