Once you have the piston in the caliper compressed, slip the caliper back over the new pads, and reinstall the caliper bolts and snug them up. If you have problems getting the caliper back on, make sure that the new pads are tight up againsts the rotor, make sure that the piston is retracted all the way, and check the pins that the calipers bolts to and make sure they are pushed back far enough for the caliper to clear them.
Bleeding the Brakes
Now, if you have installed speed bleeders, it is very easy to bleed the brakes. All you need to do is open the brake bleeder a quarter turn, attach your rubber hose to the bleeder, and then run that hose to your catch can. Next go and pump the brakes 4-5 times, which should purge all the air out of the system. Then tighten the speed bleeders back up.
If you are going to be flushing your brake system (I usually do this every time I change my pads), then you will need to do a couple more things. First off you will want to go to the brake Master Cylinder. Take the cap off, and remove the screen filter, use the turkey baster to suck as much of the fluid out of the master cylinder as you can. I was only able to get half out, because the float in the Master Cylinder prevents you from going any deeper. Reinstall the filter and top the Master Cylinder off with new fluid.
Remove old Fluid
Top off Master Cylinder
Once you have the Master Cylinder topped off, you would go through to each wheel and do what you normally do to bleed your brakes at each wheel, but you will continue pumping the brake petal till you see the new lighter colored fluid coming out. This flushing process is easy to do in the process of replacing pads.
So of course you will repeat all of these procedures on each wheel. Once you have all of the wheels done, go back through and double check that all of your lugnuts are tight one last time before you take the car out to bed in the brakes.
Bedding in the brakes
I decided to update my bedding technique to use on that Stop-Tech recommends for their performance brake pads. This has you performing a much more intensive (10 Partial Stops ---> Cooling Period ---> 10 Stops ---> Cooling Period) bedding process than I originally recommended. But it appears that this is necessary to properly drive off the binding resins, and assure even wear of the friction material.
For a typical performance brake system using street-performance pads, a series of ten partial braking events, from 60mph down to 10mph, will typically raise the temperature of the brake components sufficiently to be considered one bed-in set. Each of the ten partial braking events should achieve moderate-to-high deceleration (about 80 to 90% of the deceleration required to lock up the brakes and/or to engage the ABS), and they should be made one after the other, without allowing the brakes to cool in between.
Depending on the make-up of the pad material, the brake friction will seem to gain slightly in performance, and will then lose or fade somewhat by around the fifth stop (also about the time that a friction smell will be detectable in the passenger compartment). This does not indicate that the brakes are bedded-in. This phenomenon is known as a green fade, as it is characteristic of immature or ‘green' pads, in which the resins still need to be driven out of the pad material, at the point where the pads meet the rotors. In this circumstance, the upper temperature limit of the friction material will not yet have been reached.
As when bedding-in any set of brakes, care should be taken regarding the longer stopping distance necessary with incompletely bedded pads. This first set of stops in the bed-in process is only complete when all ten stops have been performed - not before. The system should then be allowed to cool, by driving the vehicle at the highest safe speed for the circumstances, without bringing it to a complete stop with the brakes still applied. After cooling the vehicle, a second set of ten partial braking events should be performed, followed by another cooling exercise. In some situations, a third set is beneficial, but two are normally sufficient.
Once you finish with the bedding process your new brake job is all finished.
Bleeding the Brakes
Now, if you have installed speed bleeders, it is very easy to bleed the brakes. All you need to do is open the brake bleeder a quarter turn, attach your rubber hose to the bleeder, and then run that hose to your catch can. Next go and pump the brakes 4-5 times, which should purge all the air out of the system. Then tighten the speed bleeders back up.
If you are going to be flushing your brake system (I usually do this every time I change my pads), then you will need to do a couple more things. First off you will want to go to the brake Master Cylinder. Take the cap off, and remove the screen filter, use the turkey baster to suck as much of the fluid out of the master cylinder as you can. I was only able to get half out, because the float in the Master Cylinder prevents you from going any deeper. Reinstall the filter and top the Master Cylinder off with new fluid.
Remove old Fluid
Top off Master Cylinder
Once you have the Master Cylinder topped off, you would go through to each wheel and do what you normally do to bleed your brakes at each wheel, but you will continue pumping the brake petal till you see the new lighter colored fluid coming out. This flushing process is easy to do in the process of replacing pads.
So of course you will repeat all of these procedures on each wheel. Once you have all of the wheels done, go back through and double check that all of your lugnuts are tight one last time before you take the car out to bed in the brakes.
Bedding in the brakes
I decided to update my bedding technique to use on that Stop-Tech recommends for their performance brake pads. This has you performing a much more intensive (10 Partial Stops ---> Cooling Period ---> 10 Stops ---> Cooling Period) bedding process than I originally recommended. But it appears that this is necessary to properly drive off the binding resins, and assure even wear of the friction material.
For a typical performance brake system using street-performance pads, a series of ten partial braking events, from 60mph down to 10mph, will typically raise the temperature of the brake components sufficiently to be considered one bed-in set. Each of the ten partial braking events should achieve moderate-to-high deceleration (about 80 to 90% of the deceleration required to lock up the brakes and/or to engage the ABS), and they should be made one after the other, without allowing the brakes to cool in between.
Depending on the make-up of the pad material, the brake friction will seem to gain slightly in performance, and will then lose or fade somewhat by around the fifth stop (also about the time that a friction smell will be detectable in the passenger compartment). This does not indicate that the brakes are bedded-in. This phenomenon is known as a green fade, as it is characteristic of immature or ‘green' pads, in which the resins still need to be driven out of the pad material, at the point where the pads meet the rotors. In this circumstance, the upper temperature limit of the friction material will not yet have been reached.
As when bedding-in any set of brakes, care should be taken regarding the longer stopping distance necessary with incompletely bedded pads. This first set of stops in the bed-in process is only complete when all ten stops have been performed - not before. The system should then be allowed to cool, by driving the vehicle at the highest safe speed for the circumstances, without bringing it to a complete stop with the brakes still applied. After cooling the vehicle, a second set of ten partial braking events should be performed, followed by another cooling exercise. In some situations, a third set is beneficial, but two are normally sufficient.
Once you finish with the bedding process your new brake job is all finished.
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