ctandc72
Well-Known Member
Me personally, the first thing I would do is jack up the car and remove a front wheel. Check the brake pads and see what they look like. Look for any grooves or weird wear on the rotors. They might not even need replacing. Weird stuff happens with cars. I once got a small pebble lodged in between a brake pad and the rotor on a car. Don't ask - I don't know how it happened. Pads weren't even worn. Sanded the rotor down, lubed everything up and never touched the brakes on that vehicle for the next few years I owned.
Disc brake replacement is one of the easiest jobs you can do on your car. One reason being you take ONE side apart first. If you have any questions about how things go back together, you can walk around and take a look at the other side - which SHOULD still be together.
While @BmacIL and others surely know their stuff - it pays to remember that they are recommending brake pads and components they use on their cars, and their cars tend to get driven hard in autocross / SCCA / track etc. I'm not saying those recommendations aren't solid and from their personal experiences, I'm saying if you are honest with yourself in how you drive your car, odds are you don't need to go that far down the rabbit hole when replacing / servicing OEM brakes. Of course that's just my opinion.
Also - I'm really skeptical that at 36K miles your factory brakes are worn to the point of needing replacing, unless you are really hard on brakes or this is a trait of the PP brakes. In all my years wrenching on cars and being around others who do the same - I see plenty of people upgrade brakes - just like they do other things on their car, and that's great, but after upgrading say pads and rotors, a lot of owners tend to ignore their brakes until they start making noise or not performing well. Me personally, I flush the brake fluid in all my vehicles once a year. At the same time I also lube the caliper pins. It is not expensive, the tools required (depending how much of a tool horse you are) are not hard or pricey to acquire and it's not complicated. I'm on my second Mity-Vac in like 20 years. They cost like $35 with everything you need to bleed / flush brakes. The entire process doesn't take long at all. It normally takes me longer to find the Mity-Vac in the shop, then find the brake fluid I bought and gather everything up.
Again just my opinion.
Disc brake replacement is one of the easiest jobs you can do on your car. One reason being you take ONE side apart first. If you have any questions about how things go back together, you can walk around and take a look at the other side - which SHOULD still be together.
While @BmacIL and others surely know their stuff - it pays to remember that they are recommending brake pads and components they use on their cars, and their cars tend to get driven hard in autocross / SCCA / track etc. I'm not saying those recommendations aren't solid and from their personal experiences, I'm saying if you are honest with yourself in how you drive your car, odds are you don't need to go that far down the rabbit hole when replacing / servicing OEM brakes. Of course that's just my opinion.
Also - I'm really skeptical that at 36K miles your factory brakes are worn to the point of needing replacing, unless you are really hard on brakes or this is a trait of the PP brakes. In all my years wrenching on cars and being around others who do the same - I see plenty of people upgrade brakes - just like they do other things on their car, and that's great, but after upgrading say pads and rotors, a lot of owners tend to ignore their brakes until they start making noise or not performing well. Me personally, I flush the brake fluid in all my vehicles once a year. At the same time I also lube the caliper pins. It is not expensive, the tools required (depending how much of a tool horse you are) are not hard or pricey to acquire and it's not complicated. I'm on my second Mity-Vac in like 20 years. They cost like $35 with everything you need to bleed / flush brakes. The entire process doesn't take long at all. It normally takes me longer to find the Mity-Vac in the shop, then find the brake fluid I bought and gather everything up.
Again just my opinion.
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