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How to Check & Change Your Car Brakes

Overview:
Car maintenance is an important thing when owning a car and having to go to the mechanic shop to get
your brakes changed can be expensive and time-consuming, so it can be beneficial for you and your
wallet to change your own brakes. That is the aim of this info document, to give you at least some
semblance of knowledge on how to change your car brakes.

NoteWarning: Not all cars have the same types of breaks. Some have disc/rotor brakes on all four sides,
while other cars have the two disc/rotor brakes in the front with two drum brakes in the back. We will
be working on a Honda CRV 1998, which has the later form of brakes, so we will only be working on the
front two brakes for this tutorial.

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How to Tell When You Need to Replace Your Brake Pads:
 Constant squeaking or squealing noise coming from brakes.
 Bringing the car to a stop takes more time than it used to.
 Vibrating Brake Pedal
 The nose of your car pulls to one side when you brake.
 Indicator Light turns on (Not all cars have this. Please Consult with your car manual)

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Tools : Materials:
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 Jack & Jack stands  New Break Pads Formatted: Number of columns: 1
 Lug wrench  Brake Fluid (Optional) Formatted: Font color: Text 2
 C-clamp and piece of 2x4 wood
 Wrench (choose a socket, open end or
adjustable wrench)
Bungee cord or piece of string

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Tools Required:
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 Jack & Jack stands Formatted: Line spacing: single
 Lug wrench
 C-clamp and piece of 2x4 wood
 Wrench (choose a socket, open end or adjustable wrench)
 Bungee cord or piece of string

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Materials Required:
 New Break Pads
 Brake Fluid (Optional)

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Before Starting:
1. Makes Sure the Car is properly parked.
2. Turn the steering wheel towards the side you will first be working on.
3. Open the car hood and remove the brake fluid cap.
4. Loosen the lug nuts of the wheel on the side you are going to start.

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Lifting the Car:
1. Locate jack points.
 a. On every car, there are specific spots where a jack plate is welded to the body. This is
where the jack needs to go.

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2. Place the jack right under your chosen point.

3. Use the jack to then pick up the car.
4. Place a jack stand under the car's frame/other jack point.
5. Slowly lower the jack until it rests upon the jack stand.

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Removing the Wheel:
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1. Fully remove the lug nuts from the wheel.
2. Remove the wheel.

You now have access to the brake assembly and can

safely reach under the car.

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Removing Caliper:
1. Find the two slider bolts, or pins, that hold the caliper in place. In this car the bolts are on the
backside of the calipers.
2. You will need the wrench to loosen and remove the sliders.
a. They can be long but once it is fully loosened, it will slide out easily.
3. Move the caliper out of the way. You will typically need to tie the caliper in place so that it won’t Formatted: Centered
get in the way. Note: Do not disconnect any hydraulic brake lines (a.k.a the rubber hose).

Warning: Do not disconnect any Formatted: Centered, No bullets or numbering

hydraulic brake lines (a.k.a the rubber
hose).
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Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 +
Alignment: Left + Aligned at: 0.25" + Tab
after: 0" + Indent at: 0.5"

3.

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Checking & Replacing Brake Pads:
Now that you have your brake pads exposed Formatted: Border: : (Shadowed Single solid
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you can check to see if they need to be replaced.
To the right is a side-by-side comparison of the
new brakes pads (left) and the old ones (right).

Notice
Notice that
that the
the older
older brake
brake pads
pads have
have
considerable
considerable less material than the
less material than the new
new one.
one.
This
This means that you should probably replace
means that you should probably replace
your
your brake
brake pads.
pads.

Removing: To remove the brake pads you will simply need to slide them out, but if you are Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5"
having trouble taking them out you can use a flat screw driver to leverage them out.

Brackets: Some small metal brackets might have fallen off when you removed the brake pads,
you can replace the old ones with new ones, though you don’t have to and sometimes the old
ones fit better than the new ones.

Replacing: All you have to do is slide the brake pads back in just like when you first took them
out.

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Retracting Piston:
In order to put the caliper back on you will need to push back the pistons on the inside of the caliper to Formatted: Number of columns: 1, Force equal
column width
make space for the thicker pads.

These pistons press on the brake pads and squeeze the disc to stop the car. Your car might only have
one piston for each wheeleach wheel, but it’s still the same.

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To push the pistons back you will need to:

1. Place the 2x4 piece of wood in the caliper, making sure that the wood goes over the piston/s.
2. Use a C-clamp to grapple the caliper and wood together.
3. Then slowly and steadily start to close the C-clamp until the piston is all the way in.
a. While doing this be mindful of the brake fluid level, as to not have it overflow. If the
level gets to a point where it will overflow, simply just use a syringe or baster to remove
some.
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Put Caliper back on:
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1. Once the piston has fully retracted the

caliper should be able to be slipped
back into place with ease.
2. Grease up the slider bolts.
3. Reinstall and re-tighten them.

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Finishing Off:
1. Straighten the car’s wheels
2. Remount the wheel and put the lug nuts back on.
3. Put the jack to where you originally lifted it and raise it above the jack stands.
4. Remove the jack stand.
5. Lower the car to the ground.
6. Repeat for the other side.

Once done with all of it, pump the car’s breakbrake pedal to get the pressure back to normal and
take it for a test drive to make sure everything feels fine. Once everything is good give yourself a pat
on the back because have successfully finished changing your car brakes. Good job!