How to Replace Front Brakes 2010-15 Toyota Prius
Created on: 2018-04-16
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace your own worn, squeaky, fading old brakes on 11 Toyota Prius.
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Pry the wheel cover off with a small pry bar
- Loosen the 21mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Disconnecting the Negative Battery Terminal
- Disconnect the negative battery terminal
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step 3 :Removing the Brake Pads and Rotor
- Pry the brake pads into the caliper with a flat blade screwdriver to push in the pistons
- Remove the 14mm slide pin bolts from the brake caliper
- Pull the caliper aside
- Remove the brake pads
- Remove the 17mm bolts from the brake caliper bracket
- Pull off the brake caliper bracket
- Remove the Phillips screw from the rotor
- Pull the rotor off
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step 4 :Preparing the New Brake Pads and Rotors
- Clean off the caliper bracket with brake parts cleaner
- Clean the brake pad brackets with a wire brush
- Apply grease to the caliper slides
- Clean both sides of the rotor with brake parts cleaner
- Compress the pistons into the caliper with a large c-clamp and old brake pad
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step 5 :Installing the New Brake Rotor
- Slide the rotor on
- Thread on one lug nut to hold the rotor in place
- Put the caliper bracket back into place
- Tighten the 17mm bolts by hand
- Tighten the bolts to 101 foot-pounds of torque
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step 6 :Installing the New Brake Pads
- Apply grease to the brake pad tabs
- Install the new brake pads into the bracket
- Clip the spring into the slots on the brake pads
- Put the caliper on
- Thread bolts by hand
- Tighten bolts to 25 foot-pounds
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step 7 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 80 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
- Press the wheel cover on
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step 8 :Reconnecting the Negative Battery Terminal
- Reconnect the negative battery terminal
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step 9 :Testing the Brakes
- Pump your brakes repeatedly until they feel firm
- Test your brakes at 5 miles per hour and then 10 miles per hour
- Road test the vehicle
Tools needed
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Large C-Clamp
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
14mm Socket
Pry Bar
17mm Socket
Jack Stands
Brake Parts Cleaner
21mm Socket
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Paper Towels
Bungee Cord
Anti-Seize Grease
Ratchet
Wire Brush
Floor Jack
Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
I'm going to use a small flat pry bar to get underneath here. You can also use a small flat-bladed screwdriver. Pry the wheel cover off. They’re usually on there pretty tight. I'm going to use the long breaker bar and the 21-millimeter socket. We're going to loosen all the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground so the wheel doesn't spin. Now you can raise and support your vehicle.
You can use a jack and jack stands, but we're going to use our two-post lift. With the lug nuts loose, I'm going to finish up using the socket and remove the wheel and tire. Before you remove the brake caliper and brake pads, make sure that you disconnect the negative battery terminal. There is an electric brake controller that if the doors opened, the driver's door, or even if you accidentally touched the brake pedal it will activate the braking system and potentially you could have the piston come out of the caliper if you've got this disconnected, so you just want to make sure that the negative terminal of the 12-volt battery is disconnected and put aside before you touch the brake system.
I'm going to turn it this way so we can see better what's going on, so I can get to these caliper bolts. There's 14-millimeter side bolts on the bottom and the top. Start by loosening these. Loosen the top one using a 14-millimeter box wrench. I'm going to have a bungee cord handy, and I'll wrap it up and around the coil spring of the strut. This way, when I take the caliper off, just going to slide it off, I can tie it up and you don't want to let it hang by the rubber brake hose, you can damage the brake hose. Just hook it this way and this way, and that can hang just right there like that.
These brakes are actually in really good shape, but we're going to show you how to change them anyways. You just push them away out of the caliper clips and take the pads out. I'm going to remove the bottom and top caliper mounting bolts, they're 17-millimeter, I'm just using a deep socket, it acts like a short extension, and a long ratchet to get them loose. I have the bolts loose, I'm just throwing them out by hand.
