Man of Honour
Okay, just a simple guide as it's a regular topic that comes up for discussion - how to save yourself rather a lot of labour charges by doing a simple job like changing discs and pads yourself. You need a jack, axle stands and a basic tool kit. Your caliper may well be held on with a special allen-key style socket. No, a normal allen key will not really do the job, not enough leverage.
A caliper winding tool is also useful, but not essential.
Please not all cars are different and may have different methods for holding the pads in (pins, bars, etc) - but with a little common sense the theory is basically the same.
I accept no responsibility for you damaging yourself or your car, this post is for interest value only!
One car. Jack it up and take off the wheel....
To reveal a truly rogered brake disc. Ignore the rust, that is of no consequence - but check out the scoring on the disc face! Not good. This is what happens if you don't change your pads the moment they begin to get noisy.
So, remove the anti vibration clips (these hold the caliper and slider apart at the right angle)
Then using a power bar, crack off the two nuts (usually allen-head sockets) that hold the caliper to the caliper carrier. These may be VERY tight! Then undo them with a socket. Sometimes both need to come out, sometimes just the top one and then let the caliper swing down. On the Mondeo, both need to come out.
At this stage, pop the lid off the brake fluid reservoir, or you will have a mighty struggle to push the pistons back into the caliper.
A caliper winding tool is also useful, but not essential.
Please not all cars are different and may have different methods for holding the pads in (pins, bars, etc) - but with a little common sense the theory is basically the same.
I accept no responsibility for you damaging yourself or your car, this post is for interest value only!
One car. Jack it up and take off the wheel....
To reveal a truly rogered brake disc. Ignore the rust, that is of no consequence - but check out the scoring on the disc face! Not good. This is what happens if you don't change your pads the moment they begin to get noisy.
So, remove the anti vibration clips (these hold the caliper and slider apart at the right angle)
Then using a power bar, crack off the two nuts (usually allen-head sockets) that hold the caliper to the caliper carrier. These may be VERY tight! Then undo them with a socket. Sometimes both need to come out, sometimes just the top one and then let the caliper swing down. On the Mondeo, both need to come out.
At this stage, pop the lid off the brake fluid reservoir, or you will have a mighty struggle to push the pistons back into the caliper.
) and drive gingerly down the road, press the brakes a few times to get the pedal feel back, it may be spongey at first.
doing it. However from now on I'll just stick to changing the pads rather than the discs - too much effort without the right tools!
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
