My first major (major for me) DIY: Front rotor and pad replacement.
04-01-2007, 07:54 AM
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My first major (major for me) DIY: Front rotor and pad replacement.
The Situation:
You may recall about 2 months and 2,000 miles ago my front brake pad sensor warning tripped indicating I needed to start thinking about replacing my front pads. I must say I was extremely pleased to get 66K+ miles out of a set of front pads (my factory rear pads were replaced at 44K miles) since it appeared from STFA that many people have had their front pads replaced at 50K miles or less.
The Choices and Decisions:
So after the low pad warning light came on I was faced with choosing which pads I was going to use, either OEM or an aftermarket performance replacement. After much reading and internal debate I settled on Hawk HPS pads. Like any aftermarket product I guess it will have to be a wait and see approach on how I feel they perform vs. the OEM pads, but enough people on this forum have said good things about the HPS pads from a performance and low dust standpoint to warrant a leap of faith in choosing them over the OEM product.
It didn't stop with just the pads though. My front rotors were also original and although they did have a little grooving on the backside and unsightly rust build up on the outer perimeter, many people had told me that the rotors were still usable and that if I wanted to I could just get away with just having the pads replaced and call it a day. That said, I decided I didn't want to bed a new set of pads to rotors with over 60k miles of wear. So the process of researching rotors began.
I freely admit it that this process was much more difficult than deciding on which pads to go with. Not only was I concerned with performance and finding the right product that would fulfill my needs, but part of me wanted to add a little visual hint through either slotted, cross-drilled or slotted and cross-drilled rotors that I'm driving a true street performance vehicle. I even considered for a for split second upgrading to some 2-piece rotors for the weight savings aspect. In the end, after much internal deliberation, common sense prevailed and I ended up with a pair of Zimmerman plain rotors. With the plain rotors I know what I'm getting from a peformance standpoint and cost wise it was a smart move as well. 2-piece rotors would have been great but the money tree in my front yard is still in a state of winter hibernation.
The Installation:
For a while I considered taking my Zimmermans and Hawks to a local indy shop or maybe even my dealer to have them do the labor but deep down inside I wanted to take this project on myself. Although I am only a shade more mechanically inclined than my two cats, after reading the AW tech article on rotor and pad replacement and speaking with a few AW'ers who had done their own brake work I told myself this is something that I can do. A few hours of my time on a Saturday afternoon is definately worth the it as long as I don't screw it up and leave myself with a Audi that doesn't have working front brakes.
So now after a couple of deliveries from Brown all I needed was for the temperature (in Massachusetts) to warm up to the point where I could perform the job without freezing my but over. Since I knew I had limited time/miles left as far as my current front pads were concerned, not to mention the annoying low pad sensor light which came on evertime I cranked the engine and chimed in with the reminder messsage of "Hey you, when are you going to replace me. You'd better do it soon before you have no pad remaining and get that lovely metal on metal sound when trying to stop."
Finally yesterday was the day. I had all of the parts, the temperature was in the 50's and I was able to secure the assistance of a local AW'er, Murphy'sSidekick, who had performed his own rotor and pad replacement on his B6. Having someone to look over my shoulder as I did the work was huge for me. Not to mention having an extra pair of hands and eyes was a plus as well.
Start to finish the job took 4 hours but that was with alot of chit-chat, a 15 minute break and some distraction from my 3 year old so who thought it was the coolest thing that his daddy was working on his car and wanted to show us his play tools and how he could work on his play cars just like I was working on my car.
The removal and replacement of the parts is very straight forward. The only major issue we had to deal with was the 21mm caliper carrier bolts which after 68K miles were a PITA to remove. Doing the work while the car was on a jack stand was my only option since I don't have a lift in my garage or access to one. Having the car up on one would have made the job much easier but working from the side turned out to be OK.
This isn't meant to be a complete tech write up but I will topline the steps taken to get the job done.
1) Jack up front driver's side (thanks to dawint for lending me his jack and jack stands) and place a jack stand under the jack point.
2) Remove wheel.
