VX front Brake pad Change How To Detailed

[edals]

Hi All, This is a question asked a lot, so i thought i would help out on how to change front brake pads, as mine had to be done.
I take no responsibility for any work you perform yourself. If you are not confident, Take your car to a Mechanic.

The Process is very easy, And to save some $$ Should take no more then a hour to replace them, even if its your first time, As this was my first time lol.
Hope this Guide helps out a bit.

Tools Needed Here


Remove Some Fluid from the brake res shown here.
I Recommend to put a towel around it incase it over flows, DO not get any on your paint work as it will eat it. wash it off straight away if you do.


Loosen your front wheel nuts before jack up the car, Or if you have a rattle gun like i did, remove when jacked up.
Jack up the Front of the car with a Trolly jack, Then Place safety stands under the car.
You can use the standard car jack to lift one side up and do one side at a time.
Remove the The front Wheel.

You Will Then Be presented with your Brakes


To Remove the Calliper, Remove the 2 Bolt Pins As Shown, At the Top, And Bottom. Use the Shifter to stop the inside nut from spinning so you can remove the pin.



Then Gentle wiggle the Calliper off.


Remove the Old brake pads from the Disc.



Seat the new pads in, from where you remove the old Pads.


Push the Pistons Back into the Calliper, Using the old pad and a G Clamp as shown

Push the Pistons All the way in till they look like this


Now Simply Push the Calliper back on over the pads, and replace the 2 Bolt Pints removed.
Replace front Wheels, Remove any tools etc before moving the car.
People bed in brakes all differently. From Performing Gentle Stops from a slow speed, Hard stops at 80kms. I decided to do a few slow stops first to make sure the car was going to stop, then performed a few quicker harder stops.
BE SURE TO PUMP THE BRAKES BEFORE DRIVING OFF!! Till they are nice and firm.
Hope this helps Some people.

Would like To thank everyone on Just Commodores for All there help they have provided.

Please Let me know of any mistakes i may have done

[Sabbath']

Dont really see the need to take both caliper pin bolts out, you can just take the bottom pin out and flip the caliper up.

Also make sure you grease up both the top and the bottom pin slide before reassembling the caliper, an ungreased slide can cause premature wearing of a single pad.


Good writeup though and luck to all

[bundy_boy]

Do all new pad sets come with the metal clips? Mine did, so i replaced them, is this necessary all the time?

[Maxxiz]

Would this be the same on a VS or no?

[WAGON MAN]

Maxxiz it is the same procedure for a VS...

[Maxxiz]

Thanks mate

[Drewie]

Probably should use Loctite on the 2 bolts as well, as it says in the manual to replace those 2 bolts as they have a special locking compound on the bolts from new.
Not sure whether workshops replace the bolts as the manual says or not. I asked Brakes Plus once when I was buying some pads and they said they use loctite on the bolts when re-installing them. Good write up and pics, very handy, thanks.

[shizzle]

Wish i had seen the G-clamp idea before i bought a caliper compressor !... Good write up... many thanks... did my first brake pad change this am... first pad set 30 mins second set 10 mins :P Cheers...g

[Denis mark2]

Hi I am new to this forum Has any one any idea how the hand brake shoes are checked or changed i have just been de -rusting my drums and repaint ,and find that the off side rear drum is hard to turn compared to the other one This is on a VX Commodore Thanks Denis

[JRNZER]

Thanks for this thread mate.
My front pads are starting to make a grinding sound.Time to change them.

[JRNZER]

I guessing the process would be the same for the rear pads?

[db_notso]

when replacing your pads ESPECIALLY a commodore you should grease the two slides for the "floating" part of the caliper [the bolts on all models go through or are them they are also normally covered by rubber] just rub some lube (anything greasy) on them and this helps prevent uneven pad wear, like inners run out of meat before outers...
the slides allow the pads to retract evenly away from the braking surface only when their not sticking.
just recomend it! is one of very few faults that cause uneven pad wear.

