So guys,
I had my first shot at changing some pads today and thought I'd put up a full picture guide, as the one in the knowledge base is fairly slimmed down.
**It goes without saying that this is a GUIDE only and neither I, nor v6Clio.net, will accept any liability whatsoever if you follow these guidelines and break something or proceed to plough headfirst into a large British Oak (tree or pub)***
What's Required
Left to right:
New pads - in my case EBC Redstuff DP31526C (£52.40 from Camskill) :
Guide :
Step 1
Well obviously, first things first, you need to take the relevant wheel off and jack the car up. Crack the bolts, jack up the car and then remove the wheel. Sometimes the wheel may be stuck to the hub, if this happens use a soft mallet around the inner rim to break the bond. Leave a couple of bolts loosely engaged in case the wheel suddenly breaks free.
Step 2
Now you have access to everything you need. The rear callipers have a pin on the bottom which needs removing and then they swing outwards and upwards.
Step 3
Here you can see the pin and the clip which prevents it falling out. We need to extract this clip, you can use needle nose pliers, but I used a small torx bit to hook it out. It shouldn't be too hard. Here's the clip up close...
And finally removed...
Step 4
Now the pin needs to be tapped out, use a small punch or very small screwdriver and a small pin hammer. The pin may be quite difficult to remove as it can get quite gunked up with general corrosion and brake dust.
Here's the removed pin, note it can only go in one way as the holes in the calliper are differing sizes.
Step 5
So the calliper is now free to swing outwards and upwards. I could only get a bit of movement going, so I found that levering the calliper against the static part helped release it, like so...
This is how the calliper swings up...
Step 6
So now the old pads need to be removed, it's pretty obvious how these are held in place and are really easy to remove. You need to hold the calliper up out of the way to allow enough room for them to be removed.
On the back of the inner pad you may find some anti-rattle shims. Lever these off the old pad as you'll be putting them onto the back of the new pad. I cleaned them up with a wire brush before applying to the new pad.
I applied copper grease to both sides of the shims and then bent the tabs over to closely retain the shim agains the pad. Like so.....
Note that the inner pad has that little metal nub on the back (you can see there's a hole in the shim for it), which is not there on the outer pads.
Here you can see the tabs of the shims hooked over the new pad...
Step 7
The metal sliders (red circled) can get quite gunked up, which can cause the pads to seize and wear prematurely/unevenly. I used some wire wool by hand to clean off the sliders and then greased them up using.....
Step 8
The pistons have to be rewound into the calliper body to allow enough space for the new pads to be installed. Open the bonnet and undo the cap on the brake fluid reservoir.
The piston has 4 grooves in the outer edge. If you have a calliper rewind tool with the appropriate adaptor (it's pretty big!) then use that. Otherwise use a strip of metal, large screwdriver or in my case a 10mm chisel to wind the calliper clockwise back into the calliper.
You can see that the reservoir fluid level increases...
...so keep an eye on that level as you don't want it to overflow (brake fluid is quite an effective paint stripper).
Step 9
Once the piston is rewound, place the new pads into their holders, making sure you get the inner and outer the correct away round (and that the pad material faces the disc of course!!). Then swing the calliper back down, clean up the pin with wire wool, then copper grease it and re-insert it before reapplying the clip.
Step 10
Screw the cover back on to the reservoir, put the wheel back on and lower the car back down.
Step 11
Pump the brake pedal a few times before you drive anywhere to bring the piston into contact.
Drive safe for the first 150 miles or so as they bed in (most pads come with specific bedding-in guidelines so I recommend following those as closely as possible).
YOU'RE DONE!
For reference, these were my offside pad thicknesses after 19,000 miles. The thinner one is the outer pad.
I had my first shot at changing some pads today and thought I'd put up a full picture guide, as the one in the knowledge base is fairly slimmed down.
**It goes without saying that this is a GUIDE only and neither I, nor v6Clio.net, will accept any liability whatsoever if you follow these guidelines and break something or proceed to plough headfirst into a large British Oak (tree or pub)***
What's Required

Left to right:
- -Lever tool (in my case 13mm spanner)
-Wheel Bolt Wrench
-Small diameter allen key/screwdriver/punch (2.5mm in my case)
-Calliper rewind tool (something just under 10mm in width will do (in my case a chisel)
-Small hammer
-Wire brush
-Tool to pull out the pin retainer clip (i used a small torx head socket)
-Copper Slip
New pads - in my case EBC Redstuff DP31526C (£52.40 from Camskill) :

Guide :
Step 1

Well obviously, first things first, you need to take the relevant wheel off and jack the car up. Crack the bolts, jack up the car and then remove the wheel. Sometimes the wheel may be stuck to the hub, if this happens use a soft mallet around the inner rim to break the bond. Leave a couple of bolts loosely engaged in case the wheel suddenly breaks free.
Step 2

Now you have access to everything you need. The rear callipers have a pin on the bottom which needs removing and then they swing outwards and upwards.
Step 3

Here you can see the pin and the clip which prevents it falling out. We need to extract this clip, you can use needle nose pliers, but I used a small torx bit to hook it out. It shouldn't be too hard. Here's the clip up close...

And finally removed...

Step 4

Now the pin needs to be tapped out, use a small punch or very small screwdriver and a small pin hammer. The pin may be quite difficult to remove as it can get quite gunked up with general corrosion and brake dust.

Here's the removed pin, note it can only go in one way as the holes in the calliper are differing sizes.

Step 5

So the calliper is now free to swing outwards and upwards. I could only get a bit of movement going, so I found that levering the calliper against the static part helped release it, like so...

This is how the calliper swings up...

Step 6
So now the old pads need to be removed, it's pretty obvious how these are held in place and are really easy to remove. You need to hold the calliper up out of the way to allow enough room for them to be removed.

On the back of the inner pad you may find some anti-rattle shims. Lever these off the old pad as you'll be putting them onto the back of the new pad. I cleaned them up with a wire brush before applying to the new pad.
I applied copper grease to both sides of the shims and then bent the tabs over to closely retain the shim agains the pad. Like so.....

Note that the inner pad has that little metal nub on the back (you can see there's a hole in the shim for it), which is not there on the outer pads.
Here you can see the tabs of the shims hooked over the new pad...

Step 7

The metal sliders (red circled) can get quite gunked up, which can cause the pads to seize and wear prematurely/unevenly. I used some wire wool by hand to clean off the sliders and then greased them up using.....

Step 8
The pistons have to be rewound into the calliper body to allow enough space for the new pads to be installed. Open the bonnet and undo the cap on the brake fluid reservoir.

The piston has 4 grooves in the outer edge. If you have a calliper rewind tool with the appropriate adaptor (it's pretty big!) then use that. Otherwise use a strip of metal, large screwdriver or in my case a 10mm chisel to wind the calliper clockwise back into the calliper.

You can see that the reservoir fluid level increases...

...so keep an eye on that level as you don't want it to overflow (brake fluid is quite an effective paint stripper).
Step 9
Once the piston is rewound, place the new pads into their holders, making sure you get the inner and outer the correct away round (and that the pad material faces the disc of course!!). Then swing the calliper back down, clean up the pin with wire wool, then copper grease it and re-insert it before reapplying the clip.
Step 10
Screw the cover back on to the reservoir, put the wheel back on and lower the car back down.
Step 11
Pump the brake pedal a few times before you drive anywhere to bring the piston into contact.
Drive safe for the first 150 miles or so as they bed in (most pads come with specific bedding-in guidelines so I recommend following those as closely as possible).
YOU'RE DONE!
For reference, these were my offside pad thicknesses after 19,000 miles. The thinner one is the outer pad.


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