The only other tools that I recommend are safety glasses and knee pads. You younger guys may not want to use knee pads but trust me there is a point 20 years from now when you will wish that you had. Same goes for the safety glasses. A little flake of rust can turn into a trip to the eye doc and a week of recovery. I've learned the safety glass thing the hard way twice and always wear them now. Just passing down my experience. Love the video by the way Joe. Just one more comment, I had a '78 Datsun 280ZX and it had caliper pistons that needed to be turned back. The piston would rotate when the parking brake was applied so that it kept the pads snug against the rotor. When I stopped applying the parking brake my rear pads lasted a lot longer. It probably helped improved my gas mileage as well but back then nobody cared about gas mileage.
Safety is always good advice. With your 78 Datsun I would replace the grease on the pins, and the grease boots. Inspect and replace bent pins. With old grease the slider pins will seize. I have replaced bent pins. So anytime you do a brake job on a older vehicle you always want to check the grease and the pins by removing the pins and inspecting them. Grease will dry up and get hard. Also make sure the hand brake cable has no tension when down. I love Datsuns.
Thank you so much for this video. I struggled for an hour trying to compress my piston with no success. Had to put my old pads back on. Your video is the only one I've found that shows that cube for turning the piston in.
Yea, you can't compress it till you screw it down. First time I did the rear brakes I also struggled trying to compress it. The piston is connected to a electronic actuator motor that compresses the brake pads by screwing the piston in and out with a motor. You can hear it when setting the parking brake and no peddle pressure is applied. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Great video. I found the two mentioned tools for this project at my local auto parts store. Tools cost: ~$6 each. Front and rear AC Delco brake pads from Rock Auto: $99. For a few hours of my time, I saved a bundle.
Yeah worse thing they ever put on the newer Subaru:brain dead. Perfect place to spill your coffee and corrode it out, perfect place to accidentally hit it. If it suddenly gets engaged and you cannot turn it off. You can't even use it manually in an emergency ( my old Subaru the manual brake saved me when I blew a brake line I was able to gain control of the car and even drive it home. ) This electric brake would have killed me
Thanks. Dealer wanted $275 to do this job. I bought the pads and two tools you mentioned and did it myself for $50 in about an hour. Car almost made it to 100k miles before needing this done so I shouldn’t have to do this again for another 6 years. 👍🏼
@@jessuckakepow they might not be...and maybe neither is the dealership. In my business insurance premium has gone up, utilities have gone up, property taxes have gone up, government licensing other new charges have been added and my accountant and bookeeper is making double the amount of money....and the cost of parts have gone up for everything in my business. Neither myself nor my employees are seeing the benefit. The government is seeing a huge benefit to the inflation across the board because the state is collecting record sales tax on higher prices and the the first time has a budget surplus and argued for three months on where they were going to blow the extra money
Getting ready to do this job, and would never have known about that e brake thing. Heading out to get the cube now. Thanks so much for the great video!!
That cube has been updated. The old one has 5 sides and a smooth side. The new one has nubs on all 6 sides. I bought the "OEM tools" branded one from autozone. 5 sides. Would not fit the piston on the back of a 2015 Outback. The dots weren't far enough apart to span the notches on the piston. I didn't know at the time the parking brake motor can be unbolted and the shaft turned manually to retract the piston. I got out the jumper cables and hooked power to the motor and ran the piston out.
I said to purchase tools from a local parts store. Amazon sells FAKE stuff. Cubes are a little different because of patents on tools. Sounds like you spent more time taking more stuff apart making the job harder. Autoparts stores also sell different brands of tools. So each store might have a different piston cube design. NAPA autoparts has their own brand of tools. A local store will also accept returns if you bought the wrong cube. You want to purchase everything from a local store so you can return it the same day if it is wrong. Someone could also sell you the wrong pads. So these problems is why I said to use a local parts store. Sounds like you did it your way. I don't think OEM makes that 5 sided cube. Autozone sells a 6 sided OEMTOOLS brake cube. Different Chineese companies make that 5 sided cube for under $5. OEMTOOLS and PT are American companies. So China made a 5 sided cube because the tools are patented in America. You bought a chineese knock off from Amazon. Was it OEM or OEMTOOLS? There is a difference.
These tools and instructions will also work for the 2020-2024 Outback. The only difference is the part number on the brake pads, so something is different, but they work the same way.
Be EXTRA careful when replacing ONLY the pads and not the rotors. The grooves on the rotor (like a record) have not meshed with the new pads. lots of light braking to get these things to seat/ mesh. Dealers won't do brakes without either a resurfaced rotor or replaced rotor.
You're right, some vehicles maintenance say to change pads, rotors, and brake fluid at 60k miles. The rotors just slide off without tools. I already replaced the rotors. I do need to replace the brake fluid. I don't turn rotors, because it makes them thinner and more likely to warp. Everytime I got rotors turned they warped instantly and I felt ripped off. The rear pad on this Outback are organic and last 60k miles, but the fronts are semi metallic pads that last over 120k miles. So this is why the rear pads wear out faster. Pads are not msde out of the same material.