3) Remove caliper spring clip with snub nose pliers or flat head screw driver.
4) Remove rubber cap over guide pins.
5) Remove caliper guide pins/screws with allen wrench (I don't remember the size wrench).
6) Once the guide pins are removed you can slide the caliper away from the rotor.
7) Pull outer pad off from caliper.
8) Pull inner pad off of caliper. In order to remove the inner pad completely you'll need to disconnect the pad sensor connection. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to remove it but after a pull and twist it came out of the holder and after flipping the tab up the sensor wire could be completely removed.
9) Remove the 21mm caliper carrier bolts. These were the major PITA of the day. Major elbow grease and patience were required.
10) Once the bolts are removed you can remove the caliper carrier which leaves the rotor free and clear.
11) Remove old rotor. Get out your rubber mallet for this one and pound the rotor from the backside a few times to loosen it up. I was surprised how easily they came loose after a couple of hits. I had expected that they would have been more difficult because of the length of time that they were on the wheel hub.
Now that everything was removed the install of the new parts was very easy. Just follow the removal process in reverse and you are home free.
The only point which was different was using the piston compression tool to get the piston all the way back into the caliper before you insert the new inner pad. For this step make sure that you have the top of the brake fluid reservoir open to allow the fluid level to rise without being under pressure. This is also a nice time to have a second set of eyes and hands to watch the fluid level as you are compressing the piston in. You absolutely do not won't the fluid to spill over the cap as the brake fluid is highly corosive stuff. The fluid didn't come up that much after compression the first caliper but when we were working on the second one the level rose and we had to use a turkey baster to suction the overflow fluid out.
One last thing, just remember to put the caliper spring clip back in before you remount the wheel. I forgot that step and had to remove the wheel to insert the clip - five minute delay.
A couple of points that my expert assistant made which I followed during the installation was 1) to make sure you wipe down the new rotor with Brake Clean to get any foreign material off of the rotor; 2) we used some liquid rubber on the backs of the new pads to help provide a small bond between them and the caliper.
My focus for the afternoon was getting the job done and making the best use of my assistant's time so I didn't take many pics during the job, but I did take a few. Here they are:
Old rotor on the left / New Zimmerman rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1578.jpg">
Side view: Old rotor on the left / New Zimmerman rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1577.jpg">
Close up: New Zimmerman rotor on the left /
Old rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1579.jpg">
New rotor on the hub before reinstalling the caliper
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1573.jpg">
Driver's side inner pad. Pretty worn (about 2-3 millimeters left) but the wear sensor was still in place.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1581.jpg">
Passenger side inner pad. Very worn and as you can see the pad sensor had been worn off of the pad. I guess that is why the warning light came on.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1583.jpg">
Old pads and rotors after the work is complete. Whew.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1584.jpg">
So after four hours the job was complete. I took the car out for a short drive to make sure the brakes worked and they did. I'll be performing a proper bedding proceedure today to get the new Hawk pads bedded in so I'll post a follow-up writeup on the Hawks performance vs my old OEM pads later.
Many, many thanks to Mike (Murphy'sSidekick) for his assistance and for bringing over some tools which I didn't have on site. I'm glad he let me do most of the work so I could learn for myself but it was great to have him there to help out when I needed it. Now when I replace my rear pads and rotors which I plan on doing in '08 I can do the work myself with the confidence that I can pull this job off.
One other note. My hands came away from the work cut free but man am I sore today. My quad muscles and glute's are burning. I guess I need to work out more to keep those muscles in better shape. The pain was well worth effort. At the end of the day in doing the job myself I kinda feel like I "stuck it to the man", "the man" being the stealership who would have relieved me of a couple Ben Franklins to have the work done. =))
You may recall about 2 months and 2,000 miles ago my front brake pad sensor warning tripped indicating I needed to start thinking about replacing my front pads. I must say I was extremely pleased to get 66K+ miles out of a set of front pads (my factory rear pads were replaced at 44K miles) since it appeared from STFA that many people have had their front pads replaced at 50K miles or less.
