Replacement of front brake pads and rotor

hkpierce

'02 140 Hi BlueBlk Pass
PoolMike's pictures disappeared for his writeup of replacing the front brakes and rotors.

So here is my set:

Tools needed: 13 and 19mm wrenches/sockets, T-50 with at least 3/8 drive, miscellaneous hammers, crowbars, screw drivers, grease

A proper set of pads and rotors, in my case my van's front brakes are Bosch and the parts a match set from Europarts-SD. What you are looking at is a van with 78,000 miles, first front brake job, no brake-worn signal showing, and I was doing this as preventive maintenance.

Jack up van, use jack stands, and expose the brakes:
P9050637.JPG

P9050636.JPG


With 13mm wrench remove different size bolts (at least for Bosch) - long top, short bottom; pull the brake warning wire from its mount on the suspension:
P9050640.JPG

Now the start of the fun with rust. The calipers will have to be pried from the rotor. :

P9050655.JPG

PoolMike talked about a piston tool - so I got one and used it on the first set of brakes. But it is a royal pain, as the Bosch design makes it difficult to get both pistons even without resetting. I still prefer pushing the pistons back at the point of first taking the calipers off.
P9050657.JPG
 
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hkpierce

'02 140 Hi BlueBlk Pass
Off it comes

P9050641.JPG

The caliper is heavy - don't let it hang. It fits nicely between the frame and the anti-sway bar.
P9050642.JPG
 
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hkpierce

'02 140 Hi BlueBlk Pass
Remove the caliper bracket with 19mm wrenches. Clean the brake pad guides.

P9050644.JPG
I didn't read far enough on Mike's posting regarding removing the T-50 bolt. So I also got to the point of removing it without help. So I jerry rigged this, which with WD-40 and lots of force, worked. For the second one, I found a 3rd foot lying on a sofa and got it to push the brake-pedal. That worked faster and much better.

P9050645.JPG
Now comes the fun: rust time. There is no way to get the rotor off without hammering it. In my case, the rust had grown around the hub and was in a solid mass 1.5 inches behind the hub. It had to be all broken out. I use ear (sound reverberating inside the wheel well) and (flying rust) eye protection and 24oz hammer. I thought about a 2# sledge, but decided against it. As it was, I did not know how much damage I was doing to the bearings. Hammer with the rotor rotating.

P9050646.JPG

Finally - it is off. Note the rust. About 1# each rotor.
P9050647.JPG

A view from the back side. Note the broken-out rust tracks, driven out by the hub.
P9050648.JPG
 
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hkpierce

'02 140 Hi BlueBlk Pass
This will be the last time you will be able to read the minimum thickness for this rotor: 19mm. Install the new rotor with the T-50 bolt.
P9050649.JPG
Grease the pad slides and reinstall the caliper bracket,
P9050660.JPG
then slide in the pads:
P9050650.JPG
If the pistons are already pushed back, reinstall the caliper using the top bolt, then slide over the pads. You may need a screw driver to push a piston back a bit to get the cup around a cast bump in the pad.
P9050653.JPG

Reattach the bottom 13mm bolt. Install the brake warning sensor.

DONE.
 
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hkpierce

'02 140 Hi BlueBlk Pass
Some other observations:

Rotor
New thickness 21.71 mm
Old Left: 19.96 mm​
Old Right: 19.26 mm​

P9050643.JPG
Pads
New net thickness: 13.65 mm. Note the tapered ends.
Old​
Left out: 6.68 mm​
Left in: 7.81 mm​

Right out: 1.94 mm
Note that the brake warning sensor on the 2002 T1Ns are located on the inside, not the outside. It is not possible to shift the position of the sensor to the outside pad as there is not enough clearance for the wire between the caliper and the rotor.

Right in: 6.12 mm​

The old pads had anti-vibration shims. The Europarts set do not and I am not yet sure as to their need.

Europarts-SD: Great service. Correct parts. Then sent it US Postage in a 1-rate box. Whoa!! USPostal Service looses money on that one - the box must weigh 50 lbs!

While it is not exactly clear who Europart's supplier is, the set comes with instructions from Meyle.

The set contains 4 brake wear sensors even though my van's Bosch calipers use only 2 sensors.

P9050638.JPG

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3

312 diesel (closed)

Guest
When you get it this far apart it's worth pulling the caliper slider pins out, cleaning them and re-lubricating with high temperature anti seize. Seized sliders are one of the most common causes of bad brakes on these.

Good writeup.
 

woodman4599

New member
Hey,
Just wanted to say thanks for this site and this thread.......I never did a break job before and was a little leary of doing myself, but went for it because of this thread. Was easy!

Bought mine new in 2004 and 53K before metal to metal few weeks ago. Mostly city driving and do use gears.

Stealership wanted 600.00 for the job-all oem.
I used Wagner rotors (95.00ea) and performance pads (80.00 pair-came w/sensors) from local autoparts. Just did fronts, figure to do rears soon.

Thanks 312 diesel for mentioning bearing grease as it was ready for that too.

Did buy a star bit and used heat/wd40 to get rotor bolt out.

Hoping these new pads create less dust as allways hated the factory pads for dirty rims.

Thanks!
 
