Hadn't really thought about that. Was more concerned with the rotors, pads and possibly other parts being a envrio hazard and making sure they're properly disposed of if they were. Now if only I belonged to a 200+ yard range...

come on down

sorry I did not see this earlier. could have come down to my place and did them. drum rotors would be an interesting match for a mosin and some surplus ammo.

Not doing the rears with have drum rotors, just going to clean and maybe adjust those but thanks for the offer.

Hopefully will get to the repair sometime around the end of next week. Still waiting on one Rockauto shipment to arrive. One thing I'm finding as I read through various DIY's and watching various videos is that quite a few who make them don't specifically list which greases and lubes they use. I'm finding that they'll say use anti seize at a certain point but don't say which type of anti seize to use (copper, nickel or the cheap stuff like the "silver" stuff from Permatex. Some say use anti seize on all bolt threads, other say leave bolt threads dry. Some put anti seize on lug nuts, others don't. Some torque to factory specs, others don't. Most who use anti seize and who also torque don't appear to be changing their torque values. Some use RTV for certain things, others don't  Some check for runout on new rotors, others don't. Fortunately my local library had a Haynes manual for my vehicle which I've been reading through as well.

i think your over thinking this a little too much, or at least thats what im reading. its just brakes. use your best judgment as far as anti seize . anything is better then nothing but nothing works fine too. ive done both and ive been able to get them apart again the next time i take them apart. i go through brakes every 2 years or less because of the mileage im putting on. over 35000 miles last year. you can torque all your bolts to spec if you want, but if they are good and tight, and not over tight, it will work just fine too. my only advise is to break in the pads and rotors for at least a few hundred miles. basically be easy on them for a little while. the new rotors need to heat up slowly over time or they will warp quickly

Yes I probably am (way) overthinking, over analyzing and over planning this repair job. But being that its the brake system, doing it wrong or using the wrong grease, wrong anti seize, or not torqueing thing properly could lead to potential (dangerous) problems "down the road" so to speak. Not to mention this being my first time doing a major overhaul of the brakes on a vehicle myself, I'd rather error on the side of caution and over think/analyze/plan things, than not. I'll also be changing out a water pump and doing both a drain/fill of the radiator and brake system at the same time.

While I'm fairly mechanically inclined; not everyone wants to tackle replacing pads, rotors, possibly calipers, clean and adjust rear brakes, drain and refill engine coolant, and replace the water pump. All on a less than shoe string budget with few of the proper tools and none of the proper lubricants/grease to start with for the job/task at hand.

surprisingly, brakes can function with minimal lubricants. i had an old pos truck years ago , i was broke, only could afford pads, so that's all i put in. slapped pads in and away it went. didn't grease the slide pins, no anti seize, nothing. put another 50k on that truck without any issues.

now this is NOT my advise to do so , just giving you an idea that unless you put the caliper on crooked, or forget some parts, you could basically , take off the old stuff, slap on the new stuff, and be fine without doing much else.

if you do this on a weekend, i can give you my number and i can be sort of a bit of tech support if you get in a jam.

You do not have to get too worried about what grease or anti-sieze to use. The reason for doing so it to prevent rust. The cheap stuff works fine. If you have a torque wrench it never hurts to do it [properly. I would not go out and buy a torque wrench or even anti-sieze for that matter. Clean everything with a wire brush. A lot of brake pad sets come with a little packet of grease. Use this on the caliper slides and you will be fine. Also smear a little on the backs of the brake pads. This will help reduce squealing.

Use a torque wrench on the lug nuts. So many hacks in the auto world just slam them home with an air gun. This causes two problems. First is they can be very hard to remove if you ever get a flat. The second is the torque applied is uneven from lug to lug. Over time the heating and cooling cycles of the brakes will cause the rotors to warp. By torquing them you make them all even which helps prevent this.

Been lucky enough never to have broken a lug stud (knock on wood) but know others who have. Sucks when that happens. Had a few lugs which came off really hard to the point I almost had to stand on the wrench to get the lug nut to turn. Not fun at o dark thirty in the rain on the side of the road while changing a flat.  

Torque the lugs if you must... The problem with torqueing the other bolts is it's generally impossible to get a standard torque wrench into the confined spaces.

Silver Permatex in the big gray bottle.

Don't overthink it... you're not building a top fuel dragster.

For the Toyota pins I use Honda 60 moly-paste. Great stuff. Doesn't generally last though unless you're regreasing them every 6 months. The yota pins will almost always rot/weld themselves in place within 2 years. I cover the caliper cups inside with the paste. That does seem to help quite a bit with the corrosion problems.

What is the "caliper cup"?

As to over thinking this, yeah it looks that way to those who have done this before. But like said above this is my first time doing such a major repair on the brakes (and water pump) so I want to make sure I get it right and have the right parts, tools and grease/lubricants so I'm not running back and forth to the store buying more stuff as the repair progresses. No doubt that after one does a major brake repair two or three times it seems like its no big deal.

Caliper cup is the part of the calipe which pushes against the pad and into the rotor . If you put a little grease on the ring of the cup where it contacts the pad, it helps prevent corrosion between the pad and caliper.

