Your 7 year old Prius just failed inspection for worn front brakes and rotors - what to do? Spend $500 at the dealer? Nope - if you are a bit handy and have some tools, just follow the steps below and save your self some loot.
Turn wheel all the way
Crack loose lugs
Elevate car
Remove lugs and wheel
Loosen the caliper and the caliper bracket bolts
You will need a ½” breaker bar or risk suffering personal and tool injury/damage.
Make sure you have a torque wrench
Make sure the car is off for a little bit to let the brake pump relax – leave the key fob in your house, it sometime senses when you are close and turn on the brake pump to get ready for a drive – hence making the calipers very hard to release.
Disconnect the battery negative terminal from the frame in the back – or you will be cursing.
Loosen the brake fluid cap.
Use a flat blade screwdriver to lever the old pads away from the old rotor (assuming you are replacing both the rotors and the pads simultaneously) – compresses the piston
You may need a clamp to compress the brake cylinder in order to have it fit over the new pads. There is a substantial difference in thickness between old and new.
Take a picture of the brake slider clips, as top and bottom are different and you will confuse them without a picture on your phone.
Hang the calipers with something rigid so you don't stress the lines. Romex wire or the hangers below work.
Remove the sliders
Clean them and re-lubricate
I also used a wire brush and some brillo pads to clean up the hubs and the calipers.
Lubricate your pads and the slider brackets – my old slider brackets were very tired and rusty.
Use high temp brake lube – or horrible things will happen. Don’t use copper anti-seize, except on the 17mm caliper bracket bolts, it breaks down under high heat in the caliper area. Fyi: I needed a slight ½” extension shaft on the breaker bar in order to get to the top bolt.
Turn wheel all the way
Crack loose lugs
Elevate car
Remove lugs and wheel
Loosen the caliper and the caliper bracket bolts
You will need a ½” breaker bar or risk suffering personal and tool injury/damage.
Make sure you have a torque wrench
Make sure the car is off for a little bit to let the brake pump relax – leave the key fob in your house, it sometime senses when you are close and turn on the brake pump to get ready for a drive – hence making the calipers very hard to release.
Disconnect the battery negative terminal from the frame in the back – or you will be cursing.
Loosen the brake fluid cap.
Use a flat blade screwdriver to lever the old pads away from the old rotor (assuming you are replacing both the rotors and the pads simultaneously) – compresses the piston
You may need a clamp to compress the brake cylinder in order to have it fit over the new pads. There is a substantial difference in thickness between old and new.
Take a picture of the brake slider clips, as top and bottom are different and you will confuse them without a picture on your phone.
Hang the calipers with something rigid so you don't stress the lines. Romex wire or the hangers below work.
Remove the sliders
Clean them and re-lubricate
I also used a wire brush and some brillo pads to clean up the hubs and the calipers.
Lubricate your pads and the slider brackets – my old slider brackets were very tired and rusty.
Use high temp brake lube – or horrible things will happen. Don’t use copper anti-seize, except on the 17mm caliper bracket bolts, it breaks down under high heat in the caliper area. Fyi: I needed a slight ½” extension shaft on the breaker bar in order to get to the top bolt.
Re-assemble.
Use a torque wrench so you don’t get in a wreck for inadequately tightening a bolt. If you don’t have one, get one – you will use it many times over.
e.g. I use a torque wrench every time when changing tires to ensure proper lug tightness.
Here are the settings:
Front caliper bolts: 81 ft.-lb
Bolts that screw into slide pins: 25 ft.-lb
If you want to get more in depth feel free to read this Prius chat link on brakes
Also some decent Youtube videos out there, but many online are not complete, skip stuff, or do stuff wrong, or have the wrong tools.
Enjoy your new brakes, you just saved yourself about $300 or so… unless you had to buy all the correct tools – but then you will be able to do it next time or to another car for not too much dough
Use a torque wrench so you don’t get in a wreck for inadequately tightening a bolt. If you don’t have one, get one – you will use it many times over.
e.g. I use a torque wrench every time when changing tires to ensure proper lug tightness.
Here are the settings:
Front caliper bolts: 81 ft.-lb
Bolts that screw into slide pins: 25 ft.-lb
If you want to get more in depth feel free to read this Prius chat link on brakes
Also some decent Youtube videos out there, but many online are not complete, skip stuff, or do stuff wrong, or have the wrong tools.
Enjoy your new brakes, you just saved yourself about $300 or so… unless you had to buy all the correct tools – but then you will be able to do it next time or to another car for not too much dough
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