How to Change Brake Pads

Although it may sound a bit technical and complicated, changing brake pads on your vehicle wheels is a very easy ‘do it yourself’ task that you can learn right away, and with some experience.

To start with, you will need to know a few basics about brake pads and what they do. Here’s your key-

What do Brake Pads do?

Brake pads are simple, flat metal structures that are fitted inside the braking unit attached on the wheel of a vehicle. These flat quadrangular plates help in reducing the wheel rotations by clamping over the wheel disc causing friction. To put it simply, the wheel of your vehicle or the tire is attached to a spinning disc. Engine revolutions cause the disc to spin resulting in wheel rotations. Brake pads are fitted so that they are almost in contact with wheel disc, and when the brakes are applied, two or more brake pads approximate against each other holding the disc wheel in between. The resultant friction causes a drastic reduction in speed.

Why Change Brake Pads?

Brake pads decrease wheel speed by causing friction against the wheel disc and hence, over time, get eroded gradually. This is a slow process and depends upon the number of times brakes are applied and the individual braking style. Eventually, brake pads erode away and expose the steel or metal surface beneath. This way whenever you apply the brakes, the wheel disc rubs against the brake metal plates with a shrill squeaking sound. The car will always stop but this will eventually cause a great damage to the braking unit as well as the wheel disc surface.

When to Change Brake Pads?

There are two ways to ascertain if your brake pads need to be changed. Very simply, when you start hearing squeaking every time you brake, this is a good indication that you might have to change the brake pads. They are fitted with metal points that are exposed even before the brake lining is completely eroded. Thus you have some time before you have to change them. With squeaking brakes, you will need to change them within a month or sooner to avoid greater damage.

The other way is to take off the car wheel, and inspect how much of the brake pad lining is still remaining through certain holes on the braking unit.

Changing Brake Pads

To start with, you need new brake pads, and a simple set of tools that come along with your car tool kit. Before you purchase new brake pad consult the car manual about the exact specifications for your car type.

When you have all the necessary material on your hands, you will need to park your car safely on an even surface, like your garage, and jack up the wheels. Jacking up is quite easy but make sure that your jack is steady and properly elevated to prevent any mishaps.

With the jack up, the first thing to do is to knock the wheel cover off, and unbolt the wheel from the car. This is pretty easy, and you will need to engage the car in the largest gear (first) and, or apply the handbrakes full-on before unbolting.

Once the wheel is down, the inner wheel disc is exposed along with the braking unit that can be easily seen disrupting the disc circumference. The braking unit is attached to some other adjacent structure and the only point where it comes in contact with the disc is at the brake pads.

Now, since you might have used the handbrakes to steady the wheel while unbolting, you will need to release it, else the braking unit will not come off.

Most braking units are attached at a single point to adjacent car body, and this is usually at the bottom or the lower side. Unscrewing the nut at this point will render it loose and you can easily spot the inner brake pads. All you now need to do is take out worn out pads replace them with fresh ones. Putting everything back is very easy should take you not more than a few minutes.

Once the braking unit is fitted, make sure that you have not tinkered with the pressure hose attached to it that carries the brake fluid. Put back the wheel now and you are ready to use your new brake pads. You will need to repeat the same process for all the wheels but be very sure that you have carefully checked if the brakes are working alright before you take the car out to the roads.