The Automotive Thread

[Capt Worley PE]

I re ran it several times but ****!!! Only difference is my durango has 135K miles and she has 45K miles, but on a V8, thats not that many miles...

There is another difference.

One is a Dodge, the other is a Toyota. That right there explains some of the difference. Chrysler products have notoriously low resale value.

For good reason. And this is coming from a diehard Mopar fan that has had a 69 Charger and a 91 Shadow Turbo.

I'd love to pick up a used Charger, but the realist in me says, "You'll be sorry..."

 

[Supe]

I always pictured your jr as a boy... hmmmm, maybe I should pay more attention... have fun with it!

Definitely a she. And since this is the automotive thread, here she is at 3 (can't believe this was nearly three years ago already) sitting in the seat of a sportsman dragster.

 

[Road Guy]

Brakes, Brakes, Brakes...

So I need new front brake pads on my 2005 Dodge Durango, and I really dont want to pay the $300 to the shop for $45 worth of parts..

I've been watching videos and reading alot about changing them yourself, and it almost looks to easy? Am I missing something?

Only thing that appears tricky is draining the brake fluid?

Mrs. RG says I should just pay the money, but I just cant stand to pay them fools anymore.... I mean I have a lot of respect for Automitive Mechanics, but lets face it, they probably are not engineers....

 

[Master slacker]

Besides the basic hand tools, all you need for brake pad replacement are

• BIG ASS C-clamp (to force the pistons into the caliper)
  
• wire (to keep caliper from hanging by brake line)
  
• new pads
  

I've never had to drain brake fluid, but I have topped off after pad replacement. YMMV.

 

[blybrook PE]

When you use the c clamp, be sure to use the OLD pad to transfer the load across the piston equally, you want to ensure that it goes in straight.

Pads are a sinch to change, I've never had to drain fluid or bleed the system (unless I changed the caliper).

You may end up pulling the hubs to get the rotors turned. Be sure to repack the bearings if you go this route. Pads alone are easy, getting rotors and bearings done can be tricky.

Edit - $300 isn't bad if it includes turning the rotors as well. Pads are cheap, its the other parts that get expensive quick.

 

[Supe]

My $.02 on turning rotors - don't bother. Unless new rotors are astronomical in price, turned rotors have always caused more problems and warped faster to offset the cost savings any time I've ever used them.

 

[Master slacker]

When you use the c clamp, be sure to use the OLD pad to transfer the load across the piston equally, you want to ensure that it goes in straight.

To add to this, don't pull the caliper until the C-clamp is used to move the pads.

 

[MA_PE]

My $.02 on turning rotors - don't bother. Unless new rotors are astronomical in price, turned rotors have always caused more problems and warped faster to offset the cost savings any time I've ever used them.

seems on the new cars, there's not much to turn anyway. They thin them out for better heat dispersion so when its time to do brakes you might as well just install new rotors.

 

[engineergurl]

I've done it RG (well, with assistance), I'm sure you can handle it.

 

[Flyer_PE]

The pads are pretty easy. As others have said though, if you end up doing rotors, you're probably better off just replacing them rather than having them turned. They don't provide much extra metal these days.

 

[Road Guy]

I'm gonna try and squeeze this in this weekend. Looking forward to it, I like doing this type of stuff I just don't have that much practice!

Fixed the washer tonight, part finally came in the mail, $25 part keeps my 16 year old Magyar going! I should probably replace the hoses while I still have it take apart..

Got the cable on the lawnmower to also fix, I'm glad my dad encouraged me to be my own repair man, those two things alone new would be $1300 bucks to replace...

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

^^^ A Chilton's or Haynes repair manual makes any auto repair job super easy. My brother and I replaced the full suspension system on my parents' Pathfinder one afternoon with the help of one of said manuals.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Fixed the washer tonight, part finally came in the mail, $25 part keeps my 16 year old Magyar going! I should probably replace the hoses while I still have it take apart..

By all means replace the washer hoses. That's the number one source of water damage in a home.

 

[humner]

Fixed the washer tonight, part finally came in the mail, $25 part keeps my 16 year old Magyar going! I should probably replace the hoses while I still have it take apart..

By all means replace the washer hoses. That's the number one source of water damage in a home.

at least the washers for the hoses. they break down after a while and just the wrong twist on one and they are cracked.

 

[pbrme]

Need to do a break job on my truck this weekend. I've got a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 and their starting to grind. I've been Googlin' for replacement parts/suggestions and thought I'd try here as well. Looking for any experience, or thoughts. I would like to upgrade to heavy duty rotors, oversized calipers etc.

 

[blybrook PE]

PBR,

Take a look at ramforumz.com for additional ideas / parts list as that forum is more for the 1500 crowd. Take a look here and you can get the full manufacturers service manual (~400MB); its for the 2008 year, but should have plenty of information for your rig. I downloaded it for my '12 3500; but there's very few things that line up.

With the right service manual and some basic hand tools, the job is very easy to do. When you get into the 4x4's, you'll typically need a few specialty sockets to get the hubs apart; thankfully you can usually rent them from Autozone and the like on a day / day basis.

 

[pbrme]

Thanks for the Intel. Mine's a 4x4, and I've got the Chiltons.

 

[pbrme]

Got the brakes done this weekend. Went with the OEM replacement parts for $250, and now have a handfull of new tools for a $400 bill at harbor freight. Front brakes = no problem. New rotors and pads, some grease.. yada, had them replaced in 3 hours.

Rear, were a little more effort. The rear rotors were rust welded on, two hours of PB Blaster and smacking couldn't even dislodge them. Found a video showing a trick to use a jacking bolt thru the caliper bracket mounting holes. Tighten it down, the rotor starts to come off, whack the same side with the dead blow and "Pop" off came the rotor. Dropped them off to get cut on Sunday and bbq'd the rest of the afternoon. Started in on reassembly yesterday, and had everything back together after a couple hours. One additional issue, I snapped one of the 8mm caliper mounting bolts and had to bike down to the parts store. Gave me an excuse to pull in for a pit stop at the local watering hole.

 

[Supe]

On the hunt for a new daily driver, Saturn I have is too small and the seats wreak havoc on my back. There is a 2008 Bullitt Mustang at the local dealership with only 12k miles on it for $25k that I'm looking at. Also looking for used luxury sedans, but it's hard finding a) ones with a manual trans, or B) ones with an auto and a crap-ton of power in my price bracket. REALLY want an STS-V but they sure are hard to find.

 

[Road Guy]

I literally just finished doing the front brakes on my Durango... Start time was 7:00, one trip to home dept and dealing with kids and a neighbor that came over to watch.... $50 worth of parts, luckily I had a half inch socket and somehow had the 20mm socket to remove the "thing" and a big c clamp that I didn't know I had..

Darkness wasn't fun, had to find all my work lights... Took me a while to get the pads to line up and a few times to get it right the first time I reinstalled the pad assembly(?). Second set wasn't do bad... I think next time I may just pay the money and have it done during work!

I drove around the block, seemed to work? Any othe clues to check to make sure I did it right?