The Choices and Decisions:
So after the low pad warning light came on I was faced with choosing which pads I was going to use, either OEM or an aftermarket performance replacement. After much reading and internal debate I settled on Hawk HPS pads. Like any aftermarket product I guess it will have to be a wait and see approach on how I feel they perform vs. the OEM pads, but enough people on this forum have said good things about the HPS pads from a performance and low dust standpoint to warrant a leap of faith in choosing them over the OEM product.
It didn't stop with just the pads though. My front rotors were also original and although they did have a little grooving on the backside and unsightly rust build up on the outer perimeter, many people had told me that the rotors were still usable and that if I wanted to I could just get away with just having the pads replaced and call it a day. That said, I decided I didn't want to bed a new set of pads to rotors with over 60k miles of wear. So the process of researching rotors began.
I freely admit it that this process was much more difficult than deciding on which pads to go with. Not only was I concerned with performance and finding the right product that would fulfill my needs, but part of me wanted to add a little visual hint through either slotted, cross-drilled or slotted and cross-drilled rotors that I'm driving a true street performance vehicle. I even considered for a for split second upgrading to some 2-piece rotors for the weight savings aspect. In the end, after much internal deliberation, common sense prevailed and I ended up with a pair of Zimmerman plain rotors. With the plain rotors I know what I'm getting from a peformance standpoint and cost wise it was a smart move as well. 2-piece rotors would have been great but the money tree in my front yard is still in a state of winter hibernation.
The Installation:
For a while I considered taking my Zimmermans and Hawks to a local indy shop or maybe even my dealer to have them do the labor but deep down inside I wanted to take this project on myself. Although I am only a shade more mechanically inclined than my two cats, after reading the AW tech article on rotor and pad replacement and speaking with a few AW'ers who had done their own brake work I told myself this is something that I can do. A few hours of my time on a Saturday afternoon is definately worth the it as long as I don't screw it up and leave myself with a Audi that doesn't have working front brakes.
So now after a couple of deliveries from Brown all I needed was for the temperature (in Massachusetts) to warm up to the point where I could perform the job without freezing my but over. Since I knew I had limited time/miles left as far as my current front pads were concerned, not to mention the annoying low pad sensor light which came on evertime I cranked the engine and chimed in with the reminder messsage of "Hey you, when are you going to replace me. You'd better do it soon before you have no pad remaining and get that lovely metal on metal sound when trying to stop."
Finally yesterday was the day. I had all of the parts, the temperature was in the 50's and I was able to secure the assistance of a local AW'er, Murphy'sSidekick, who had performed his own rotor and pad replacement on his B6. Having someone to look over my shoulder as I did the work was huge for me. Not to mention having an extra pair of hands and eyes was a plus as well.
Start to finish the job took 4 hours but that was with alot of chit-chat, a 15 minute break and some distraction from my 3 year old so who thought it was the coolest thing that his daddy was working on his car and wanted to show us his play tools and how he could work on his play cars just like I was working on my car.
The removal and replacement of the parts is very straight forward. The only major issue we had to deal with was the 21mm caliper carrier bolts which after 68K miles were a PITA to remove. Doing the work while the car was on a jack stand was my only option since I don't have a lift in my garage or access to one. Having the car up on one would have made the job much easier but working from the side turned out to be OK.
This isn't meant to be a complete tech write up but I will topline the steps taken to get the job done.
1) Jack up front driver's side (thanks to dawint for lending me his jack and jack stands) and place a jack stand under the jack point.
2) Remove wheel.
3) Remove caliper spring clip with snub nose pliers or flat head screw driver.
4) Remove rubber cap over guide pins.
5) Remove caliper guide pins/screws with allen wrench (I don't remember the size wrench).
6) Once the guide pins are removed you can slide the caliper away from the rotor.
7) Pull outer pad off from caliper.
8) Pull inner pad off of caliper. In order to remove the inner pad completely you'll need to disconnect the pad sensor connection. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to remove it but after a pull and twist it came out of the holder and after flipping the tab up the sensor wire could be completely removed.
