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Old 04-20-2006, 05:25 AM   #1
CLR4ILS
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Default DIY - How to replace Stock STI Brembo brake pads

I saw another guy wondering how to do this so I thought I'd throw this out there, let me know what you think...

I'm assuming this is for the stock Brembo sti brakes...


Hey this is about the simplest thing to do. I looked everywhere for instructions and couldn't find any, and this was the first time I had ever replaced brakes on a car. So I was a little worried myself how to do it. The brembos have floating pads which makes it insanely easy to replace them without even taking off the caliper. My explanation may be a little long winded once you get the wheel off and see how self explanatory it is...

Here's what I used:
Hammer
Large nail
New pads
old shims
some bright orange brake grease from autozone
some pin grease ( in a little packet by the counter from autozone)
and of course some way to jack up the car and get the wheel off

Step one: There are cotter pins holding in the two top large horizontal pins, take those out, then you can knock, with the hammer and nail, the big pins(that the pads are floating on), just be careful because the paint on the calipers seems really soft. This will also remove the large metal "spring"that I think forces the pads to stay down.

Step two: Make sure the cap on your brake fluid reservoir is open and the reservoir is not full, because you're going to be pushing the pads back in to the caliper to remove them which will push fluid back through the system.

Step three: With even pressure, push on the top loops that were holding the pads to the big pins. Just use careful even pressure and they will start to move in towards the caliper, you only need to move them a little to clear where they've started digging into the rotor.

Step four: Pull out the pads, and keep the shims, unless the new pads have have shims with them. I just used the old ones on my pads, because they have direction arrows on them(which I found out was causing all my brake noise because now they don't squeak at all unless I'm backing up, the guys that had them on last put the shims on backwards).

Step four: Now take the new pads and brake grease and grease the crap out of where the shim touches the pad, and where the pistons touch the shim, this is where a ton of brake noise comes from. Don't get any grease on the friction surface of the pads.

Step five: Slide the new pads, making sure that the shims arrows are pointing the right direction of travel(forward) and the shims face the pistons, into the calipers and just let them sit there, you might have to wedge them in there and move the pistons back out of the way.

Step six: Now take the pin grease(little packet) and grease the crap out of the large pins and slide one of those into the holes that it came from, making sure both pads are hanging on it.

Step seven: Take the metal spring thing and put it under the large pin and then repeat step six with the other large pin.

Step eight: Put the cotter pins back in place.

Step nine: Repeat with all the other brakes because they are all the same.

Step ten: Go bed in the brakes properly, which you can read a bunch of other stuff on. Be extremely careful because once your new brake pads are on, and until the system recharges itself with pressure there is literally no braking ability, so just tap the brakes a couple of times to build up some pressure and find a long deserted road to break them in.

Good luck!!

As with all of these mods, I accept no responsibilty for you doing this mod. You do it at your own risk. I am not a mechanic, this is just how I did it, so I'm not sure if there is a better way to do it. I have had no problems in the two months that I have had them on there.
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Old 04-20-2006, 07:45 AM   #2
RUrunning
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did you just close your eyes and pick a forum to post this thread in?
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Old 04-20-2006, 07:52 AM   #3
markadopolus
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seems like it.
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Old 04-20-2006, 08:13 AM   #4
Phil Jr.
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Default

wrong forum yes but very awsome post. This needs to be made a sticky somewhere. There was no instructions for doing this on either scoobymods or nasioc.
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Old 04-20-2006, 10:31 AM   #5
CLR4ILS
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Default

Jeez, yeah sorry guys, I completely forgot about the brake forum I posted this at 4:30 in the morning cause I couldn't sleep and found a guy wanting to do this. Please move it if you can!
Flame on!!
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Old 04-20-2006, 11:19 AM   #6
AcquaCow
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Jr.
wrong forum yes but very awsome post. This needs to be made a sticky somewhere. There was no instructions for doing this on either scoobymods or nasioc.
There's a flash page with step-by-step pics with audio floating around from a nissan site.

I don't have the URL handy, but it's a decent how-to.

