Created on: 2012-02-11
Check out this detailed video showing you how to do a front brake job on a 99-04 Oldsmobile Alero.
12mm Socket
13mm Socket
A Piece of Pipe (for leverage)
Large C-Clamp
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Jack Stands
19mm Socket
Ratchet
Wire Brush
Floor Jack
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we're going to show you how to do a front brake job on this 2000 Olds Alero. This is a two-door and the process is same for any two-door or four-door car. The tools you'll need are jack and jack stands, 12, 13, and 19mm sockets, obviously you'll need a ratchet and you'll need either a breaker bar or a pipe for leverage, large C-clamp, wire brush and a Torque wrench.
Start off by removing your hub cab, if you don't have air tools, you'll want to loosen your lug nuts and then raise and support your vehicle and then remove the lug nuts and the wheel. Turn the wheel for easier access to the back of the caliper. Right in behind, your calipers are held in by two 12mm bolts: one there and one there. These should come apart pretty easily. We'll fast forward, here, as I remove those bolts the rest of the way. In order to get the caliper off, you might need to reduce some pressure on the brakes. You put your C-clamp right against your brake pad there and then on the caliper there. That, in turn, makes it nice and loose. The caliper comes right off. For now you can put your caliper right up here. Now, you can take your pads right out. You can see they have wear marks on them. These pads are in pretty good shape. Then just use your finger, you run the back of your finger on the disk and if you don't feel any really deep grooves, they are probably okay.
To get our disk off, we're going to remove this caliper bracket, which is two bolts here and then one down here. Okay, these bolts are 13mm and you're going to want a breaker bar or use a piece of pipe on a ratchet because these will be tight. They shouldn't be too bad though. Okay and I'll just fast forward as I change over to a ratchet and remove those bolts the rest of the way. To get the brackets off of here, the rotor comes right off.
Now, I'm going to show you reinstallation. You put the rotor right back on. You can there that that hub is new, that's actually what this vehicle needed, needed a new hub so we figured we'd just do a brake video while we do the hub. You see I put the disk on there and then I put a lug nut on just to hold it in place. Before we put this bracket on, it has stainless steel slide, use a wire brush and clean these out really well. Another thing you need to check before you put this back together is make sure that these slide back and forth, in and out very easily. Put these on. The bolts to hold the bracket you also want to tighten to 65 foot pounds.
You can see my old pads are still in pretty good shape. This is a wear indicator, this groove right here and since it's still there, there's plenty of life left in the pads. The rear pad, you always want to put . there is a tab here and you always want to put that towards the backside as far as the rotation. Now, push the pads in. Since your piston has already been reset, put that right down. It should fit nice and easy. Then start these two bolts in. Now these two bolts, you only want to do between 15 and 18 foot pounds. Just speed up here as I use an extension and then tighten that top one up. We'll speed through here as we straighten that out, remove that lug nut, put the wheel and tire back on and then we'll just preliminarily tighten those lug nuts with our impact wrench and torque them when we get them on the ground. Tighten the lug nuts between 90 and 100 foot pounds. Last but not least, line up the valve stem with the wheel cover, put it on and use your 19mm socket just to tighten the caps by hand. Last but not least, make sure you pump your brakes a bunch of times and then do a stop from five and ten miles an hour before you road test your vehicle and make sure everything is working correctly.
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