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teamtexas

A Dad owner with a '03
Great write up on the brake job! Thanks for the insight. :thumbup: I hope that rust was from all the winter salt. I shouldn't have to worry about that here in Texas.:smilewink:

Dan
 

maxextz

Rollin Rollin Rollin.....
nice write up and pics:thumbup: Mmmm those new shiny rotors"disks" look sweet:drool: geez you let the pads wear down a fair bit:wtf:

max..........:popcorn:
 

cravings

Member
hello. thanks for this tutorial.

i don't normally work on cars but i figured i'd give this a go. prompted by my sprinter (2000 313cdi mwb) suddenly starting to squeal like a train the other day. i was coming down a hill with a big load, and a trailor on too.. and a bike appeared in front of me so i braked.. and felt my foot travel further than normal and it all felt wrong...

so today i put it up on stands, and wrestled hard with rust (my van is way worse than most of yours...)... and found that my drivers' side rotor had actually come apart. i don't know if this happens often... but it's happened to me.

this tutorial has been useful in helping me dismantle my front brakes (i haven't even looked at the rear ones). my calipers are ATE ones, so different to the bosch ones in the tutorial there. they seem to come off in one piece without brackets as described above. i'll put some pics up later so the thread shows both types.

so now i'm just off to hopefully pick up all the bits i need.. all pads rotors and sensors for the front. i'm not sure how it's going to go replacing the pads though. mine have springs on the back. so when i fit the new ones will they be touching the surface of the rotor disc all the time (it was all rubbing when i took it apart..)? or do i need to work out how to recess them somewhat in the caliper? maybe this will all become obvious to me as i do it.. but any tips / encouragement welcome. this is by far the biggest job i've ever taken on with a vehicle.

here's a pic of what i found when i took off the drivers side wheel.
Capture1.JPG

and here is the passenger side one.

Capture2.JPG
better pics later maybe... the pads are miniscule.. between 5 and 7mm on all sides.

back later...

cheers guys for al you contribute here.. some of us are silently absorbing it [:)]

steve
 
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tekcomp

Live life to the fullest!
hello. thanks for this tutorial.

i don't normally work on cars but i figured i'd give this a go. prompted by my sprinter (2000 313cdi mwb) suddenly starting to squeal like a train the other day. i was coming down a hill with a big load, and a trailor on too.. and a bike appeared in front of me so i braked.. and felt my foot travel further than normal and it all felt wrong...

so today i put it up on stands, and wrestled hard with rust (my van is way worse than most of yours...)... and found that my drivers' side rotor had actually come apart. i don't know if this happens often... but it's happened to me.

this tutorial has been useful in helping me dismantle my front brakes (i haven't even looked at the rear ones). my calipers are ATE ones, so different to the bosch ones in the tutorial there. they seem to come off in one piece without brackets as described above. i'll put some pics up later so the thread shows both types.

so now i'm just off to hopefully pick up all the bits i need.. all pads rotors and sensors for the front. i'm not sure how it's going to go replacing the pads though. mine have springs on the back. so when i fit the new ones will they be touching the surface of the rotor disc all the time (it was all rubbing when i took it apart..)? or do i need to work out how to recess them somewhat in the caliper? maybe this will all become obvious to me as i do it.. but any tips / encouragement welcome. this is by far the biggest job i've ever taken on with a vehicle.

here's a pic of what i found when i took off the drivers side wheel. and here is the passenger side one. better pics later maybe... the pads are miniscule.. between 5 and 7mm on all sides.

back later...

cheers guys for al you contribute here.. some of us are silently absorbing it [:)]

steve
Am I seeing things? did the rotor came off the housing in your driver side front brake rotor. WOW . Did the sprinter drive like that?
 

cravings

Member
nope, you are not seeing things. it drove home like that, but sounded like a steam train... anyway.. i now have my new bits.. and i can't yet work out how to fit the new pads in to the caliper in such a way that they'll actually fit around the disk.. any tips?
 

cravings

Member
ok i'm doing good.. i was missing seeing how to push the piston all the way back but i've done that now with a clamp... all i need to figure out (i think) is how to actually fit the sensor to the pad...
 

shortshort

Dis member
Ignore the sensors. Inspect your brakes regularly. I've had false negatives with the sensor contacting the rotor, and I've had the non-sensored pad go metal to metal with the sensored pad looking OK.
 

mendonsy

Member
I want to ad a personal thanks for the great writeup. I was able to complete replacing both sides in just under two hours. I am certain it would have been a LOT longer without this thread.
There are a couple things that I did slightly different:
1. I used a C clamp against the front pad to release the calipers slightly before removing them.
2. I used a wedge between the caliper bracket and rotor to break the rotors loose before removing the caliper bracket.
3. I opened the brake bleeder before compressing the pistons with a C clamp so that the dirty fluid did not get forced back into the lines then I topped up the brake fluid after I finished installing the brakes.
Thanks again for the great writeup.:thumbup:
 

sikwan

06 Tin Can
Am I seeing things? did the rotor came off the housing in your driver side front brake rotor. WOW . Did the sprinter drive like that?
This is the 2nd time I've seen this. I think the first one belonged to Simon (MIG).
 

maxextz

Rollin Rollin Rollin.....
"Between the two as to OEM and Non OEM variants in desgin". eh?:thinking:

which is which? is this something to do with bosch.
 

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