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My brake pads need replacing and I was wondering how hard is it to replace them yourself? If they arent is there a FYI someone has or anyone have any advice? Thanks !

 
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</start homer voice> DOH! </end homer voice>

Nevermind just found the FYI. Thanks Grey !

 
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Hehe, no problem!

 
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Grey,

Is there anything i should inspect my rotors for when I change the pads? Also, what do you do when you "turn" your rotors? I dont quite get that...

 
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Yeah, you could run your finger across the surface and check if you can feel any grooves. The rotor should be flat where the brake pad contacts it. If it's not, then you could take it off and have it re-surfaced. Do both rotors at once. You could also just buy a new set of rotors.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the "turn" thing?
The only part of the DIY that referrs to "turn" is step 5.

I'm basically saying that to gain access to the big bolts that hold the caliper up to the rotor you'll need to turn the steering wheel. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]

 
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Im refering to having your rotors turned but I finaly found it:

This rotor is damaged. When your brakes get really bad and worn down, when you step on the brakes and hear a grinding noise this is a major indication that your brakes need to be serviced. This is called metal to metal. You can either have your rotors turned, where they take it to a machine shop and try to even it out, or you can buy new rotors. If your rotors are too damaged, or too thin, they can not be turned. In this case we bought new rotors.

 
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If your rotors aren't too messed up, I would recommend just turning/resurfacing the rotors instead of buying a set of new ones. You'll save about $60-80 (price of brand new OEM rotors), and besides - brand new rotors have to be resurfaced before they're put on the road. So either way - you're going to have to pay some shop to resurface the rotors.

 
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Who says? [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]

 
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Honda of America. When I was working at John Eagle, it was standard procedure to always resurface new rotors before we put them on. At first I thought it was a bit unnecessary to resurface a new rotor, but I was quickly corrected by all the veteran mechanics and Honda instructors.

Rotors need to be resurfaced on the same hub they're going to be installed on - this makes them "true" to the hub. Failure to do this will result in excessive vibration when braking.

 
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That makes sense. Although if you clean the hub's seating surface and the rotor's seating surface then I think the rotor's surface would mount up parrallel to the hub. I guess one way to check is to use some sort of stationary thing pressed right up against the surface of the rotor and just spin the wheel. Then check if you can see any wobble. If there is none, then you're all set. Good point though, I'll update the brake DIY with this...

 
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Very True
Its always a good idea to have new rotors turned because if they're dropped or miss handled when shipped they can be slightly out of round all the shops I worked for did this. As long as the rotors aren't ground way down or the owner of the car doesn't take the pads down to metal. You can turn rotors many times as long as they're not abused.