My car is 5 years old now and I'm doing the first brake service. It's a front engined AWD so I pulled the front drivers wheel to check the status of what I assume will be the most worn pad and there was plenty of meat left, however the inside pad was really jammed in the sliding clips. I had to hammer and pry to get it out and while doing so I gouged the surface in places and dinged up some of the edges. It goes back in smoothly after filing away some of the rust, but should I replace the pads regardless?I realized the correct places to pry near the clips after so I shouldn't ding up the remaining pads, but the pad shims are starting to show alot of rust.It's dishartening to see just how much rust is already on the suspensions parts of the car. The brake line nut looks like it's already seized and will just be crust in a year or two. I don't know if I should even bother fucking with it, it seems like the line will just have to be cut and reflared for the new line in the future when the hoses fail.
>>28968314If there's even a slight chance the pads aren't wearing evenly it's time to replace them. It's not worth having them get jammed in the caliper and potentially siezing in place.
>>28968320Why would uneven wear cause jamming?I'll check prices tomorrow and probably just replace them if they're cheap. I wish I knew what the OEM pads were using, the stock brakes are already shit and I don't want to risk making them weaker by buying the wrong pad type.
Pads are cheap.Why the fuck would you go through all the effort of pulling them off just to put used shit back together?Either inspect them in place or change them out.
>>28968395Because to take pads off vs just looking at them is only one extra bolt? And in this case it turned out to be the right call because one pad was effectively seized.
>>28968314>I gouged the surface in places and dinged up some of the edges. It goes back in smoothly after filing away some of the rust, but should I replace the pads regardless?You should've taken a picture of the damage, if you want advice.The piston has enough force to break any rust buildup between the pad and the caliper. Your shitbox likely has a floating caliper, does it move freely or is it also seized?
What pads should I get, there's a million fucking brands all claiming to be premium, some say ceramic is the best while others say semi-metallic is the best. Almost all the ones available seem to be ceramic.I want to say fuck it and just order bosch because of the name, but then I don't know if their name really means anything anymore. They've got rubber under the shims supposedly. I don't like these steel shims that turn into rust and fall apart.>>28968442The caliper is fine, one pad was just not moving at all, now it does. Yeah the caliper is strong enough, but the pads have little wire springs that spread them apart and they weren't working with the way the pad was jammed.
>>28968395This guy doesnt live in the rust belt.>>28968314>>28969281If the rotors surfaces (front and back) are fine, a slightly gouged brake pad will be fine. For pads, when it comes time (2-3mm of wear material left), i recomend oem brands like Bosch,raybestos,acdelco,akebono,etc. Ceramic will be fine on your shitbox. Semi metallics are noisy/dirty, and not really needed for your application.For seized pads, its usually because the caliper slot area is rusting. Pads dont usually rust unless the painted surfaces are compromised. You should be sanding down the caliper slot area then applying grease to the area, then putting the spring clips on top.You dont need to grease the pad/caliper contact sections unless the pad paint is compromised.If the pad paint is compromised or youre too lazy to sand down the caliper slot area, you can sand down the pad at its contact area then apply grease.Also make sure the caliper pins are free. Only use pure silicon grease here. The permatex/silglyde shit is all garbage and will evetually swell the rubber and fuck shit up. 3m, acdelco, and a few others sell pure silicone grease
>>28969315I would sand down the slot in the bracket but I can't get the bracket off. It's also weird that the caliper/bracket looks like shiny aluminum on the outside but the inside is covered with rust. I didn't investigate further but it could be that it is aluminum and doesn't have any rust to be removed.
>>28969382Bracket is likely held on by two bolts behind the rotor. The caliper is normally annodized or zinc treated to keep it from rusting. The rusty parts probably started from brake dust collecting on it and rusting. Rusty calipers are gonna be fine. Ive never seen one structurally compromised by rust and i live in the rust belt. The type of steel they use glazes over in rust, then it stops and just stays that level of rusty.
Yeah I mean I can't break those bolts loose, I'm not going to bother. The pads in question, you can see from the bevel that the inside one has definitely worn a bit more from being stuck.
>>28969491It looks like theres a lip of rust forming on the rotors as well eating away at the edge of the pads. Not a big deal, just shortens the lifespan of this set of brakes.When you do get new ones, get nicer level oem pads. For rotors i recommend at a minimum coated rotors. Rotors with no coating will die faster.
>>28969563I think that's just the rotor design, it looked ok to me.
