GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I'm about to change my pads and was wondering how easy it is. I could save 50-60 on the install which would be nice, but how difficult is it to change out pads. I've seen how-to's and they all seem straight forward. I would imagine I would need to get some brake grease, but for a first timer who has experience doing lots of other maintenance like oil changes and such, what kind of difficulty am I lookin at.

If you use my guide... and have the tools, jack, jackstands..ect... about a 4...

easy!should take you less than 1 hr... start to finish

once i get the tires off, takes me about 30 minutes to do front brake pads, rears i hate doing so i let my buddy do it

A 4 really sounds do-able. I am gonna order the pads tonight and get the grease tomorrow. Only thing I don't have is a torque wrench. My buddy has the one that uses the needle, guess I could utilize that. I'll let ya all know how it turns out. I'm gonna do a cleaning like you suggest as well, can't hurt.

well good luck man, our shop has this attatchment that goes onto anything, like a rachet or breaker bar and its digital, it's nice, think it's like $100..forget who it's made by

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »A 4 really sounds do-able. I am gonna order the pads tonight and get the grease tomorrow. Only thing I don't have is a torque wrench. My buddy has the one that uses the needle, guess I could utilize that. I'll let ya all know how it turns out. I'm gonna do a cleaning like you suggest as well, can't hurt.Just run to a local NAPA or if you have it a Harbor Freight and get one as cheap as possible.. A TW that is..

you HAVE To have beer while you do it...or they wont work right.... super easy job for these cars, i only had a issue with a 94 blazer cuz everything was rusted together :/

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »Just run to a local NAPA or if you have it a Harbor Freight and get one as cheap as possible.. A TW that is.. Seconded. Those needle TW aren't worth the steel they are made of. Harbor Freight has some for under $20 that are +/-4% - not quite as good as the Craftsman and other high quality tools, but significantly more accurate than the needle TW.

It is easy if you are not afraid of wrenches... And like others have said, stay away from those needle torque wrenches if you are going to use one. Those kind can get knocked out of calibration easily plus they are just not accurate. I have not done my Vibe yet at 55,000 miles but you will need a clamp to compress the piston back into the caliper, this tool is more important then the TW in my opinion. And a floor jack is all I need, one side at a time...

Well I do most my other maintenance as well, brakes were always the one thing I didn't touch, not sure why. I have plenty of tools, wrenches are my friends, they hang out with me and the sockets all the time. I have 4 stands, a 3 ton jack all Crafstman and my little cradle that splits to become a rolling seat, how convenient when detailing!Guess it is about time I added a TW to my collection. I was expecting to pay around $30 for one.

Whelan,It is easy to do, just take your time the first time. Sublime's tutorial would be a good place to start.Sublimes Brake TutorialRead that, print it out and you should be set. Post up any questions if you got any.

It was pretty easy, not many snags IIRC for replacing just the pads.Now replacing the rotors OTOH... I never could get those off, the were welded on with rust so I just left the old ones on there.

Well I got Powerslot rotors on there now, no rust and that cadmium plating still looks clean! But they are not in need of replacing.

Quote, originally posted by ToolGuy »It is easy if you are not afraid of wrenches... And like others have said, stay away from those needle torque wrenches if you are going to use one. Those kind can get knocked out of calibration easily plus they are just not accurate. I have not done my Vibe yet at 55,000 miles but you will need a clamp to compress the piston back into the caliper, this tool is more important then the TW in my opinion. And a floor jack is all I need, one side at a time...I didn't have to use a C-clamp for mine, BUT, before I removed ANY of the bolts, I grabbed the caliper and braced myself aginst the inner fender well/frame horn and PULLED really hard on the caliper, this can and should compress the piston for you if you don't have a 6-8" C-clamp... BUT, if you are going to be doing brakes from this point on you "should" have a large C-clamp.. (for 1 piston calipers, 2 and 4 piston calipers are a WHOLE different story)

Quote, originally posted by WaveAction »once i get the tires off, takes me about 30 minutes to do front brake pads, rears i hate doing so i let my buddy do it When I need rear brakes I usually buy a new car. Seriously, I hate doiing them that much.

Quote, originally posted by Tubaryan12 »When I need rear brakes I usually buy a new car. Seriously, I hate doiing them that much.Oh, come on, they aren't THAT hard.... they ARE a PITA though...

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »I didn't have to use a C-clamp for mine, BUT, before I removed ANY of the bolts, I grabbed the caliper and braced myself aginst the inner fender well/frame horn and PULLED really hard on the caliper, this can and should compress the piston for you if you don't have a 6-8" C-clamp... BUT, if you are going to be doing brakes from this point on you "should" have a large C-clamp.. (for 1 piston calipers, 2 and 4 piston calipers are a WHOLE different story)I'll jump in here with what everybody already knows, but anytime you jack up the car, you need to make sure that you don't cause it to fall on yourself. Common sense, and I know you know, but just to make sure everybody else keeps it in mind. When the car is up on jacks or jackstands, pulling on it hard to the side could cause it to fall off it's support. It would really suck to read about somebody losing random body parts or killing themselves by yanking a car down on themselves......SW said he braced against the car when pulling, so maybe he eliminated all the effective sideways pull on the car, but get a clamp, don't risk what you can't afford to lose.