this is for a civic coupe. I went to the dealer today to get some brake pads, the front costed me $48.55! is this correct? thought it would be cheaper than that. And i was going to get rear brake pads, but the guy at the dealer told me that the rear only has shoes. and if i picked those up, it would cost total almost $100 for everything so i just took the front. He told me the rear is not necessary to change as frequent as the front. anyways, going to change the front pads this weekend. any tippers? is it very plain and straight forward? i have a socket set and the jacks, etc. someone help me out. THANKS!

 

anyone?

 

on a civic with drum brakes you won't need to change out the shoes now.
probably not until years.

i didn't change my rears in my gsr til 2 years
fronts i change every year cause im hard on em.

thats a normal price. 30-80 dollars are normal prices.
i use pepboys lifetime warranty brake pads front and rear.
so whenever their kinda low i get a new set.

 

Loosen lug nuts
jack up car
set on jack stands
remove lugs and wheels
turn wheel all the way one direction...
open brake fluid resevoir
place a rag under it
remove the the two 12mm bolts to take off the caliper
slide pads out
apply grease to pad tracks
insert new pads and shims
compress piston with big 'C' clamp or brake piston compressor
place caliper over pads and rotor
put back two bolts and tighten

repeat for other side


50 is ok for pads... could have gotten them cheaper or more expensive.. .
I have $45 pads for the street and $150 pads for the track...
it's up to you
after 80,000 miles I still could have gone longer on my rear shoes



[Modified by Crazydave, 7:09 AM 3/5/2002]

 

question, why do you open the brake fluid reservoir? Does it make it easier to compress the piston back into the caliper because I haven't run into problems with that. Thanks.

 

I just did my brakes too....for the first time after 120k on the clock (a lot of highway driving)!!

First of all, don't go to the dealer to get parts....get them offline at places like HParts.com (link in my sig).

Second; when I did my brakes, I replaced the rotors. I know that when doing a typical brake job, you just have the rotors turned on a lathe, however, I was informed that Honda rotors are MINIMAL thickness....which means they can not be turned. I have NOT checked on the valididty of this information, but I did not want to wait for the rotors to get turned, let alone find out that they can't be turned...so I just opted to buy new ones from the start.

Third; since I replaced the rotors, I had to use an impact screwdriver. Now, I don't know if thats the technical name for it, but its basically a big *** piece of aluminum with a screwdriver tip in the end of it. You seat the device, and while turning it, you smack the end of it with a hammer. The rotors are held in by 2 Philips screws, and using this got them out with ease.

Forth; make sure to use the included grease/silicone for the pads and shims.

Fifth; use Honda parts. I only say this, because I had a friend who used Trak-Auto premium pads and all he got was brake squeel....no matter how much of that anti-squeel stuff he used. I have no evidence that 3rd party pads are 'bad'.... I personally just stick with OEM parts for my car.

Sixth; if you got some miles on the car, perhaps a caliper rebuild kit is in order....if you wanna go that far. Hell, at the same time you could go ahead and flush your brake system too.

7th (spelling it out got old ); The Helms manual will clearly explain all of this, if you had one. Check my sig for that link too.

 

I bought factory acura pads for the rear of my 2g integra for around that price. Probably higher that at Napa or similar but there is a difference. I run Hawk HP on the front since this is a street car. Love the Hawks and these were about the same cost.

With rotors, unless there is a problem (warped, cracked, severly grooved) I would not turn them or replace them. Turning only removes material which makes them more likely to warp in the future- especially if autocrossing or road racing. I would suggest using good rotors also- either Honda/Acura or Brembos. I have replaced my Carquest rotors twice in 3k miles since they kept warping. Just recently put Brembos in and so far so good. I only use Honda rotors on my ITC CRX with Hawk blues and have never had problems.

Hope this helps.

OBW- when you remove the master cylinder cap to allow the fluid to retract into the reservior, make sure the fluid does not overfill when retracting the caliper piston. A lot of brake fluid is pretty tough on paint.

Devin

 

so then i would need a compressor to get the piston out or can i use a hammer for that?......

 

Get a cheap C clamp. Never use a hammer if you damage the seals around the piston you have to rebuild the caliper.

 

how much do c-clamps go for?

 

they're cheap. Less than $10 for sure.

Use the old worn brake pads as "padding" so that you can put even pressure on both calipers per side, and to make sure the c slamp doesn't score the piston top. That is, if you have a 4 pot caliper.

Seems like $50 for OEM pads is pretty expensive. Seems to me you can get Hawk HPS or HP+s from tirerack.com for about that price. Granted, they won't give you the pad life (or rotor life for that matter) that OEMs will, but they certainly will stop you better (but will also give you quite a bit more brake dust to clean off your wheels)