Hey guys, my brakes are screeching really bad now and I was told I need a brake job and i wanted to know what all I need to really do to save some money and get my brakes done?

 

On your brake pads are something called a wear sensor, it's basically a piece of metal that when your brakes wear down to that point, you hear the metal rub the rotor.

You could easily just have to replace the brakes on the front or the rear to get rid of the noise. Grab new pads, some anti-seize, and get to work. Remove your tires, remove the caliper and hang from the springs (with twine/rope), take the master cylinder cover off, pry the caliper off, replace pads (putting new anti-seize on the backs of the new pads), use a c-clamp to push the caliper piston back in (push on an old pad), put the caliper back on over the new pads, tighten it all down, put the wheels on, replace the cap, start the car and pump the brakes a few times, test drive.

(in a nutshell)

 

If they just started screeching and there is no damage to the rotor you can just change the pads. If you can do it yourself it wont be more then 50 to 100 dollars with a good pad. If you don't know how to do it heres a video from youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnQxEjGq2A

 

So basically new pads right?? What about brake fluid flush??

 

If you have never done it before, and have the extra cash go for it. But brake fluid is kind of that fluid that no one really cares about :p But it truly is good to flush it every now and then.

 

FYI - If you do the brake job yourself, I have found it helpful to use a C-Clamp to compress the caliper piston BEFORE I remove any caliper bolts. Allows the caliper to slide right off when I remove it's bolts. Otherwise, I've had some I had to beat to get them to slide off (very annoying).

 

Its my experience to save a little time and effort...A pry bar and a little elbow grease should pop that caliper off in a jiffy....

 

Always make sure to pop that master cylinder cap off first if you do that

 

New brake pads are on and no more screeching lol car rides like a charm again and for some reason it seems as if the front was lifted

 

That is how I used to do my brakes until someone enlightened me to compress the piston BEFORE I take the caliper bolts out. Now, no use for a pry bar on brake jobs AND less fumbling with compressing the caliper.

As for Chibi recommending you pop the master cylinder cap, I've never done this. It's never been a problem because I don't add brake fluid as the pads wear and I don't compress the caliper with monster speed. So it does not have too much fluid and it does not get compressed with too much speed. But this step certainly does not hurt (just make sure to put the cap back on when done).