9) Remove the 21mm caliper carrier bolts. These were the major PITA of the day. Major elbow grease and patience were required.
10) Once the bolts are removed you can remove the caliper carrier which leaves the rotor free and clear.
11) Remove old rotor. Get out your rubber mallet for this one and pound the rotor from the backside a few times to loosen it up. I was surprised how easily they came loose after a couple of hits. I had expected that they would have been more difficult because of the length of time that they were on the wheel hub.
Now that everything was removed the install of the new parts was very easy. Just follow the removal process in reverse and you are home free.
The only point which was different was using the piston compression tool to get the piston all the way back into the caliper before you insert the new inner pad. For this step make sure that you have the top of the brake fluid reservoir open to allow the fluid level to rise without being under pressure. This is also a nice time to have a second set of eyes and hands to watch the fluid level as you are compressing the piston in. You absolutely do not won't the fluid to spill over the cap as the brake fluid is highly corosive stuff. The fluid didn't come up that much after compression the first caliper but when we were working on the second one the level rose and we had to use a turkey baster to suction the overflow fluid out.
One last thing, just remember to put the caliper spring clip back in before you remount the wheel. I forgot that step and had to remove the wheel to insert the clip - five minute delay.
A couple of points that my expert assistant made which I followed during the installation was 1) to make sure you wipe down the new rotor with Brake Clean to get any foreign material off of the rotor; 2) we used some liquid rubber on the backs of the new pads to help provide a small bond between them and the caliper.
My focus for the afternoon was getting the job done and making the best use of my assistant's time so I didn't take many pics during the job, but I did take a few. Here they are:
Old rotor on the left / New Zimmerman rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1578.jpg">
Side view: Old rotor on the left / New Zimmerman rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1577.jpg">
Close up: New Zimmerman rotor on the left /
Old rotor on the right
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1579.jpg">
New rotor on the hub before reinstalling the caliper
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1573.jpg">
Driver's side inner pad. Pretty worn (about 2-3 millimeters left) but the wear sensor was still in place.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1581.jpg">
Passenger side inner pad. Very worn and as you can see the pad sensor had been worn off of the pad. I guess that is why the warning light came on.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1583.jpg">
Old pads and rotors after the work is complete. Whew.
<img src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/dblinn/3-31-07Brakes/IMG_1584.jpg">
So after four hours the job was complete. I took the car out for a short drive to make sure the brakes worked and they did. I'll be performing a proper bedding proceedure today to get the new Hawk pads bedded in so I'll post a follow-up writeup on the Hawks performance vs my old OEM pads later.
Many, many thanks to Mike (Murphy'sSidekick) for his assistance and for bringing over some tools which I didn't have on site. I'm glad he let me do most of the work so I could learn for myself but it was great to have him there to help out when I needed it. Now when I replace my rear pads and rotors which I plan on doing in '08 I can do the work myself with the confidence that I can pull this job off.
One other note. My hands came away from the work cut free but man am I sore today. My quad muscles and glute's are burning. I guess I need to work out more to keep those muscles in better shape. The pain was well worth effort. At the end of the day in doing the job myself I kinda feel like I "stuck it to the man", "the man" being the stealership who would have relieved me of a couple Ben Franklins to have the work done. =))
04-01-2007, 08:18 AM
#4
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Very nice job Dave. Its a great feeling, accomplishing something yourself. Good job...
I lol'd at "the money tree in my front yard is still in a state of winter hibernation". Isn't it the truth for most of us? And I think you'll like the Hawk HPS. I put them on in the rear a few weeks ago when I replaced the brakes and they're smooth, quiet, and low dust. But again, good job.
04-01-2007, 09:54 AM
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I've never done any track/auto-X events or pushed the car to hard which is why they pads last so...
long and the rotors were still in decent shape. I probably could have continued to use them but as I said in my write-up there was a little scoring on the inner side which looked to be caused by the wear sensor once it was exposed to the rotor. I figure if these new pads and rotors last me another 50K - 60K miles I'll be happy.
