An "essential" employees guide to doing your own brakes on your day off cause ya ain't got time or for some reason money right now...(35 Pics)

This is a rather simple procedure that a mechanic or service shop would be glad to tear your wallet a new one for. The place I work at does this for $160 per axle MINIMUM. I've done $800 brake jobs when ordering "special" pads. So I'm here to document and detail how to get it done yourself. Let's get started. Tools you'll NEED: A jack of any sort to get the car up, socket to remove wheel lugnuts, socket/wrench to remove caliper. Tools you'll want: Flathead screwdriver, jackstands for safety, some form of mechanical lube, C-clamp, possibly a small hammer to dislodge pads. First off, since we need to replace the pads, the wheels need to come off. That being said, we can't use ramps or a pit to get the job done. It needs to be jacked up with a hydraulic or mechanical jack, so we need to find a sturdy place to prop up the vehicle. That black(ish) bar with the holes in it is part of the frame. Any time a vehicle needs to be lifted on either end should be done from a part of the frame. There is no sturdier part of any vehicle and you don't have to worry about scratching it, much less damaging it. DO NOT lift from the oil pan (grey block on the left), transmission (grey bolted block on the right) or any part that isn't just a hunk of metal (exhaust, body material, covers for anything, ect.) you could crack something you would call 'vital'...

I have a hydraulic jack I'll be utilizing today. This family heirloom of a jack could with ease lift the entire vehicle off the ground and balance it so we don't have to worry about it stressing under the load. That being said, things can fail. Don't ever get under a vehicle in the air without some form of 'safety net'. In this case, I have two jack stands. If the hydraulic piston in the jack were to fail, the weight would be taken by a single of these two stands (but use two for balance). Lower the vehicle onto the stands. Notice how they're further back than the target area. This is because as the jack lowers the vehicle will move back onto them. IF you do not have stands and absolutely must get this done yourself, you can remove the tire and place it under the side of the vehicle. This way if the jack fails and the vehicle falls, it'll land on the wheel instead of the ground, saving you, the vehicle, and pavement from damage.

Perfect. A stable and sturdy lift with no chance of the vehicle moving from its intended position off the ground. The E-brake is on as well to prevent the thing from rolling backwards. The e-brake locks up the rear wheels without needing to depress the brake pedal. Since the transmission (in park) only "locks" up the front wheels, the rear wheels (only part of the vehicle on the ground) should be stationary as well.

Open the hood and loosen the brake reservoir cap. This will be crucial to a step later in the process when we compress the piston. The reservoir will always be on the driver side of the vehicle and labeled properly. NEVER ADD TO THIS FLUID UNLESS NECESSARY and don't let anything enter the top. It's safer than I made it sound, but why take necessary risks, especially with your brakes?

With the wheel removed we can see our project. The rotor is still shiny so the pads haven't worn completely down yet. Let's dive in, shall we? The big block of metal on the rotors is what is known as a 'caliper'. It's a large hunk of steel containing a hydraulic piston that pushes pads into the rotor and slows the vehicle through friction. There are two parts to the caliper. The caliper housing and the bracket. The bracket holds the entire assembly to the rest of the vehicle and the caliper is the thing holding the pads to the rotor. So we need to remove the caliper from the bracket.

The back of the caliper. What we're looking for is two bolts holding the caliper to the bracket. The ones we're after have little black rubber boots on them as the entire thing is on a sort of rail pin meant to slide back and forth as the piston extends. They do move, do not pull these pins all the way out, just the bolt. There are two more much larger bolts on the back closer to the center, don't touch these. They hold the entire assembly to the knuckle (the piece that ties where the wheel attaches to the rest of the suspension). They will be large and REALLY. ON. THERE.

let's loosen these up. I drive an accord, so being a "small vehicle" it will have relatively small bolts holding the two parts together. In this case, a 12mm bolt on the top and bottom of the caliper. Loosen both of these. Technically, you can completely remove both but it's safer to use the following trick. Remove only the bottom completely as seen here and flip the caliper upwards as seen in the image below. Some systems may require you to hold a nut to keep it from spinning as you loosen the bolt. Technically, you can do this with pliers, but a wrench allows it to sit on there alone as you focus on turning the bolt.

Ta-da! Using a bungie cord, we can hang the caliper (still attached by a at one end) from something sturdy (in this case, the spring above). This method here ensures the soft and flexible hydraulic brake line (that small backish hose running from behind the caliper to the top of the wheel well) don't flex or stretch too much and break now or later from the stress.

