How to Replace Front Brakes 2000-06 Chevy Tahoe

I'm going to use a 22-millimeter socket, take off the lug nuts, so we can remove the wheel. And remove the wheel. I'm going to take these two caliper slide bolts out. I'm going to use an 18-millimeter socket. Get those free first, and slide those out. Now, I'll take a screwdriver, I'm just going to pry the pistons of the caliper in a little bit, just go in between the caliper and the rotor, make it easier to take the caliper off. Now you can take a brake caliper hanger and support the brake caliper itself, just hook it on the upper control arm, or fold the caliper over and just set it so that it doesn't fall. Just make sure there's no tension on the brake hose.

Now we can take the brake pads off. Just use a straight blade screwdriver. Pry them off. Now, we want to take the caliper bracket off. We're going to take these two bolts out. I'm going to use an 18-millimeter socket, loosen those up. Take those bolts out and slide the bracket off. Take the rotor off. If your rotor is stuck on there, you can take a hammer and just hit in these areas. Just be careful of not hitting the studs. Slide it off. Just take a little anti seize, and just wipe it on the hub surface. Just a nice, thin coat.

Take the new rotor. Just going to put it on backwards, first. Take some brake parts cleaner. Just clean the back side of the rotor. Use a rag, wipe it off. And flip it over, and clean the front side, and wipe it down. If you want to, you can put a lug nut on to hold the rotor on. Makes installing it a little bit easier. Keeps the rotor in place. All right. Just take the brake caliper bracket. Use a screwdriver, straight blade screwdriver. Slide these anti rattle clips off where the pad slides off. Take a wire brush, just clean off the rust on this area.

All right. Now, just take some brake caliper grease, and just put a little bit on the ears, where the pad slides are going to go. Take the new pad slides, line them up, press them on. And take a little caliper grease, just put a nice thin coat right here, and right here, and do the same on the other side. And, just slide the caliper bracket over the rotor.

Take the bolts. You can put some thread lock adhesive on them. Now we're going to torque these bolts to 129 foot-pounds. Now, I'm going to take the brake pads, put the brake pads on. Now the warning indicator for the inboard pad, the one that goes on the inside, is going to be at the bottom. There's only one. There's nothing on the top. The one that goes on the outside has both squealers or warning indicators. Slide those into position.

Now, I need to compress the pistons back into the caliper. You can use a piston compressing tool. They make different types of tools. This is a ratchet type. As I tighten this up, it's going to push the brake fluid...push the piston back into the caliper, which is going to push the brake fluid through the hoses, through the lines, and back up into the master cylinder. Just go nice and slow. You don't want to rush this. The slower the better.
All right, those pistons are compressed. Now slide the caliper over the brake pads. Now you can take the two brake caliper bolts, clean them off with some brake parts cleaner, just wipe them off. These aren't too bad. And just take some brake caliper grease, on the guide pins. Now install the caliper bolts, or guide pins, and torque those to 80 foot-pounds.

Now you can take this lug nut off and put the wheel back up. Now put the tire back on. And the lug nuts. I'm going to torque the lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a star pattern or in a cross pattern, so that it tightens the wheel down evenly. Just go around again, double-check.

Now after you're done, you want to make sure you pump up the brake pedal, nice and slow. There's going to be an air gap between the caliper piston and the brake pads. So just do that, until that feels pretty good. And then double-check your brake fluid level, and adjust accordingly.