Okay guys, how y'all tonite? I just got done with my first ever brake pad change and it went relatively smoothly, I tested them out and they brake very well the pedal is softer now which is good because before it was too stiff. I have some questions though about the bolts that hold the caliper on the thingy. Is it easy to strip out that thing or weaken the threads on the assembly and the bolt itself? Cause as I was removing the 2nd bolt to change the last set of pads, I was tightening it instead of loosening it, that with a breaker bar. I did not use much force just underhanded it and managed to make it move. I don't want to have weakened anything and set it up for failure, the bolt did not snap and the thread remained intact, and I also was able to tighten it down nice and snug afterward.

What do you think? I am talking about the flange bolt:






Another thing I went to put grease on the threads because somehow I thought that I had to because the manual told me to... After I was done though I realized that it meant to grease the pins but my calipers don't have pins but bolts... However it did tell me to grease the inside of the boot which I did. Will this make the bolt wiggle its way out? Hope not.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

As long as you didn't strip the bolt, pull it back out and check the threads of both the bolt and slide.

The bolt attaches the slides to the caliper cage. The grease would go under where the rubber boots are.

As for a softer pedal, this is not correct. If the pedal is softer after a pad change, and you repalced the rears, they need to be re-adjusted. Depending on what brakes on the rear of the wagon it will be a different procedure.

 

I did not strip it out.

I have drums in the back which I recently serviced. The manual did say that the pedal would get softer at first but then stiffen back up.

How do I break in new pads?

 

Here is what my pads looked like:


This was the passenger side, both pads were like this. So little left that part of it broke off,





Driver side,







Why the difference in wear? I know you know.

 

Although this can be true, it's horseshit for proper installation. At the age our cars are the automatic adjusters may be worn or seized, if this is the case they will never auto adjust, and the pedal will stay soft. Which is crap.

Note the self adjuster components # 19; 18/24; 17/23; 21/27; 20/26
If any of the components are worn or seized the shoes will never adjust out.
Ideally, you would do a gross adjustment, expand out the jack screw so that you can easily slide the drum on, but when you try to pull it back off it hangs up. This is pretty close to ideal adjustment. The final adjustment can be done by simply backing the car up and stopping several times, you should hear the self adjusters ratchet out. To get a better understaning note this gif...

*open this in a new tab, and press play*

See how all the components become misaligned and drag against the drum, same thing happens when the car is placed in reverse but now the ratcheting self adjusters are initialized.

This action on the rear brakes will bring the pedal back up to it's normal pedal travel and stiffness.

This is the fun part.
Find a road/highway that you can travel on uninterrupted.
To properly bed in pads/shoes you will want to do 10 x 60-10MPH slow downs without stopping. Nothing aggressive, just a typical normal slowing when getting off the freeway. When you get to 10MPH accelerate back up to 60 again verify there is noone behind you or around you, and slow down again to 10, I usually hit the hazards before I to my braking so if any unwitting driver comes up behind you they will not be surprised by your braking.

If you smell brake that is fine, you do not want brake fade.
You are merely burning off any of the excessive resins from manufacture, evenly transfer friction material to the drums/rotors surfaces, and to mechanical match the pad/rotor&drum interface.
After you have done this drive around without stopping/braking for an additional 20mins. Then you can head back home/park the car/whatever.
HAH!
I may have an idea or three, but you will have to verify. This is your car.

1.
Either one of the calipers is hanging up and not fully releasing allowing the pads to drag on the rotor, or the other caliper is seizing up and not allowing full clamp force which creates more work for the opposite caliper.
2.
There is an uneven brake balance since the system is diagonally split the RR and LF are one circuit, while the LR and RF are another. By checking the wear on the shoes from L to R, if there is an imbalance, the opposite corner of the less worn pads will have less worn shoes. This could be a mechanical or hydraulic issue.
3.
Maladjustment of the rear shoes, if both shoes are worn evenly, verify that both drums are adjusted equally, ie check the self adjusters are working.
The fluid in the system is going to take the path of lease resistance, if one adjuster is not working, it will require more fluid volume to press the wheel cylinder pistons out before full pressure is reached in that circuit. This will cause a slight delay in caliper activation from Left to Right due to the diagonally split nature of the system.

 

One other note.

When you replace shoes it is good practice to replace the wheel cylinders as well. Simply the pistons/cups being pressed back into the wheel cylinder housing is going to cause them to ride on a surface that has not been used in a long time. This surface can become rough due to corrosion, crud, or both. A seal can become damaged and a leak will occur.

In my more ghetto fabulous days(being cheap) rather than pay the 5 bucks for a new wheel cylinder I would often take the existing unit apart clean it in some simple green and water to remove any crud, relube the old seals and put em back on. Although half the time I usually had to go back in and replace a leaking wheel cylinder.

 

I didn't mess with the rear drums, those were already done when I did the front. Why should they have anything to do with this?

I am confused.



I did bleed the brake system a few months back (like 8 months) and that helped the pedal spongyness a whole lot. Should I do it again? Mind you that this is the first time I did the brake job on the front, i've had this car for almost 3 years now. I am sure that by bleeding the brakes (1st time ever as well was 8 months ago) I cured the problem with the wear.

 

Did you remove the hose or open the bleeders at any point during the pad change, if so then yes I would bleed the brakes all the way arounf just to be sure.

While doing the back you car adjust the shoes if needed - there is a rubber plug you can remove and adjust them thru the backing plate.

 

You stated...
If the adjustment was not done or a self adjuster was jammed you may have some imbalance in the system.
Whenever I change pads, I crack the bleeder of that caliper open as I retract the piston. Let it dribble a bit more and then close the bleeder. The fluid in the caliper is what will be most affected by heat, and breaks down quicker. Remove that fluid and allow the fresher fluid from the MC to fill the calipers again. Replenish the MC with new fluid. A simple caliper bleed no need to flush the whole system.

Somehow I missed this...


Da Fuq?
Were both pads on that caliper worn like that?
Was #12 missing or damage from that caliper?

That little spring keeps the pads pushed down into the caliper cage.
If those springs were fine that would more likely indicate that the rotor is the incorrect size. 282mm is the Wagon rotor, 260m is coupe/sedan. Which would cause the caliper to be 11mm off, and by the looks of that chunk it looks pretty close.

 

That could be the case, the previous owner had to have been cheap and only replaced one rotor but it was the wrong size..

This might explain why the driver side there is a considerable ridge where you can tell it has worn down, but on the pass side there is no ridge at all and no much wear. Because it was replaced while the other was not.

At least I think this is the case. Should I measure them to be sure?

 

Take a picture, measure, post it up. Take a picture of both sides with the caliper mounted as well. If one side has a smaller rotor there will be a larger gap between the rotor and caliper cage.