With the caliper removed we have access to the task at hand; the brake pads. They're the closest thing to the ground and they're designed to wear away with use so they're going to be dirty and they're going to be rusty and possibly stuck in place. Here I use a fairly large flat screwdriver to pry the pad away from the rotor. DO NOT go crazy with the prying, you may damage the rotor. This won't harm the car but the kink in the steel of the rotor will slowly tear away at your soon-to-be-new brake pads. If necessary, you can tap the pads with a hammer to break them loose or attempt to 'chisel' them from behind to push them off the rotor,

Bingo. Not too much trouble getting this one off. You can see how the pad sits on the bracket with the 'tooth' that slides on its own little but thick rail.

These pads still had some life left in them, but they were wearing unevenly. Not a good sign. On the left we have a brand new pad and how it should look going on (maybe 6 or 8mm thick as opposed to the 3 or 4 on the old hardware). When buying brakes there are several types: Ceramic, Metalic, and "Organic" (Hahahaha! No). The difference between these is the composition and performance of the material they're made of. The previous pad, on the right, was metallic. A metallic brake pad is composed heavily of metals like copper and iron bits whereas a ceramic is more heavily composed of ceramic fibers. The difference for a daily driving pleb like myself is not notable but the ceramics are quieter, wear the rotor slower, don't produce much dust, and is 'tacky' enough to stop consistently whether they're cold or hot.

Remove the back pad in the same way. There will always be two. Notice how much thicker the bottom of the pad is than the top. Not ideal. On a side note (my car doesn't have it) see the small holes on the top and bottom of the pad spine? They're for a small metal 'spring' that may come with some kits. The spring is supposed to push the pads fully off the rotor when you release the brake. The only difference in installation is that you need to keep them in place when re-placing the caliper. Not a tough situation, but kinda annoying.

Yo dawg, we heard you like brackets. So we put a bracket on your bracket so your bracket doesn't sieze up the pads and make it impossible to get off later. These little slivers of steel put a smooth layer of another material between your pads and the bracket. The idea is that the pads slide on them with little effort and so when everything inevitably rusts it won't rust together since there will be a barrier between it all. My box of new pads came with new hardware so I'll be replacing these. You don't have to, but I'm gonna rather than just waste the hardware. MAKE SURE THE NEW TABS ARE THE SAME SIZE/SHAPE BEFORE REMOVAL! Cause you're gonna bend them when prying them off and they'll be impossible to get back on if you have to re-use them.

Fully removed barrier bracket.

One on top too.

New and old hardware.

Guys at work always joke about my relationship with this stuff. I put it on every nut and bolt that I remove from my car. It prevents rust and won't allow parts to seize together. It's not necessary, but I love the stuff and will use it every chance I get.

I put a little of the anti-seize on the bracket before I put the barrier bracket on so they pop off in a few years when I have to do this again. Note the shape against the bracket. Some of these are not symetrical and it matters as to which ones go where. In my case they're all symmetrical so I don't have to figure it out and can just throw them on.

B-e-a-utifil.

Here we have the two new pads to put on this rotor. Note the silver plates on the back of them. This acts sort've like out barrier bracket from, the step before, only instead of preventing our brake pad from grinding and binding to the caliper bracket, it prevents the caliper piston and caliper itself from binding to the back of each pad. Also notice the piece of metal sticking off of the right pad in the back there. That's what's known as a "squealer". It's a piece of steel that sits a liiiitle over the back of the pad so when the whole pad wears down enough it'll come into contact with the rotor and produce that horrible squealing sound when you brake that lets you know it's time to replace the brakes.

The squealer (bottom left of the new pad, barely visible) will almost always go on the back side of the rotor and will almost always be getting pulled away from the pad when in contact with the rotor. Some pads allow you to pull the squealers off the pad or require you to install them yourself if you want them.

Proper installation of the pad onto the bracket. Sometimes you can just place them on and push them in, but I find it easier to insert it at an angle and THEN push the pad in. Note my use of the anti-seize on top of the barrier bracket as well as under it. The back pad will install the same way.

With the pads done we move onto the caliper piston. When you step on the brake, this is the part that moves and sandwiches the two pads against the rotor to stop the car. Again, being that this is a small car, it only has the one piston. Some calipers will have two pistons, fewer still will have one or two on either side of the caliper pushing inwards.

