Replaced the front brake pads and rotors on my car

[darxus]

I had done motorcycles before, but not a car. Definitely prefer doing it myself over paying somebody else to do it.

2007 Accord. I ordered the Factory Service Manual ($59), but it's not here yet. But videos and web pages seemed to indicate it was easy enough.

Picked up new pads and rotors at autozone last night. I could get better prices online probably, but it was worth the convenience.

Tried changing them last night, discovered screws in the rotors that it turns out Honda is notorous for. Needed to buy a hand impact driver. So I got one of those today. They seem to be so heavily associated with Honda's damn rotor screws that it seems like Honda really should do something different.

The trick to the impact driver seems to be to hold it like you're trying to rotate the screw in the direction you want to rotate it, but not pushing in, before you whack it with a hammer. Once I had that down, it worked great with my normal hammer, and the 3lb hammer was unnecessary.

Tapping the rotors off after removing those screws was probably my most legitimate use ever of my 3lb hammer. I love that thing.

Also, I highly recommend a breaker bar. I don't know if I could even have gotten the lug nuts off of my wheels with the thing that came with my car. So I keep the breaker bar and 19mm socket in my trunk. (12mm and 17mm sockets for the brake calipers? #3 Phillips for the rotor screws?)

I took this opportunity to finally pick up a floor jack. And that as an excuse to check out the new Harbor Freight store in Medford. It was a lot smaller than I expected, but I liked it. They had a pallet full of the jack I wanted. Also picked up an $8 brake piston compressor (like this) - nice, and a $7 rear brake piston cube tool - haven't used that yet.

I also recommend PB Blaster for getting things unstuck. It seems to be the most highly recommended penetrating oil.

And you need jack stands. Having a car only supported by a jack while working on it isn't safe, because jacks fail.

I started wearing nitrile gloves for this stuff, because it got me deeply filthy.

Edit 1:

The jack stand had two tests. 1) The handle socket was held horizontal by basically a bit of wire hanger. It was in the way of inserting the handle, and basically needed to be destroyed to be removed. When I need to destroy something attached to something I just bought, I prefer explicit directions. The directions didn't mention it. I removed it with bolt cutters. 2) The instructions said I needed to loosen a screw to bleed air from the system. It was impossible to get to that screw. I eventually figured out I needed to remove for screws to remove what turned out to be an access panel. That was pretty unclear to me. 3) It also said I needed to fill it with hydraulic fluid, which was discouraging, because there was no way I was getting any that late. But it was already full.

I got the Harbor Freight jack because the Craftsman jack has a history of failure. So I figure the HF one probably is about as good, and costs half as much. Also, it was recommended by #cars on EFNet.

The trick to the front caliper compressor is to put an old brake pad between the tool and the piston. This may be sufficiently obvious. (I saw it in a video.)

Links are to where I bought things, I do recommend buying those things where I bought them.

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Unless you're going to replace the rotors, be very careful about them with the 3lb hammer. You do _not_ want them to be warped. By the same token you can get new ones that are warped at the factory. Worst experience ever was when I replaced my rotors with new warped ones. Wondering what was wrong, taking it to a mechanic who likewise replaced my rotors with new warped ones. Came back again and mechanic got different brand of rotors and all was better.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Yup, good point. And ick.

[milktree.livejournal.com]

Don't bother with aftermarket rotors or pads for Hondas, the OEM stuff is damn good, and not really much more expensive than decent aftermarket.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Really? Do you just buy it from the closest Honda dealer, or online? Do the dealers generally charge the same prices?

[milktree.livejournal.com]

There's a bunch of mail order places that charge quite a lot less than walk-to-the-counter prices. Like every other dealer function, if you just walk in, you get boned. But there are deals on the 'toobs.

There used to be a place (Honda Village?) that had vastly lower prices if you ordered on-line and picked up, but I believe they've stopped that. Now their prices are kinda high. Besides, shipping is (generally) cheaper than your time dealing with the dealer.

Try this place:
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com

Honda has their own on-line store, which is good for part numbers, but probably not the cheapest:
https://estore.honda.com/

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Assuming, similar to AutoZone, those Honda prices are for individual rotors and a full front set of four pads:

AutoZone: $90.28
hondaautomotiveparts.com: $137.51
(after taxes / shipping)

52% more. Worth it?

Stuff I bought: Rotors / Pads

I'm happy to pay the extra money for higher quality stuff next time if you think it's worth it.

[inkedandkinked.livejournal.com]

Yes PB Blaster is good stuff. Next time you are in there repack or replace the wheel bearings.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

I was going to say "If it's a Harbor Freight jack, don't ever bet your life on its reliability." I've seen one of their bargain-priced floor jacks fail catastrophically before - luckily, nobody was injured. But then I read about the stands and the Craftsman version's reputation. I wouldn't be surprised if they both come from the same factories in China and Sears just puts the extra profit margin back into replacing failed ones under warranty. :/

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I went to get a link to the bad reviews (because I like references), and in the process realized the Craftsman price was about the same as Harbor Freight. Slightly less, actually. My bad. I was thinking of the price of the Craftsman set with the floor jack, pair of jack stands, and creeper.

Craftsman floor jack.

And yeah, as I implied, I don't intend to ever bet anybody's life in the reliability of any jack. So hey, might as well save some money, right?