DIY: Brakes
Over the winter the right rear brake on my Mazda started acting up. Mainly the floating caliper stopped floating. This caused it to burn through the inner brake pad at an accelerated rate. This also tore up the rotor. Since I’d be replacing the caliper and rotor on the right side, it only made sense to also replace the rotor on the left, along with new brake pads.
Changing disc brakes is actually pretty easy.
- Remove pin
- Flip caliper out of way
- Remove worn out pads
- Insert new pads
- Push back piston
- Replace caliper and pin
Changing the whole assembly is only slightly more involved. After removing the old pads, it was a simple manner of disconnecting the hydraulic brake line and two bolts that hold the caliper in place. The rotor then slides off of the wheel studs.
Next is just a reversal of the process: slide on the new rotor, bolt the new caliper in place, connect hydraulic line, insert pads. The final step is to bleed the brake to fill the hydraulic piston with fluid and to bleed out any air that has gotten into the line. Just to be on the safe side, I bled all four brakes.
It took me about 4 hours to complete and cost right about $200 in parts (mostly because I upgraded to premium rotors and pads).
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