Front Disc Brakes and How to Replace Them

Well I've been out for a bit but I'm back with yet another video in the EricTheCarGuy series. This one was requested by more than one of my followers and with good reason. Disc brakes and their replacement are one of the things that will come up in the life of every car. In the case of the car that I worked on the brake pads were not necessarily worn out but it had a brake pulsation that warranted the replacement of the brake rotors, I replaced the pads at the request of the customer and at my recommendation. When you replace rotors it's always a good idea to start with new pads. The old pads after they have been on the car for a while tend to wear into the rotors that they worked with over time, putting new rotors on without changing the pads means that the pads will not have the same contact area that they did with their old rotors. Bottom line, new or machined rotors=new pads.

The tool that I used in this video is easy to make, all it requires is an old soft drink bottle with a hole drilled in the cap. Then take some aquarium tubing or some plastic tubing that you may find at a hardware store and insert it into the opening of the bottle. The tubing that I used was not of a diameter that could go directly onto a bleeder valve so I used a small piece of vacuum line at the tip to attach to bleeder valves. Over time the tubing may get hard or brittle, I keep a little fluid in the bottom of the bottle for weight but it also seems to prevent the tubing from hardening if it stays submerged in brake fluid. This same tool can be used to bleed brakes to keep from making a mess but I've also found it helpful if you don't have a friend to help bleed, you won't suck air back into the system because the end of the tube is submerged in fluid.

I think I may do another video just on removing rotors. I got lucky on this job, the rotors just fell off. This is not usually the case mind you, normally you have to beat on them for some time before they finally come off. I have special magic to apply in these situations that I will share with you at a later date.

I'm also going to cover rear disc brake rotor and pad replacement. These can be tricky because of all the different ways you can compress the caliper piston. Look for that sometime in the future.

I can't think of much else I can impart here. Good luck.

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ETCG