Rep Power: 0

I spent about 1.5 months staying up until 8 am to learn to fix my brakes. why does no one tell you the hardest part is taking the bolts n stuff off? I got my civic a year ago and since I got it Ive had a transmission leak and my brakes were pretty bad (almost to the floor to full stop). my plan at first was to save up enough (1.6k) to take it to a mechanic to fix the transmission problem but I'm a broke 20 year old so that didn't really happen. I have been maintaining it though, I check fluids at least once a week and refill when needed.

anywho, about 4 months ago (like october) my brake light turned on and abs light (still don't rlly get the full meaning of why the abs light on the dashboard would be on and what could be done to fix that so if yk lmk) So after like 3 days of being stupid I FINALLY checked my brake fluid and it was empty. So for like a month I don't get why the brake fluid is just disappearing and then at some point I walk past my rear passenger tire and the whole thing is wet. It wasn't raining, it didn't rain recently, nothing else was wet just the tire. After a few days checking to see if it was still wet to make sure shawty wasn't trippin, I thought I was super smart and determined that it was leaking from the wheel cylinder. you may be wondering why tf I thought it was the cylinder bc I didn't even know what it was. I looked some stuff up and a lot of people said that your wheel cylinder can leak if it has too much pressure when you break due to bad brake pads or brake shoes. So yeah I thought I was gonna die everytime I drove because I wouldn't be able to stop. but I learned to deal w that fr I was buying at least 1 bottle of brake fluid a day, everyday. it got to the point I was spending more money on brake fluid than gas. some people atp, were telling me to sell the car and get a new one but in all honesty I have barely been able to hold a job and my home internet is ab to be sent to a collections agency (tf?) so its pretty apparent that I don't have any money set aside. So I decided to do the best possible thing I could, do it myself. LOL. I wanted to replace brake shoes, rotors, cylinders, shoes, drums all of it right. so I budget it out and I thought it was gonna cost me $350 (it ended up being about $400 in the end) for the parts and everything (including brake clean, anti-seize, etc.) so I live in an apartment and I usually park my car on the street, so I had to find somewhere I could do this at. I decided I would go to my mother in laws house, she has a big driveway so lots of room. So basically atp, I'm tired of spending $50+ on brake fluid a week (yes that much) and the weather is getting bad (I live in central pa and it was late january). I needed to be able to drive to work so I decided to do it once the parts came. so eventually they all came and 2 days after a snow storm I started on the brakes. I took the rear passenger tire off and started there, I realized that it was the brake line leaking.

I cannot begin to explain to you the hatred I have for rusty bolts now. so this brake line connecting to the cylinder is rusted out and there's brake fluid squirting out (giggity) of the line when the brakes are applied. also I am very impatient and I knew that this process was gonna need patience but I'm very motivated I love to learn and I think I am an exceptionally fast learner (toot toot!!(I tooted my own horn)) so I was very determined. I understood how to do it all and that part didn't stump me, what really got to me were the 20 year old rusted, corroded, melted together, fused bolts and threads. I was stuck on taking out this mf brake line for 5 days. 5 days I didn't work. 5 days. I was mad. so finally I cut the brake line, got bolt extractor set and then it literally, I'm not kidding, came off in 7 seconds. like butter. so yeah. 5 days of hell and thinking I wasn't gonna have a car only for it to take 7 seconds in heaven with little Mr bolt extractor METRIC not standard American bc that mix up cost me 2 days. so I got the new brake line in and put the new brake shoe and springs in for that tire only. I'm over it. I didn't bleed my brakes either. yes call me stupid. call me dumb. I don't care. actually yes I do. I tried to bleed it but the bleed valve is rounded off so I gotta go to the mechanic to bleed the brakes but its still cheaper than them doing everything. And I didn't even finish everything I just fixed the main big problem but I still have to do the 3 other shoe + pads in the front. also for context I got my license on my 18 bday with 4 hours of driving experience total, bought a car (06 matrix) a few weeks later. after 3 months of having the car I total it in a target parking lot speeding in the rain. after I total that car my mother in law loans me a truck that I totaled on my way home from work after only having it for a few weeks and almost flipped off a bridge onto a highway in the snow and 2 months after that I had an old pathfinder who's engine blew out on the highway because I didn't know that engine oil has to be looked and checked on. (you Live and learn) now I'm onto this car and I love it so much and I fixed (kinda like 25%) without any prior knowledge. Even though it took me a week and a half, I am still so proud of myself. I love learning oh and I "finished" yesterday and the brake pedal is no longer to the floor its like halfway down. its definitely not perfect but it is definitely not leaking brake fluid and giving me mini strokes when I brake behind a car!

 
Rep Power: 366

wait until you get to ball joints, other suspension parts...
flame torch, PB blast, extractors, a big hammer, torque wrenches, impact drivers, etc.

my ball joint had extractor tool in it, everyday I would tighten a little more. Took almost one week when it finally "Bang!" came apart.