Compressing this should be easy. There are special and rather fun tools to do this with but here we'll be using a C-clamp because I have it and it's easy. Here it is resting right on the rim of the piston because I know how to balance it without it falling off when I compress the thing, but you can just as easily put the clamp IN the piston cup. The only drawback there is you have to extend the clamp all the way down in there to compress and all the way back to remove the tool. I've done this by simply using a screwdriver as a lever against the caliper to press it back in, I've also just used a large set of channel locks, but the clamp just makes it easy and is a common tool

Perfect. That black rubber boot against the piston is there to keep dirt out. It's preferable not to tear it but it's not atrociously bad if you do. Preferably it should be flush with the piston like this. Remember when we left the brake fluid reservoir cap off? That's so it doesn't pop the cap off when the fluid rushes back in there.

ANTI-SEIZE! YAAAAAASSSSS. In all seriousness, this lubricates it a bit so if the pad moves when braking it won't make a horrific squeak against the metal of the piston here. I did the same with the two 'prongs' on the front of the caliper. Anything in contact with the pads, really.

Now that we have new hardware installed and the piston is compressed we can flip the caliper back down over it all. Just like up the one screw (or both, depending on how it's disassembled) and thread it back together. Squealer visible. *cough* ANTISEIZEONTHEBOLT *cough*

This is not something you want to want to leave loose. You also don't have to put the wrath of god into tightening it again. Typically, I'll get them as snug as I can by pushing on the wratchet, then bang on it clockwise a few times to make sure it's snug.

Since the pistons are fully compressed all the fluid behind them should have gone back into the reservoir. Look at how full that is! Also, the color should be akin to vegetable oil or honey. If it's blue or green or full of floaty bits, it's time to flush the system, but that's a whole other process. Technically speaking, brake fluid should be replaced every 3 to 5 years. TIGHTEN THE CAP. Anyway, hop in the car and step on the brake a few times. The first two presses will be OUTSTANDINGLY easy for two reasons. 1, the vacuum assist still has a a bit left in it from when the car ran last. 2, the pistons are not yet contacting the pads and are meeting no resistance as they extend inwards to do so. after it becomes impossible to press the brake down easy, step out and check the caliper.

Through the hole in the top (side) you should see the piston contacting the pads (where all that glorious anti-seize is getting pressed out). This means the piston is in full contact with the pad and it is safe to start the vehicle to get a good few presses in.

So start it up and step on the brakes a few times. If it feels like it does any other day of driving, you're golden. If the brakes go straight to the floor with no resistance, then press again. If it continues without resistance, you have a problem. If it doesn't stiffen up, get out and check the calipers to make sure nothing has exploded. You'll know if it has, there will be fluid EVERYWHERE.

Now that the piston is all compressed and the entire assembly is back together, the fluid will be at its final position. Look for the full or max mark on the reservoir and make sure the level is between there and the "fill" mark. It should be, unless there was ever a leak in your system or you need to replace your rear brakes as well (pistons fully extended).

Close up image of the fluid level. Still vague, but apparently full.

Put the wheels back on and torque them down. Each vehicle will have a different torque spec for the lugnuts. I happen to know my car requires 80lbft and know roughly what that feels like. Trucks and such may require something like 160lbft which is ridiculous so I bid you luck with that...

Now that the vehicle is fully assembled it's time to test it out. If something is going to break or is broken, you want it to be clear now (not that there's much to go wrong, so don't be concerned, but again let's just be safe). Put the car in drive or reverse or whatever and let it idle in whatever direction it's headed (all you need is any movement at all, even a few inches forward) and immediately step on the brake. If you don't come to screaming halt, there's a problem. Do it again. And again. Rock that SOB! Cool, now that it's clear you can stop, get some speed (10mph or so) and stop short again. You want to stress your work. Again, if it's gonna fail, make it happen when you expect it. Ideally, you can do this in an empty lot where no one will question what the crap you're doing and if the planets have aligned and 2020 continues its wrath and for some unholy reason the car is not stopping you have plenty of time to kill the engine and not hit anything in the process. Anyway, get some more speed and do it again. Stop as short as you possibly can. If the wheels lock up under the braking, so be it. If (when) you find nothing has failed, take it for a drive. And that's it! We've successfully completely a brake pad replacement on a car for $30 instead of $200 like most places will charge you. Now I don't have another image for tax purposes so you're just gonna have to accept that I did all this barefoot and an literally driving in this image with my big toe.