Front Brake Replacement -- New Here

[encoderer]

Hey guys.. My finance has a 99 corolla.. I've never owned a toyota, and haven't yet done any work on hers.

Need to replace the front pads today.

I'm not a mechanic by a long shot but disc brakes are about as easy as it gets from my experience.

Anything I need to know about these before going in?

Rotors look good and she's planning on trading this in come January or so, so I'm just going to replace the pads.

I did see pictures that look like caliper has a "pin" or "hinge" at the top and a bolt at the bottom? Anything else different?

[huangxin]

1. pop the hood, open the brake fluid reservoir
2. jack up the car, remove the tire
3. use a c-clamp push the piston back into the caliper (keep an eye on the brake fluid reservoir, it might overflow, siphon the extra fluid if necessary)
4. remove the two 14mm bolt holding the caliper to the car (only remove the top and bottom bolts, you DO NOT want to touch the middle bolt, that's the brake line)
5. use a metal wire hang the caliper to the front spring (don't let the caliper hang on by the brake line)
6. slide off the old pads and put on the new ones
7. installation is the reverse of removal
8. repeat on the other side

after you get done changing the pads on both sides, get in the car and press the brake pedal a few times till you get a resistance. then, top off the brake fluid if necessary, close the hood, and go for a test drive.

[encoderer]

Thanks man. Went smoothly as predicted. Just wanted to make sure there weren't any "gotchas" I should know about. I drive a Volvo myself and I'll never forget the first time I popped that front left wheel off to find that the caliper bolts -- and every other one -- were all Torx !

Job went quick, done in about 2 hours even with what I had to work with: scissor jack and cinder blocks instead of Jack Stands.

One note for anybody finding this using the Search feature later:

I almost didn't realize that after you remove the 2 caliper bolts there are 2 4-5" pins inside rubber boots that those 2 shorter bolts screw in to.

I took them out and re-greased using brake pad grease but I didn't even notice them there until I was just about bolting the caliper back into place.