Excellent video. Thanks so much. Was wondering what the trick is on the spring. My old spring goes on fairly easy, but I haven't had any luck with the new one.
Hey Joe! Question. I have almost the exact vehicle. Only mines a 2018 Outback Touring, that looks like a limited based on the wheels. Anyhow. I got my rear brake pads replaced two weeks ago, however-they're still squeaking when I stop. The place where I got them put on seems to so good work, and they always quote less than other places I've taken my vehicles. My question is this: what might be causing the squeaking? One of the things my mechanic asked me, was if I wanted to do the rear brakes and rotors for $300 or just the pads for $150. He said my rotors didn't appear to have any grooves in them. But, as a caveat, he said he couldn't gaurantee the squeaking wouls stop if I didn't replace the rotors. I thought that was just a small way to motivate me to replace the rotors. Bc, like I said, they're pretty honest. In the past, They've even resurfaced an old rotor for me as an option. So. I'm wondering if the rotor is fine, why would it cause the squeaking? Additionally, could it be that maybe they used cheaper pads, and it's actually the pad quality causing the squeak. Lastly, would replacing the rotors stop squeaking from a cheap pad? Another way to ask that same question, would replacing rotors on some cheap pads have the same effect as putting a higher grade pad onto a presumably "ok" rotor? I know that's a diffocult question to answer sight unseen. I'm just trying to do what's best for my vehicle w/out doing what's not needed. I'd rather take the loss on the pads and put better pads on a set of rotors that are good, than slap a new set of rotors onto alresdy cheap pads. Thanks. What state are you in, btw? 🙏
Buy some brake and rotor cleaner and clean your rotors and pads. Try not to spray the grease on the pads. Spray inside and outside of rotor, drive forward about 10ft and brake, and repeat to clean rotors and pads. Inspect pads thickness and make sure they look new. The rear pads have a wear indicator that squeels when they are low and need changed. And it will usually be touching the rotor carving a grove into the rotor if pads are low. You can inspect the outer edge of the rotor for a grove. The front pads don't have a wear indicator. Your rotors could have grease on them, or rear pads need changed. Grease usually makes the pad and rotor slip, and not grip good if grease is on rotors, and it can make noise if metal is on the pad rubbing the rotor. a tiny metal flake on the pad could make it squeel. So I would buy brake cleaner first, and spray rotors several times, and try to use the brakes with the cleaner on the rotors. Then hose it off. Mechanic might of got grease on the rotor or pads surface when they installed them.
@sleepwalker29 Hey Joe, what about the front pads? You did such a great job showing how to do that rear that I subscribed and checked out your other vids. Now I have to find another video that will be longer, full of irrelevant info and probably skip the important parts. Now as for wrastling alligators . . . .
When I started this channel I posted random things to see what direction my channel was going. I was on the Alamosa Colorado Gator Wrestling Team in Moffat Colorado, and did some NHRA NIRA drag racing in the 90s at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX. I use to port and polish heads. I only have 66 videos and as I make more I was going to delete the older videos that don't pertain to repairs. It is hard finding only mechanical things to repair that people are interested in so I don't post often. I will make a front brake pad video for you. I like to edit my videos to get to the point. This is why I have no intro. I'm not going to post a hour long video with ten minutes of info for the viewer to absorb just to get more watch time, and commercial time like other youtubers. You can count on that. I always use hand tools and I like to show how to use the tools. You will never see me use a impact gun. Thanks for subscribing and commenting so I know what you are interested in seeing. I will try to make a front brake pad video as soon as possible for you.
another video told me to take off the slider pins, i decided to follow your video instead. what do i need to do when i put them back in? do i just need to grease them?
yes you should regrease the sliders, especially because rear brakes last so long that when it's time for pads, it's time to clean and regrease sliders. dirt and corrosion can cause the sliders to stick and wear pads quicker.
The piston is locked, and you will break it if you don't rotate it first. You have to rotate the piston before compressing it. The back of the caliper is plastic with a electric motor, so you might break the plastic with a C clamp. I think the front calipers don't have plastic or electric actuators. The electric motor is for the parking brake on rear calipers. It works like a hand brake. So the front and rear calipers are different. The front also allow you to swing the caliper all the way up to remove pads, and the rear don't swing up high enough to remove pads. So you have to remove the whole caliper on the rear to change pads.
I just put normal pads on it. Whatever the parts store recommends. They all sell different brands. I believe I have organic pads on the rear and they last 60k miles. My front pads are ceramic and they last longer.
Here is the US PATENT US6029550A for the 6 sided American made brake piston cube. Don't buy the 5 sided cube. I thought this might be interesting. Here is a link from Google to the US Patent. patents.google.com/patent/US6029550A/en
You got to remove the parking brake wiring harness from the rear calipers. You peal the rubber dust cover back on it, and then press the tabs on it to disconnect it.
