How to Do These Things

With car repairs going through the roof, more car owners are choosing to do their own repairs. That includes changing the brake pads on your car. Even if you are not mechanically inclined, this is still something that you can do.

Follow these easy step-by-step instructions:

Step One: Make sure that you park your car on a flat street, do not park on a hill or at the slope part of the driveway. This will help keep the jack steady as you lift the car. Set the parking brake to keep the car from rolling.

Step Two: Using a lug wrench, loosen the lug nuts from the tire. Do not remove the lug nuts yet just loosen them.

Step Three:  Jack up the car, if you are changing the brake pads in the front, jack up the car in the front and so forth.

Step Four: Remove the lug nuts from the tire. To keep track of the lug nuts, keep them in the hubcap when you remove it to get access to the lug nuts.

Step Five: Take off the bolts that are used to hold the brake caliper in place. Keep them in a safe place. Remove the bolt and the clips that are holding the brake pads to the rotor.

Step Six: Remove the old brake pads and replace with the new ones.

Step Seven: Take some grease and smear some on the back of the brake pads and install onto the rotor or brake shoes. Install the caliper and bolts that hold the brake pads to the brakes.

Step Eight : Place the tire back on the car and tighten up the lug nuts. Pump the brakes a few times to get rid if the air that may be in the brake lines. Test the brakes before changing another side to make sure that the one side is working perfectly.

You should always change both side of the car when doing brake pads, it will help keep your brakes even and working properly. Imagine the money you will save doing this repair yourself. The only money you are spending is on brake pads and they can run between $ 20 and $ 50 depending on the grade of pads you are getting. Brake pads are available in all auto parts stores, you may want to shop around to get the best deal on the pads but the labor is free!