"Brake Caliper Overhaul"...thoughts? - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

XplodBoom · 01-15-2003, 15:21

K guys, i know that Kmart auto get a bad wrap, I just took my car down out of curiosity for one of those free checkup thangs.....

A fwe of the things they pointed out were:

Tie rod ends worn
Lower trailing arm bushes worn
Disc Brake Caliper overhaul (pads wearing uneven)

Tyres and Alignment.... Im getting those both done on Friday so no drama there

My question is, when they say brake caliper overhaul, is it better just to get them done or buy new ones?? I dont know whats involved in a caliper overhaul, or if its possible to do it at home (i have a mechanic mate and dad and myself are OK with cars)... I just wanna know coz im thinking of putting DBA slotted rotors on the front and i dont wanna warp them coz the calipers F%%ked

Thanks for any help

XplodEd EA · 01-16-2003, 00:06

I myself would just get them overhauled, there's no point in buying new ones, they aren't very complicated and parts for it are cheap, I would however leave it to the experts, brakes aren't something you should be stuffing around with if you have no idea

But there is also really no need to overhaul them just because the pads are wearing slightly unevenly, unless it is highly excessive and can be definitley blamed by the rotors. Usually its warped discs that cause uneven wear of pads

Also the tie rod ends arrn't difficult to change, I advise if you think you can do it yourself do it straight away before you get the wheel alignment done. If you decide to do the tie rod ends later you will have to pay to get another wheel alignment done

RAPTOR · 01-16-2003, 14:12

Have a go yourself if you have an ineterest in such things.

The calipers probably just aren't sliding on their pins properly causing the uneven wear, it's very common. Easy to fix with a bit of time and effort, fit new pads at the same time.

XplodBoom · 01-16-2003, 14:42

Thanks for the replies people

Im interested in doing it myself, only so I can learn more about the car than I know now and so I dont have to go without the car for a couple of days (need it to get to work, dont have another car that works at the moment)

How do I go the work you described Raptor??? If theres a link to an FAQ or document i can read that explains the steps in detail it would be greatly appreciated

Rollin · 01-18-2003, 00:08

you can fix the calipers in like an hour

jack up the front and support with stands.

remove front wheels

undo the 2 bolts holding the caliper on - should be 13mm i think.

try and remover the pins (NOT the pistons!!) from the caliper, there will be rubber seals in the way, clean them (might need a bit of sandpaper

get some wheel bearing grease or 'anti seize' paste and coat the pins thinly and evenly, and also try and do the same to the insides of the slides.

reassemble, make sure you tighten the caliper bolts and the wheels nuts!!

RAPTOR · 01-19-2003, 13:53

Quote:

Originally posted by XplodBoom
Thanks for the replies people
.....How do I do the work you described Raptor??? ....

What Rollin said.
Note that each caliper has 2 differently sized bolts, make sure you put thm back in the right way. Not that they would fit the otherway.

06-09-2003, 23:20

yeah, don't get sucked in paying $$$ for a brake overhaul. I have recently done my fronts and it took about 3 hours to do them both as I repaced my bearings while I had the discs off. Backs are bit different because of the hand break.

Basically the two small slide pistons rust in the bore and seize up. I had to spray mine with WD40 and belt them with a rubber mallett to get them out, then rubbed them back with some fine emery cloth, also bubbed back the inner bores, then used some special 'o-ring' rubber which doesn't react with the rubber dust seals and put them back in with new pads on.

If you want to go the whole way you can pop the main piston out and replace the main piston rubber seal.

If you do all this and machine you disks and get new pads (decent ones, not cheap ones, trust me) then you will have perfect front brakes, better than K-Mart could do and cheaper for you.

Cheers

MaroonS

Martin · 06-09-2003, 23:29

Yeah and dont tighten the small bolt on the caliper too much.....

TopGhia · 06-10-2003, 01:16

Here is a good article on it, with lots of pretty pictures.

http://www.batauto.com/articles/frntbrks.shtml

Hope that helps.

XplodBoom · 06-19-2003, 21:19

Thanks for the advice/help peoples, I've gone out and bought the following stuff:

DBA Slotted Rotors for the front
PBR Brand spanking new Calipers (overhaul was 60 and the new calipers were only 80 bucks, so i thought CBF overhauling myself so may as well get new ones)
Brake Fluid
Bearing grease
Hub Seals
Bendix Performax Brake Pads

I will be doing it all this weekend, spewin i dont have a digicam coz id love to do a tutorial or something...