Brakes questions....

1. Is there a way we can just look and see if it is time to get new brakes, or do we need to bring it to a shop?

2. Anybody in the San Diego area know a shop that does good and cheap brakes?

 

Ive just heard unless you know what you are doing, don't mess with the brakes, because if you bleed them incorrectly, they can fail... so i don't mess with them.
Anybody in San Diego know brakes?

What do I look for on the fronts? I know I can see the disc, but how do I see the pads, without taking off the rims?

 

I didn't need to bleed my brakes when I replaced my front pads as I didn't disconnect the caliper.

 

oh....

I thought you had to do that to replace brake pads...

hell, maybe I can do it myself.
Is there a DIY brake change?

 

Im diggin the color matched caliper.

DIY brake change anyone?

 

Hey Owen, whats up ? As far as brakes go , 80% + stopping power comes from the front brakes (disc) what you should be looking/listening for is any unusual sqeaking,squealing, or metal to metal sounds when braking, or if you "feel" any grinding or vibrations thru the brake pedal while braking. you can feel the front side of the rotors for wear grooves that result from over use of worn out disc brake pads (basically means your metal 2 metal,
...notgood

 

Thanks Doug,
no bad noises, more just the occasional squeeking when I first start it up, and use the brakes the first bit of the drive. I was just wondering where to look to check them, and also how to change out the pads.
No really bad noises, just don't want it to get to that point.

 

Swapping pads is pretty straight forward on the 05's up. You dont have to remove the brake caliper. There are two pins that hold the pads in. Remove those pins and the spring clips and the pads slide straight out towards the rear. If your rotors need to be turned, then I would have a shop do that. Other than that, its pretty simple.

 

Just like Doug said. YOur front are the once that do most of the stopping so if your brakes are going out its usually the front. When the brakes get really low and its time to replace them there is a piece of metal that starts hitting the disk and squeeking everytime you stop or else just remove the front tires and the break pad is divided into 2 pieces right down the middle untill it really wears out it turns into one and thats when you know you need breaks. trust me if there really bad people that you dont even know on the street will tell you that you need brakes but also if it gets that bad you can ruin your disk and new disk = more $$$$

 

if you lived down in the san fernando valley area i could have helped you check them and change them if needed.

 

DAMN!

i used to live in Encino... now a little bit more south....

too bad