Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum!
If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page.
Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.
Im going to change the front disk brakes this weekend. This will be the third set of brakes and im at around 112,000. Does anyone have any good tips, do's and don't for jeep brakes and or common problems I may face. I notice uneven wear. The left outer pad is about twice the wear and the both roters look like hell. Should i just replace the rotors or get them turned.
Simple tips, I'd always replace a rotor if it looks bad, they're pretty cheap to begin with so it's cheap insurance that you haven't taken off too much material. Uneven wear between the inside and outside pads is a good indication that the caliper bolts are not sliding smoothly. Take em out, clean it all out and regrease, then try it out, you should be able to move the caliper in and out smoothly by hand. Another possible source is for more grit to accumulate on one side or the other. More trapped grit = more & uneven wear. Try to wash both sides when doing a car wash.
I would say that if the rotors are trashed, just replace them. They aren't too expensive, and if they are already past the minimum thickness, then no place will turn them for you.
I would look into the cause of the uneven wear. I would remove the caliper slide pins, clean up the pins as well as their boots, then grease them up real nice.
Make sure you bed the brakes afterwards.
Edit: Beached Bones beat me to it while I was typing. Although its not the caliper bolts that actually need the greasing, as the calipers don't slide on these bolts. Its the pins that they bolt through that the caliper slides on.
I had bought a Mopar front brake kit which includes rotors, pad, new pins, and bolts. It cost me a mint at 200 bucks. From looking on napa autoparts online sounds like i can still get quality part for half the price. Like tires, are cheap brake parts = premature replacement? I do know i dont want ceramic pads but which level of quality is good for city driving?
EBC Rotors are about $25/piece, plus some cheap ceramic pads from kragen for 26+tax, total was about $80 in parts.
Changing is easy. just push the piston back with the old pads still on there and everything else is cake. Just two bolts on each caliper. I put the tire flat under the car, both safe and so that way you can rest the calipers on the tires without any strain on the brake lines...
I picked up the mid level pads (gold) and rotors at advance for ~$50. Heck new caliper bolts and pins are only $6 or something cheap. I had a bent bolt somehow and it made my passenger side wear alot faster than the other side.
I'd first suggest checking the rubber brakelines and check for weathercracking and flaking corrossion. If you have uneven wear many things may cause this. A groove worn into the caliper bracket. That happens usually where the pad rides. An internally failing or sticking caliper. A brake hose that is failing internally acting like a one way check valve. A rotor that is warped or unevenly worn. I use anti-seize on the slide part of my caliper bolts. I use copper permatex on the back of my pads. It works better then any anti squeal. I'd replace the rotors and be sure to clean the hub to rotor mating surface. Non-chlorinated brake cleaner is suggested cleaning the pads and rotors before burning them in. Have fun.
... Make sure you can break the lug nuts free! I remember breakin' a breakin' bar on a stubborn one once. Had to put the thing back together and drive to a buddy's who had a big impact wrench and compressor. My little impact and air compressor wouldn't even touch it.
Someone on here suggested a dab of anti-seize on the studs when you put the lug nuts back on. Good idear.
While you're about it, take a wire wheel and clean the sliding rails on the caliper brackets and the mating bits on the calipers proper (I do believe they are present, and it doesn't merely float on the pins.) This is something I now do as a matter of course!
After they've been cleaned, I'll take a round-end metal rod (usually an old pushrod - I have several) and burnish graphite into the metal surfaces. I don't like using grease or oil on brakes - the stuff collects dust. I try to keep those parts as dry as possible (I've seen some bake-on PTFE/MoS2 coatings that I'd like to try...)
At work I use this silicone type stuff on all the shims etc. It's a red paste you put on with a brush, and is almost the consistency of bubble gum. It dries to a semi-hard, but malleable finish. Works amazing. I wish I could remember the name...
Permatex has green brake grease that is great, works for metal and rubber and resists high temperatures. Petroleum grease, anti-seize, silicone greases, nothing compares to the Permatex green stuff.
Yes very old, but thanks for the tips anyway. I did replaced the rotors and the uneven wear was probably due to crappy pads from mopar because the caliper still slid on the pins nicely.
I always figure some poor soul will stumble on them when they need it. I would be lost without the archives! We've put together an amazing knowledge base.
And that's just from alla the stuff we screwed up!
Yes very old, but thanks for the tips anyway. I did replaced the rotors and the uneven wear was probably due to crappy pads from mopar because the caliper still slid on the pins nicely.
