After several Honda-Tech member recommendations, I picked up a set of Axxis Ultimate front brake pads and 2L of ATE Super Blue Brake Fluid from Andie at http://www.cobaltfriction.com. Great guy to work with, H-T members get a discount, too.

Just got them installed today, the Helms Service Manual (and a friend, thanx Darren!) came in handy again. I had a minor issue with getting the piston pressed back in, since the new brake pads were thicker than the existing. I made a very *messy* mistake...We tried pressing the piston back in with our hands, but that didn't work. I then unscrewed the bleeder valve and tried pressing on the brake. Big mistake! The piston on the other side of the car came popping out!!! Fluid everywhere, ouch. The other one came out, too.

The piston boot did not look damaged, so we reused it. It was kind of a pain to get the piston boot seated back in, though. The actual pad removal and replacement was the easiest part, it's only fastened in by a single 14mm bolt. Had to use a breaker bar for those.

The pads feel pretty good. My stock fluid was toast, and the stock pads were crumbling and had rough, uneven spots on them. I need to bed the new ones in properly and take them to the track, so I can't say yet how much better they are compared to stock setup.



ATE Superblue made in Germany=must be good

Here's pix of the box, in case you were wondering.



Andie included this bed-in procedure:

Done.

oops.





Modified by Lang at 10:37 PM 5/21/2003

 

Search before install next time!

 

Hey if you're from Chicago, why the hell do you have Cardinals memorabilia

j/k...trader

Give us a review on the pads down the road

 

Andy

Awesome guy! Awesome Pads!

 

Nice JOb !

 

Cobalt

 

By the color of your calipers, I knew right away this would end up in disaster.


No suprises here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Night_Minx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">By the color of your calipers, I knew right away this would end up in disaster.


No suprises here.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

BWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, it's late and i found that very amusing

 

Invest for a C-Clamp.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nEoMuGen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Invest for a C-Clamp.</TD></TR></TABLE>

^ he hit the nail on the head. You need a C clamp to compress the piston back into the caliper. You can get these at any local hardware store. I always use one of the brake pads that i just took off to put on top of the piston inside the caliper and use the C clamp on it and it works like a charm every time. Make sure to pop open your master cylinder before compressing the piston as you are pushing fluid throughout the system.

mike

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by py1188 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey if you're from Chicago, why the hell do you have Cardinals memorabilia </TD></TR></TABLE>

because he must like a consistently winning team..

but yeah, pop open the master cylinder and soak up the excess next time..

thanks for supporting an expo sponsor..

 

please paint those calipers flat black

 

just leave the calipers on the car and get a flathead screwdriver or small flatbar between the pad and rotor and force them apart (you can even crack the bleader screw open to make it much easier and not force crap back up throughout the system). Pry until the piston goes all the way back in. If you do one side at a time you will not experience the fun mess of a piston coming out of the caliper. I hope you replaced the piston seal or you might have a few problems with leak or a frozen piston later. Notice I said "might".

Of course the snappy go fast red paint might peel off because of the brake fluid.

 

I guess I've always done mine one side at a time, but that would totally make sense that compressing one piston would force the other to pop out. It didn't have anything to do with the bleed screws though.

And opening the bleed screw of the caliper you are compressing makes sense too. Then you top off the reservoir when you are done and you've done a quick bleed at the same time.

I'm not sure if a screwdriver is such a good idea here. I'm sure the rotor can handle it, but it just doesn't sound right. I find that a sliding clamp does the job nicely before you even unbolt the caliper and swing it up.

 

Damn..Im still waiting for mine