How To Replace Your Brake Calipers
While it’s possible to replace your brake caliper by yourself, it’s
not recommended.
Why?
Your brake caliper is a critical component of your disc brake
system, and you must be very careful about how you replace it — do
your brake job the wrong way, and you could be risking your road
safety.
Moreover, a brake caliper replacement requires specialized
knowledge and tools to get the job done, like a lug nut wrench,
breaker bar, brake bleeding tool, and more.
Your best course of action is always to take your car to a good
auto repair shop or have a skilled mobile mechanic come over for a
brake service.
When performing a brake caliper replacement, your mechanic would:
1. Stop the car on a level platform and engage your parking brake
to prevent the vehicle from rolling.
2. Use a jack to slowly elevate the part of the car that needs to
be examined (for example, the front or rear caliper).
3. Carefully loosen and remove the wheel and tire assembly using a
lug nut wrench.
4. Place a pan below the old caliper and then slowly remove the
brake line (aka brake hose) by unscrewing the banjo bolt.
5. Tightly plug the vehicle’s brake line using a rubber seal or cap
to minimize brake fluid loss.
6. Loosen and take off the old caliper mounting bolts.
7. Remove the old caliper with a screwdriver or pry bar.
8. Remove the brake pads from the caliper bracket (if you’re using
a fixed caliper brake — not required for floating caliper brakes).
9. Place and align the new caliper to the brake rotor.
10. After installing the new brake caliper, they’ll have to install
the brake pads into the mounting bracket as well if they’re using
fixed caliper brakes.
11. Tighten the new caliper mounting bolts.
12. Take off the rubber cap blocking the brake fluid and reinstall
the brake hose.
13. Refill the brake master cylinder (if needed).
14. Bleed the brakes using the suitable brake bleeding tool in
tandem with the bleeder screw.
15. Confirm that the caliper assembly is working as expected.
Pretty tricky, right?
That’s why you should always let a professional mechanic handle
your brake repair.
When hiring a mechanic for a brake job, always ensure that they
