Should I replace my pads/rotors?

[98 OutbackSport]

I am trying to replace my brake pads and possibly rotors on my car and I have a few questions for everyone.

 

1998 Impreza Outback Sport 2.2

 

First issue... I'm having trouble determining if I actually need to replace the rotors and pads. My brakes have been squeaking a little but when I looked at the pad I couldn't tell if it really needed replacing or not. See below pictures...

The rotor itself seems smooth enough... there are no gouges or damage. It is fairly smooth if I run my fingernail across it.

Also, as far as taking off the calipers I'm trying to determine what tools I will need and which bolts to remove. So any suggestion there would be great. There are 3 bolts that I think need to be removed. The first one is circled on the right, there is another bolt underneath that hold on the caliper that obviously need to be removed. The one I'm not sure about is the circled bolt on the left. It's hard to tell if it actually needs to be removed.

 

Any help or advice is appreciated!!

 

-J

[smiffy6four]

The rotors look OK, as long are aren't warped (this would make the brake pedal pulsate during braking).

 

The first 2 bolts to remove are the ones with the rubber gaitors behind them. These hold the caliper itself on. The other two hold the caliper mounting bracket on and only need to come off if you are servicing the rotors.

 

There is a small metal prong attached to the brake pad on the caliper piston side. It is designed to make a squealing noise when it comes into contact with the rotor. It's job is to let you know to change the pads BEFORE they trash the rotor.

[Fairtax4me]

There are only two bolts that hold the caliper on.

they are the one with the rubber boots over them. Remove those, and the caliper will lift out of the way.

To replace the rotor, you will have to remove the caliper bracket which is held on by two bolts, the upper of which is the one circled on the left in your picture. The lower one is directly below that about 4 inches.

 

Brake squeal can be caused by a number of things. It doesn't always mean the pads are worn out.

Quite often it's just uneven wear. There's a spot in the pad that doesn't wear correctly, or it creates excess heat in one spot, which causes the pad to vibrate making the squeal you hear.

 

There are some fancy sprays you can put on the rotors and pad surfaces that will help even out the way the pad slides over the rotor. Mostly it just causes the pad and rotor to wear in a slightly different pattern. It fills in low spots and accelerates wear in high spots for a short time. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

 

It could also be caused by the calipers sticking. A common issue on these. The slide bolts get rusty and the calipers get stuck and cause the pads to drag on the rotor. This causes one pad to overheat and squeal. It will also warp the rotor if left alone long enough.

Cleaning the slide bolts is pretty easy as long as they aren't completely seized. Remove them from the caliper, clean any old grease/dirt/rust off of them, the re-install with plenty of fresh high temp brake grease.

[idosubaru]

depends who you talk to but brakes aren't as complicated as often talked about.

 

1 if your pads look good regrease and clean the clips

 

2 if pads look bad replace those and do step 1 as well

 

details: if they aren't currently vibrating, keep the rotors. there's no reason to replace. if you were concerned about them you can have them resurfaced, i don't touch rotors until they vibrate which isn't often if pads are properly replaced and slides greased.

 

hard to tell but pads look like they might have meat on them, but you really need to check all 4 not just one on one side.

 

key is to properly clean and grease the slides with disk brake caliper grease and replace any of the slide boots that are bad.

 

the pad clips often are cruded up with black pad dust material or possibly corrossion. they are a pain to clean, i like to just replace them. i've seen quite a few instances of the brake pad "hanging" in place where it rubs against the rotor because the clips are dirty and won't allow the pads to move properly.

 

i just fixed a friends noisy brakes - tons of meat, the clips were just as i mentioned, cleaned them up and he said it's quiet as a whistle. ironically his didn't even look that bad, nothing worse than i've seen countless times before.

[davebugs]

Remove caliper

clean slides and pad carriers

lube

check pads for uneven wear

check INSIDE of rotor for uneven wear (replace if necessary)

put it all back together

it's up to you whether to remove bracket and rotor to clean up the surface where it meets the hub and anti-seize it while you're in this far anyways.

[98 OutbackSport]

Thank you for the info so far...

 

I was also advised by the shop and parts store that I would need back brakes too however when I took off my back wheel I did not see any braking system at all. Am I blind or is this normal???

[Fairtax4me]

The brakes are there. If they aren't then... wow.

Post a picture so we can see what you have.

It should look similar to the front brakes, but some models had drum brakes in the rear which will look different.

[ocei77]

The brakes are there.

....but some models had drum brakes in the rear which will look different.

 

The 98 IOB has drums.

 

O.

[Caboobaroo]

Yes they do have drum brakes in the rear so you have to remove the drum to verify. Also, if you have another mode of transportation, you can take your rotors (if they are still thick enough) to a shop or sometimes some parts stores can turn them for you. You can technically pad slap it without having them turned but you will eventually glaze the rotors and your braking performance will become poor with longer stopping distance.