-- Dave
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Old 04-20-2006, 02:14 PM   #7
andy sti
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Good DIY. I too just did this for the first time on any car. I agree, it is very easy and kinda fun.
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Old 04-26-2006, 12:08 AM   #8
shemoves
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in the middle of pad change. Regarding the grease...mine says "Do not use on internal caliper pistons," does that mean I should not put any on the side of the shim that touches the end of the piston?
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Old 10-05-2006, 02:03 PM   #9
fast_xr4
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I generally turn or replace rotors when getting new pads...
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Old 10-05-2006, 08:35 PM   #10
calib17a
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FYI I believe pads and rotors are covered under original warranty.
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Old 10-06-2006, 12:45 AM   #11
Web Foot STi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calib17a View Post
FYI I believe pads and rotors are covered under original warranty.
Some of us are no longer under the 3 year, 36k miles warrantee.
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Old 11-06-2010, 11:19 AM   #12
Sailwin
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Unhappy Does anyone have an answer for this question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by shemoves View Post
in the middle of pad change. Regarding the grease...mine says "Do not use on internal caliper pistons," does that mean I should not put any on the side of the shim that touches the end of the piston?
Does any one have an answer to this? I have an 05 STI and had the dealer change the front pads and rotors, and they did not grease the pads or pins, they also drilled out the bottom driver side mounting bolt on the caliper.

The car was making a squealling sound immediately and wasn't as smooth. I had Brembo slotted rotors and EBC redstuff pads put on. I did the rears myself the previoous weekend and greased everything, and there are as smooth as can be. But my fronts are horrible!

I ordered used front calipers and will have them today to replace the one the dealer drilled out the threads on and didn't tell me about. But I also greased the pins and pads of the passenger side on and was planning on doing the same to the driver one once the new caliper is on.

Should I wash of the grease??? Are the shims supposed to take the place of the grease????
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Old 11-06-2010, 02:26 PM   #13
LTBlackBird
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Not knocking the OP, but dam some of these walkthrough's crack me up. If you NEED a walkthrough to change your brake pads on brembo's then I really don't think you should be working on your own car, this is almost as bad in my opinion as an oil change how to.
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Old 11-06-2010, 06:22 PM   #14
Pakelika
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I disagree, I used this walkthrough and the one on scooby mods to do my brake pads/rotors this weekend. First time doing it, and turned out great. It's all about learning, and now that i've done it, yeah it seems easy, but until you do it for the first time, it's good to have a guide.

Thanks OP.
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Old 11-26-2010, 05:51 PM   #15
tyboe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LTBlackBird View Post
Not knocking the OP, but dam some of these walkthrough's crack me up. If you NEED a walkthrough to change your brake pads on brembo's then I really don't think you should be working on your own car, this is almost as bad in my opinion as an oil change how to.
Knocking this poster, damn some of these subie *** ***** crack me up. I don't see why you need to drop your two cents on why a thread such as this is not needed. People are obviously still in need of help even after the post and like said above, are just trying to learn.

If you can't manage to control your irrelevant, arrogant posting problem and NEED to shut the hell up, maybe you shouldn't even post? This is almost as bad as a noob posting a "how do i change oil thread"

Thanks to the OP. This was, in fact, helpful..
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Old 11-29-2011, 07:03 PM   #16
White Owl
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I agree with tyboe. Ive done brakes before but why not do some researching before diving in to find out if theres a special tool needed or something to watch out for. Thanks OP
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Old 06-25-2012, 04:38 PM   #17
DDScooby
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resurrection time. I wish I would have know this was here a few months ago. <yeah didn't do idiot search> I stared at the caliper like it was puzzle piece for about 10 minutes before I just started pulling stuff apart. (I had already unbolted the caliper to replace the rotors)

Pull pin-pad fall out...just about that simple. Mozel Tov!
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Old 11-14-2015, 01:55 PM   #18
GoingBonkers
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OMGHi2U

Quote:
Originally Posted by RUrunning View Post
did you just close your eyes and pick a forum to post this thread in?
did you just cry about it? its a good post, who cares
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