My sister 2000 Honda Accord LX coupe front brake pads need to be replaced. Here is my way of doing it. Honda really designed their cars with ease of work in mind. This is the most easiest pads replacement ever. A Honda shop would charge her $145 to replace them. The semi metallic pads from NAPA cost me $23.00 which was my gift for her this Xmas.
Put the blocks on both front and back of the rear opposite the wheel that you work on. Pull the hand brake on. Put the car in gear if you have stick shift…. all those safety things that you should know before you start the job.
Jack the front of the car up so you can get the wheel off. Loosen the lugs while it’s still on the ground for easy removal when it’s jacked up.
The wheel
Front Disc brake
All I need to do is to remove 1 bolt that securing the caliper to the wheel. The wrench was 17 or 18 mm, I forgot to write it down, see the picture below.
After the bolt is removed, just lift the caliper up and the pads are there to be removed and installed. So easy!!!
Remove the old pads, use the old pads_backing to minimize the squeaks on the new pads if they don’t have any.
Install the new pads: Make sure the warning metal tap is at the top so it won’t break when the pads got low and the tap starts to scrape the disc to create the noise that tells you to replace the pads.
We need to compress the piston to the original position. Open the brake fluid reservoir cap to catch the overflow fluid. I use the turkey juice sucker to suck some of the fluid if necessary. Normally, the fluid level is low due to the piston expansion. We need the tool to compress the piston.
Close the caliper and put back the bolt, tighten to specs. I tighten it as much as I can.
Put back the wheel, wheel cover and tighten all wheel lugs before moving to the other side.
Cheers,
12/08/07