When you push the piston back in you can use one of the old brake pads and place it between the piston and c-clamp... then just dust it off when your done.
Great video! I have changed lots of disc brakes on lots of cars, but always check RU-vid , cause some have different details. For example my old Nissan Maxima, required a specific tool to compress piston. I just changed my front brakes for my 2005 Saturn and referenced your video, was helpful.
Good video. I was just looking to see if I need any fancy tools for the caliper bolts. You answered that pretty quick but I watched the rest of the video anyway. You used AC delco, that was probably a better choice than you realized. OE pads are almost always zinc coated and painted. They are a superior pad in that regard and it makes a big difference in rust belt states. There are no store brand that are worth buying in the rust belt. 2 pieces of info most videos are missing is the brake fluid and brake lines. Brake fluid for absorbs water and should be replaced every 2 years, your advice on doing it with your brakes was good, most people are overdue. Now the rubber lines. The manufacturer only has a recommended service life of 6 years. Realistically, a brake line might last 30 years but if you're flushing fluid through the lines, you might as well add some cheap insurance by replacing the rubber lines first, chances are you're 2x or more over the the manufacturers recommended service life anyway. My brakes are in good shape on factory rotors and pads except for a warped rotor, just like yours. So i won't bother with the rears except to replace the lines. I'm not in the rust belt so with the mileage of the car i could get away with any pads really, chances are they will outlast the car but I still went with the AC delco.
Great video! Though I couldnt get the bolts off of my brake. I tried and tried but they were practically welded shut. Might just take it someplace where they have better tools. I just have a small rachet.
This might sound dumb, but are you sure you are turning the bolts the right way? I have had a hard time getting them off before because I was turning them the wrong way. It's easy to mix up, because the bolt is backwards to you. What I do, is pick up the socket wrench and while just holding it, I turn the socket and see which way it turns. I hold the socket and turn the wrench, and I make sure it's lefty loosy. I have turned the wrong way several times, I learned eventually
I know this Saturn red lines had 5 lug wheels and had disc brakes on both front and back you might be able to switch the wheel hubs to a red line wheel hub and then get the brake set for the red line. I am not 100% sure about that though
I am also doing a 2005 Saturn Ion and wanted to clean a lube the caliper pins and rubber boot. I could only get the bottom pin out and clean it and the rubber boot. Is the top pin not suppose to come out I can turn it, but it doesn't want to come out? Is there a trick to getting the top pin out? Bottom came right out?
Hopefully this explanation will help someone else with a problem of getting their top pin out of the caliper bracket. If you have no problems getting the pins out, stop read here. I decided to take the caliper bracket off even though all I was doing was new brake pads and not new rotors. See more on rotors below. Once I had the bracket off I put the exposed end of the pin, which is rectangular in shape inside a vise, and then I could pull on the caliper bracket with both hands while rotating it and with the pin held firmly in my vise I was able to pull the caliper bracket free from the pin. With the caliper bracket still attached to the back of the wheel, all I could do was push on the rectangular ends of the pin with my thumbs and fingers, or a screw driver. With the bracket off I could pull with all my weight and also turn and rotate it at the same time. The lube, on the pin, was quite dirty and on the top pin there is a rubber flat o ring on the very end of the pin. That flat o ring, was what made it so hard to pull out. The flat o ring, along with the old dirty lube, creates kind of a vacuum inside the pin cylinder and makes it really hard to pull that top pin out of the cylinder. Once I cleaned the pin and the cylinder and put new Sil-Glyde lubricant on both, the pin did move freely back and forth like it is supposed to. By the way those 15mm bolts that hold the caliper bracket on where a bear to break loose. I used a breaker bar, but an impact wrench would have been better because the top bolt is hard to get to. Perhaps one should always take the caliper bracket off and then take the rotors and have them turned at a machine shop. Mine are in very good shape, no ridge created where the old pads wear against the rotor and do not appear to be warped. I did a crude check for warpage and they do not appear warped.
What's the point of changing your rotors They look good. Probably for demonstrations purposes. I havnt gone far into the video. Let's see how your drums are
Kevin Nguyen I took them down to get turned (resurfaced) and they told me they were too thin to resurface and they were warped. I had shaking while braking due to them being warped. They needed to be replaced
BEERS 'n GEARS same here. And when those discs are warped, it doesn’t take a huge amount of warpage to make it vibrate so it can be difficult to notice
Mike Harding I agree! I think I had a wheel under there for safety. but you're correct! one time my dad was replacing a CV axle on his old Jetta. and he asked me to lower the car slowly as he manuvered the shaft or spin the other one or something. I nearly dropped the whole car on his legs and I literally came close to crapping my pants.
It's a little difficult to do any work on a vehicle if you don't put your body parts under it. Even an oil change requires getting under it to remove the drain plug.
Yeah I agree! You should never beat up your hands to loosen up bolts! I always use a dead blow rubber mallet! Plus it's easier with a socket and ratchet. But otherwise good video!
Kevin bacon Peterson oh! I didn't know what he meant by painful to watch. I have several hammers, brass mallet, rubber mallet. I didn't think much of it. it didn't hurt unless the bolt didn't break loose.