Ahh got it. That's what I suspected after I made the post but wasn't sure and some quick Googling didn't yield anything of note for some reason. Don't remember if there were any shims or a separate plate on the back of the OEM pad that contacts the caliper piston when I replaced them over four years ago. The new pads (Wagner ThermoQuiet) do not need shims apparently and it indicates not put any grease or lubricants on the "insulator area" on the back of the Wagener ThermoQuite pads.

There you go

Fuuuuk went to do the front brakes this morning and I couldn't get one of the front tires off the hub. Spent an hour with a rubber mallet, wood blocks, and other tools to no avail. It was stuck fast. Hosed the area where the hub and wheel meet with PB Blaster and let it sit while I moved on to replacing the water pump. Murphy came along for that fix too. Went to pull the alternator to give me more space to get at the water pump only to have trouble trying to remove three of the four wire harnesses on the alternator. Made the mistake of pulling the two bolts holding the alternator and couldn't bet them back in. Had to hose down the alternator mounting area with WD-40 and manhandle the alternator into place. Took an hour of fighting with the alternator before getting the two bolts back into place. Wheel was still stuck when I finished up the water pump replacement. Another round of spay and pounding with a rubber mallet didn't' work. Put the lug nuts back on, tightened them down to proper torque values drove the car around the block, put the car back up on jack stands and while pulling the lug nut off heard a loud crack. Low and behold the dam wheel came off once the rest of the lug nuts were removed. Hopefully Murphy will stay away tomorrow as I try to finish what I started this morning.

Anti seize will be used so I don't run into the problem of being unable to remove the wheels in the future.

Ha a rubber mallet won't too much. Give it a swift kick with the heal of your boot and it will pop. I've used a sledge once long time ago.

Put the lugs back on loose and drive the car. It will come loose.

Or break them loose and let the weight of the car down a little bit off the jack.

I go through a LOT of anti-seize.... I end up looking like the Tin man after every job.

A very thin layer where the wheel contacts the rotor works great.

Yeah that will be done once I finish the brake job (hopefully later today).

To the other post about a rubber mallet not being very effective, it was what was recommended by various online DIY's for trying to remove stuck rotors. I also tried a hammer on the hub but didn't want to damage the wheel/hub. Used a block of wood to pound on both sides as well. Saw after the fact the recommendation to put the lug nuts on finger tight then back them off one full turn, then put a phone book in front or behind the stuck wheel and drive over it a few times till you hear the pop of the wheel separating.

Fortunately I have bolts (nuts and washers) to use on the rotors and drums if those are stuck on.

Mallet will work for your rotar sometimes, I've used bigger before to get those off as well. Sometimes your boot is a good tool haha

Welp both rotors are stuck fast. Of course the bolts I bought to try and pop the rotors off are too big. So its back to the store to get smaller bolts that will fit in the holes. And top it off one caliper piston is stuck solid too, Cannot compress it and it doesn't extend out when the brake pedal is pushed. Even bleed that caliper a bit to see if it would unstick, no joy. Slide pins appear fine though on both sides and still have grease on them.

Thris is what the drivers side front brakes looked like yesterday they're rusty as hell:


Passenger side front caliper piston that is stuck:

Just to check, did you open the brake fluid resivior cap before trying to compress the piston?

Not too bad as far as rust. Acctually looks about average for the northeast . Keep at it.

Yes. Even removed the bleed valve too. Piston would not compress.

Replace that caliper.

Replaced both calipers and got everything reassembled. Going to have to bleed the brakes again as they're spongy.

Yeah, that's nothing for rust... But I'd just replace both front calipers if I were you. NAPA frequently has good deals on loaded calipers. Their higher-end offerings (napa black or equinox or something) are actually great rebuilds with a good coating on par or better than oem/stock.

Anti-seize on the backs of the new rotors too where they contact the hubs. Just a very light layer.

Don't forget a few bottles of brake cleaner (generally 2) to clean the new rotors. They all come soaked in some kind of grease that will smell horribly if you don't thoroughly clean them off/out.

A Mity-Vac vacuum bleeder makes for solid air-free lines. Works better sometimes than the 2 person pedal press method. While you're at it, suck out ALL the dirty/crappy old fluid out until the stuff coming out is as clear as what's going in.

Just little things you can do on your own that the monkeys in the garages never will.....

Those pictures didn't show the small mound of rust on the ground that came off the brake hardware while I was removing it.

Hosed down the new rotors with brake cleaner per the manufacturer's directions. Really didn't want to drop the $35 on the Mityvac vacuum pump as it will probably be rarely if ever used but did buy and use it because repeated bleeding via the diy one man method just didn't seem to work brakes still felt a bit soft. Bought the Mitvac pump used it, then kicked myself for not realizing I could have used the harbor freight 25% coupon yesterday to buy it rather than buying it from the store I bought it from the day before. The calipers were bought locally since by the time I factored in the shipping charge to send the core's back to Rockauto the Rockauto calipers (their cheapest ones) would have been more expensive. Figure that by the time I was done I saved about half of what the dealership and local chain shops would have charge. Haven't totaled up all the costs yet but figure it came out to be about $400 by the time I was finished yesterday. Will be cheaper the next time I decide to do a brake job as I'll already have all the tools on hand.

Yup, is around 350 for my front end of my truck. And those parts are twice the price of your cars.