Brake Work - 05/06/2006

Brake time! In the 7 years I have owned this car, I didn't do anything to the brakes. They stopped great, I figured why mess with perfection? Not the best attitude to have. I went through my receipts and noticed that back in 2001 I spent $350 on a rear drum and the shop noticed that both of my front caliper bleeders were stuck! I figured this could not be good! Steve suggested we check them and bleed them just for good measure.


The transmission is leaking from ONE bolt. Nylon washer takes care of it... for now. We'll check it in a few weeks.


Passenger side caliper exposed.


Pads are just a little worn...


Yup. Worn is right (compared to the new ones).


Sheerah the attack dog standing guard.


Needs new hoses. They are only $15 each, much better than the wagon's $50 per... Take care of this next time.


Put back together!


All cleaned up and re-assembled.


Driver's caliper taken apart. Good thing the pad wear was even on both sides and even across both pads.


Driver's caliper back together. Easy enough.


Driver's drum. Pads back here are like new since the brakes are so far out of adjustment they were barely contacting. Clicking the adjusters 15 times fixes that.

The calipers opened quite easily with a little PB Blaster and a tap or two. Good deal! Guess the shop didn't want to risk it and didn't try very hard to open them. They charged me $80 to bleed the brakes though... A couple taps of the pedal for each wheel and clean fluid flowed properly. Shows that the brake system was in good shape, just needed new pads. I'll replace the hoses soon since it can't be a bad thing to do...

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Last updated May 6th, 2006