[vr1uz-fe]

did op check the thickness of his rotors no it seems not did he at least sand the rotors letalone machine them

and yes the slides need to be greased and the two bolts should be replaced as when they are tightened they stretch which makes them weak that is why some ppl use locktight so they only have to lightly torque them

[markovr]

It might be just me but after I changed to the qfm pads on my vz they rattled noticeably (especially when you drove beside something that reflected back the noise like a wall) as the springs on the outboard pad didnt have enough angle(compared to the old one) to stop this happenning...had to pull them out and gently bend them to an angle similar to the old ones so they stopped the rattle...worked for me.

[edals]

did op check the thickness of his rotors no it seems not did he at least sand the rotors letalone machine them

and yes the slides need to be greased and the two bolts should be replaced as when they are tightened they stretch which makes them weak that is why some ppl use locktight so they only have to lightly torque them

Yes did check the thickness of my rotors, they are still within spec of the Disc on, No did not machine them for the simple fact they were not glazed or grooved. Besides why pay $40 to have someone machine them when new discs are $100 new for 2 of them. Machine discs are more likely to warp cause they are thinner.
And the Sides were still very greased, if they were anymore greased oil would just go everywhere lol
As for lock tight, nup as a few mechanic mates said they dont use it, just make sure there ####ing tight witch they are.

20,000 later they are still wearing perfectly, no probs since. My brother had a Holden Mechanic do his brakes, they forgot to tighten a bleeder, then he took off and went for the brakes and of course no pressure and required the hand brake, This is why i dont trust mechanics cause they are just in a rush and dont look over things a million times.

[soop]

Exactly, if the rotors aren't munted there's no reason to machine them (which is dodgy anyway).

I've done my own brakes multiple times and NEVER had an issue with bolts randomly snapping or coming loose.

[MingeyMatt]

Made my life easier. Cheers

[kriminal]

hey i tried to just change my rear pads but i couldnt not undo that bolt. its on there bloody freakin tight. but i was just using a spanner, slipped a few times.
What size spanner or torque wrench did you use? (VY SS sedan)

[edals]

Hey Mate,

Are you sure your trying to remove just the 2 Bolts that hold that calliper on or are you trying to remove the calliper bracket bolts behind it?
Cause just any Socket wrench will undo them, there not that tight, the Calliper bracket bolts i needed a rattle gun, even then took awhile to knock them loose lol

[kriminal]

hey,
it was the bottom bolt on the calliper from the photo up the top. the rear brake set up is the same as the front only smaller?
i will give it a shot next sat.

your right, i was trying to remove the bolt at the back. stupid me.. o well, should be easier now next sat.

cheers

[a1k3m1]

to empty the reservoir i found it was better to use an eye dropper or syringe to suck the brake fluid out, as this way you wont have a yukky rag dripping fluid all over the paint..

[edals]

to empty the reservoir i found it was better to use an eye dropper or syringe to suck the brake fluid out, as this way you wont have a yukky rag dripping fluid all over the paint..

Yeah i used a Syringe to empty some fluid out when it got close to going over. Should have mentioned that lol

[fullpower]

still not a bad write up

[Dezza]

Did mine on the weekend all done in 45 mins, was easy i used a bit of fish pump pipe and stuck it on the bleed nozzle and ran it to a empty container to catch the excess fluid when i moved the piston back also

[shadowscorpse]

so I followed this procedure... except:
I took the brake line off and allowed the fluid to drip into a coke bottle.
I didnt realize the master cylinder dropped below the round ring thing in the Master Cylinder.
Ive bled the brakes for hours, going from left front to right front n left rear (cant undo the nut on the drivers rear brakeline)
I now have next to no brakes, need to pump them before I can actually get some resistance in the pedal.
popped into 1 brake place, bloke got in, pumped brakes whilst car was turned off n he said Ive blown master cylinder.
popped into midas n the bloke at counter said Im a f***wit and I wouldve blown the abs... he didnt even leave the front counter.
called my brotherinlaw(former holden mechanic) he said Im not that stupid to have blown the MC or ABS. And that I need to continue to bleed the system. He'll be over later tonight.

Im just asking on this here forum what you guys think I may have done or ideas on how to fix the problem?