mlevk

Anyone done their rear brakes on their own.
I've done drums before, how's the parking brake
work on the caliper , does the cable actuate the
piston to hold the disc?

2UX31 YM

I just did my back brakes last week. Let me tell you it was the easiest brake job that I have ever done. There are 2 bolts holding the caliper on(12MM I think) once that is off there is alot of brake line to work with. Carefully pull off the two L shaped caliper seperators from the top of the rear pads. Then remove the outer pad. To remove the inner pad be-careful because it has a brake wear sensor attached to it. to remove the sensor push the wires towards the part of the pad that come into contact with the rotor. DO NOT PULL THE WIRES. They will break and your brake wear light on the dash will come on and stay on. On the factory pads their are 2 thin plates on the outside of each pad. Remove those with a thin screwdriver or razor blade. You will re-use these on the new pads. Go back to your caliper and with a 10mm wrench break the bleeder valve on the caliper loose. Do not remove it all the way. Just crack it loose. Now with a caliper tool (from your local parts store) or a C clamp slowly push the piston back in all the way.
Put the new pads on the same way you took the old ones off. make sure to place the outer plates from the old pads the same way on the new pads.

One thing that I did was to use a 17mm(?) socket and remove 2 bolts on each bracket that holds the caliper on. I had to use a 20" breaker bar and some wd-40 to break these bolts loose. There are 2 slide pins with rubber boots surrounding them. I carefully pulled these out and re-greased these pins and boots. I found that One of mine was locked up and causing my pad to wear on an angle. It does not take that long and is a good idea if you plan on keeping you car for a few more years.

BTW. If you end up breaking the brake wear sensor, and do not want to replace it, you can simply cut the sensor off and connect the 2 wires together.

mlevk

Thanks for the step by step , I appreciate it.
MLEVK

kjbro

MLEVK, Was wondering if you completed this job and if you found it to be as easy as first thought. Was reviewing old posts on rear brakes and found this one. 2UX31 YM gave a great instructional and I was interested to hear your comments. I have a 95 LS400 that may need this work done and was not sure if I could do this myself. Thanks

mlevk

Hi KJBRO,

Yes ,it's pretty easy. Not too different form the front.
But now my front rotors are wearing thin and has a
small warp in them. I've have 36K on them , at least.
Anyone treid HAWK pads for the front ?