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Brake light / changing pads
My brake light came on. Any idea how many miles I would still have left on the pads? I have 52k miles on the car; not sure if they've ever been changed...
Is it hard to change brake pads if you've never done it before? Or should I just have somebody do it?
What tools are needed and what kind of brakes do I need?
Thx for any useful info and/or links!
| | Reply » Brake light / changing pads |
Not really that hard - it's more messy then anything else.
- Put the car on jack stands (safety first!)
- Remove the wheel
- The little clip needs to come off - use a larger pair of needle nose pliers - it can be tricky
- behind the caliper, where it mounts to the carrier, there should be 2 plastic caps on the caliper - remove those
- You'll need a 8mm (or is it 7mm?) hex socket to remove the guide bolts - they are on pretty tight
- The caliper should swing out of the way - don't let it hang on the hose!
- Clean it with some brake cleaner - helps to prevent squeaks
- Inspect the seals for leaks and tears - may need to replaced
- Use a large adjustable wrench to squeaze the piston back into the caliper - use the old brake pad as a protector for the piston
- Coat the back of the new pads (where they contact the piston and caliper) with anti-squeal
- Put pads back in caliper
- mount caliper and tighten carrier bolts to 22 ft-lbs
- Cut the end off the old sensor, and connect the two wires, cover with a wire nut, tape and zip tie out of the way. - they are worthless since you should do this:
- Check brake pads every 10k miles!
Since you are near the end of service life for the rotors, you might as well do those too. Not too much harder, but you need to take off the caliper carrier as well. 2 more bolts that will need to be re-tightened to 81 ft-lbs. But if you've never done this, you really should get somebody to help the 1st time. You need to clean the mating surfaces to ensure the new rotors run true, use anti-seaze appropriately, adjust the rear parking brakes, etc.
Not technically difficult, but time consuming and dirty.
To reset the service light, put the ignition into position 2 for at least 1 min. Should reset (at least that's what works on an e36)
Some more resources:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...Brake_Pads.htm
http://www.smithnet.ca/bmwclub_faqs/...akes/start.htm
http://www.unofficialbmw.com/e36/bra...rake_pads.html
When you are all done, do this:
http://www.pagidusa.com/bedding_in_procedure.htm
| | Reply » Brake light / changing pads |
BTW, the brake quite that I use is "CRC Disk Brake Quite" - should be at any autoparts store - or use a similar product.
| | Reply » Brake light / changing pads |
The clip comes out in under 2 seconds if you do it the easy way. It might go flying a few feet, so just don't to it while parked right next to another car.
| | Reply » Brake light / changing pads |
Other way is to take LARGE channel lock pliers and squeeze from the point that Daniel's photo shows compress, and the top of the caliper. Pops right off, and doesn't go flying.
Some clips have a notch there, which in that case, teh tip of the pliers holds onto teh spring and it doesn't even drop to the floor.
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Brake light / changing pads