GregStevens

Let me preface this by saying that I've done a million brake jobs...all on my own cars and some friend's cars, too. I used to race S2000's and used to be able to do a full front pad replacement in under 10 minutes...all by myself. So here's my story of my 2001 Runner's front pad replacement.

Noticing some wobbling on braking in my new (to me) '01 Dorado Gold (a beauty, by the way!), I decided to replace the rotors and pads (with Ferro-Carbon Hawks) about a week and a half ago.

Everything went smoothly and all the parts went back together just fine.

I drive to a secluded street to bed the new pads in. All seemed fine, but noticed they were a little rougher right before coming to a stop than I had expected. Thinking it would just take a little time and wear, everything was cool. Plus, having done this so many times before, it didn't seem to matter. I'm a brake freakin' expert!

Fast forward to yesterday...the 'roughness' that I noticed before was becoming a full on GGRRIINNNDDD. The passenger side was throwing off a TON more 'dust' than the driver's side, so I was like WTF??

I hobbled to Meineke to have them try and figure out what the hell was going on. It was right before they closed, so I had my fingers crossed. I rolled the rig onto the rack, lifted it and everything looked fine...the pins and clips were all in the right place and everything.

Upon closer inspection, he notices that the outside pad was put in the caliper BACKWARDS!

I was indignant and all I could say was, 'What kind of MORON would put a PAD in BACKWARDS!!!'

(he knew I had done the brakes myself).

So we took the clip off, the pins out and switched the pad around and looked at the outside side of the rotor and no wonder there was all kinds of 'dust' on the wheel and running board on the passener side...IT WAS ROTOR FRAGMENTS!

Anyhoo, it runs fine now, but I'm going to replace that rotor this weekend with a new one. Fingers crossed that everything will be fine after that...I'm sure it will be.

This just goes to show that it REALLY helps to have a friend double-check your work.


lol

Be safe out there...especially working on your rig!

rimpainter.com

Hey, nothing wrong with admitting a mistake when the best interest of others is at hand. Glad you're ok.

I've been wrenching for 15 years and a few years back I put that anti-squeal junk on the pad surface that touches the rotor. Whoops.

Pest

Bummer, yet I had to giggle! Everytime I do something to any of my vehicles, especially if it has something to do with me going (engine) or stopping (brakes) I make sure to double and tripple check everything before buttoning it up.

The bright side is that you're safe and nothing super serious happened...I mean besides the big hit to your ego!

all_terrain17

Doing brakes my first time, I took the calipers off and apart...just to replace the pads. One of the calipers had to be replaced because it developed a slow leak from my stupidity. Bleeding them was even worse.

Feel better now?

WFO

AH I just did that!

Now I dont feel so bad.

GregStevens

OK, anti-squeal on the PADS...??? Now I've heard everything!!

LOL

That's a good one.

If I had a list of all the stupid mistakes I've done while working on cars...man. That'd be one helluva list!

One thing that is cool about 4Runner calipers is that the pads are a cinch to remove. It's a 10 minute per wheel job, including jacking it up..very, very simple. I took the first caliper off altogether thinking it would be easier to remove the rotor, but I didn't remove it on the other side. It was just as easy to remove the rotor without disconnecting the brake lines, btw. Just took a few more contortions to get it off.

I took the caliper off on the first side that I did and assembled it all before putting back on the rig and noticed that I had both pads in backwards so I was planning on being extra careful with the other side.

Whoops!

porkchop

I did something similar on my wife's Accord. Replacing the pads one day, I didn't tighten the lower caliper mounting bolt, and it eventually backed out. The caliper came loose, rotated on the remaining bolt and "fell" onto the rotor while driving. What a noise!

There was a post on here several months ago that told of a similar mishap to yours and everyone chimed in with their own mistakes. It was a couple pages long. I laughed my tail off at some of them. I can't remember what forum it was under or the title. It's worth a search to read.

I like your avatar!!

YotaJunky

x2. I did the exact same thing on my first brake job also. I ruined a perfectly good set of OE calipers while trying to pry out the pistons with hand tools!!

Expensive lesson... c'est la vie.

Troy

CJM

Wow, thats something I havent ever done and I messed up here and there a bit myself.

dallison

that is a good reminder to recheck the repair. i don't do it sometimes, but i will now

slosurfer

this is a good reminder as I need to do my brakes soon and this will be my first time

OSU4Runner

Wow, good thing you didn't get hurt

4RUNR_FAN

First time I did a brake bleed I managed to disassemble a caliper completely instead of just loosening the brake bleeder screw.....had to get a re-manf. caliper as I was too inexperienced to refurbish one myself!

And then the first rotor I tried to remove took me two whole weekends as I was trying to be gentle not wanting to damage anything....finally took a sledge hammer to it!

habanero

Not as bad as the guy who does it on purpose.

ETRNL

thtas ok the second time i changed my brakes on my yota i missed the hole in the pad so it was riding on top of the rotor.. worked fine but was definaly grindin

dijlop

well. my brake experiance consists of pressing the pedal, soo, i rly got no stories on that topic. lol. as far as, HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID stories...

well, i attempted to replace the stock shackles with longer aftermarket ones. by myself. with nothing but hand tools. got one dissasembled, ended up putting everything back together, and took it to a friends house. SHE was a big help. lol. yes, i guess it just needed a womans touch.

moral to this story, along with all the others, do your projects with a friend. its more fun and safer. and usually easier too. lol