Today we’re going to replace the brake pads and rotors on a 2007 Mazda 6. So these are
the rotors right here. This is the caliper and inside the caliper is where the brake
pads are. And you can see on the rotor where the brake pads are kind of rubbing it down.
That’s how we know we need new rotors on there. So what I’m doing right now is while
the tire’s on the ground, I’ve loosened up all of these lug nuts just to break them
loose. And now I’m going to raise the car up off the ground, loosen up the rest of the
lug nuts and take the tire off. Sometimes with these cars the tires get stuck on the
rotors themselves so all the nuts are off and it’s still not going to come loose.
So I’m just going to take some of the PB Blaster and then get it in between the rotor
and the tire itself as well and let it sit for a couple of minutes. We’re getting rid
of these rotors anyway so it doesn’t matter if the spray gets on them. And that’s how
you do it. Also I have the jack stand as well as the jack supporting the car just to kind
of make sure there are two things underneath it. That way you don’t damage anything if
something accidentally breaks. So your brake pads are inside the caliper right here and
you have to remove the caliper by taking off this bolt right here and taking off another
bold that’s at the bottom and they’re both 14 millimeters. Now that the caliper
is off the car you just remove the brake pads out of it. They’re going to be two of them.
And there’s the caliper itself with the piston. Now we’re going to take off the
rotor and you have two options. One is that you can take your screwdriver and unscrew
both of these screws, but the chances are they’re going to be stuck and there’s
going to be no way to move them. What we’ve done is we’ve taken a half inch drill bit
and you’re just going to drill out the screw on both of them, and I’ll show you how that’s done.
So if you look at the brake pads you can see that the old ones are a lot thinner
than the new ones because all the pads are worn down. So what you have to do in order
to make room for the new pads inside of the caliper, you have to compress this little
piston right here. So how that’s done is first of all we’re going to go in here underneath
the hood and pop the top off of this brake fluid container because as we compress the
piston the brake fluid is going to rise up in the vehicle. If your brake fluid is high
already you’re going to want to put some paper towels around it to catch the overflow.
So to compress this piston sometimes with other cars you would use a c-clamp to just
kind of press it in on both sides and just manhandle it. This one you actually have to
twist clockwise. So what I’ve found is best is you just take a pair of needle nosed pliers,
put it in there on the little grooves, and then just twist it like that and just go all
the way down until it’s flush with the other end of the caliper. I’m just going to keep
on doing that. If you go counter clockwise you’re actually going to unscrew the piston
and that’s actually a pretty big issue cuz then you’ll actually have to bleed the brake
system and everything so make sure don’t go counter clockwise, just go clockwise. So
this bottom notch right there needs to be straight at the bottom because that’s where
this little circle pin goes and it’ll just fit right inside there as we put the brake
pads in. Ok, so the new brake pads are in the caliper and one other thing is don’t
ever let the caliper just hang by itself, because these brake lines if they ever snap
off it’s a pretty expensive repair to get those replaced. So make sure it’s always
supported either by a bungee cable or just resting on the frame of the vehicle. I’m
going to go ahead and take the rotor, stick it on. It’s a good idea to wipe it down
before you install anything. And then we’re just going to slip the caliper on over the
rotor itself. Now the caliper is on and those two 14 millimeter bolts are screwed in on
the back of it. Rotor’s on and as soon as we get the tire in place, these 5 lug nuts
are going to hold the rotor into the car, so you don’t need to worry about those two
little screws that we drilled out. Anyway, I’m going to put the tire on, gently screw
on the lug nuts, set the car down, tighten the lug nuts all the way. And then in the
front of the car I’m going to screw on that brake fluid cap again. So one more thing,
these little pins right here, when you take the brake pads out it’s going to kind of
spread itself open. When you put the new brake pads in you want to close it down so it’s
flat like you see right there, and the brake pad’s going to sit on top of it and the
spring is just going to kind of keep it in place. So make sure you do that, otherwise
it’s going to be spread open and you’re going to try to push the brake pad in and
it’s not going to go in all the way. And that is it. Make sure that before you start
driving, you’re going to get in and you’re going to tap the brake pedal a couple times
that way it will press the brake pads against the caliper cuz right now they’re still
uncompressed and so you want to make sure the brakes are going to be responsive. So
press on your brake pedal a couple of times before you go anywhere. Anyway if you have
any questions be sure to leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to “like”
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