I'm going to hold on to the rotor because it is loose. This one is not stuck to the hub, I don't want it to fall, so I'm also going to hold on to the rotor and the caliper bracket and take it off. And then since the rotor is so loose and it's pretty small, I'm going to take it off too. If it was stuck in place, rusted in place, you could spray some rust penetrant there and there's threaded holes you could mount bolts through and push them off.
Going to reuse the clips, they're stainless, you just need to clean them. Going to use some brake parts cleaner, spray it on there, and a wire brush. Brush out all the dirt and grease. Do this on both sides. And then when you're done brushing them, use a rag to finish cleaning them. All right, while you've got your caliper bracket off, you can check your slide pins to make sure they're moving freely. They should move in and out fairly freely. This one's a little tight, so I'm going to pull it out and just carefully pull the boot off. It's a little rusty and dirty. Take a rag, wipe it down. Just clean this out. And take a little bit of brakes parts cleaner and spray it in there.
Careful spraying it. You want to spray it away from you so don't spray yourself in the face with the stuff. You can do these one at a time so you don't mix them up. Sometimes there's different ones top and bottom. We'll take our caliper slide grease, and grease these up and install it. Push it in so the rubber boot goes over it. Moves in and out nice and freely. Check the other one, it's in there pretty tight. You just repeat this for both sides.
We are going to reuse our rotor and pads because they are in good shape. They're basically brand new on this particular vehicle, didn't make much sense to replace them. However, if you do need replacement parts for your brakes, you can go to 1AAuto.com, but we're going to show you how to reinstall these as if they were brand new, because the procedure will be exactly the same. I like to put them on backwards first.
New brake rotors come packaged with a protective oil coating to prevent rust that needs to be cleaned off. Plus, I've been touching these with my greasy gloves, so I do want to clean the surface where the brake pads are going to touch. We use some brake parts cleaner, and then just wipe them down. You can flip them back over and reinstall them the correct way. They actually fit kind of loosely, so you can take a lug nut and thread it on, and this will hold the rotor in place.
It won't fall on the ground, and you won't be fighting with it to try to reinstall the brake caliper. But, we're also going to clean this surface too with brake parts cleaner. These have a little bit of light surface rust because they are the original ones, but they are working just fine, so that's why we're reusing them.
Normally, if you're replacing these brakes they're going to be worn out, and when the,\ as you brake the pad wears, this piston will move out of the caliper and take up the extra space as the brake pad wears in. These brake pads are basically brand new as the caliper was not, or the piston was not pushed out of the caliper very far, however if it was, you know say, like that far out, you'd need to compress it in order to install the new brake pads.
So what you can do, you take the old brake pad, I'm not going to do it because I don't want to damage this brake pad, but you could put it right up against the piston like this and then take a C-clamp and then gently compress it. And at the very end, when you're done compressing it, it's going to look just like that and you'll be ready to install this caliper over your new thicker, brand new brake pads.
You reinstall brake caliper bracket, so slide it into place over the rotor. I've got the bolts handy, ready to go. You may have to move the caliper bracket around to get them threaded in. Once you've got that top one started, and get the bottom one started. Thread it down as far as it will go. I'm going to snug these up and then I'll torque them. Then torque the caliper mounting bolts to 101 foot-pounds. Just to make sure your brake pad surface is nice and clean, free of dirt and grease. You take some brake parts cleaner, just quickly spray them off. You don't want to soak the pads.
You don't have to douse these with grease, just take a little bit of caliper grease and put it on the ears of the pads so that they slide on the clips. These will mount with the wider part of the curve matching the outer part of the rotor. You don't want to install them backwards. They'll just slide into place in the clips, right up against the rotor. Repeat that for both of them. Again just be aware, they don't install this way, they're installed with the curve towards the outside.
So we take our bungee cord and unhook it from the caliper, with that loop all the way through. Don't forget to unhook your bungee cord from your strut. Slide the caliper over the pads. You have to push the slide pins in a little bit. Then you install the slide bolts. Same for both of them. Now I'll torque them. I'm going to torque the caliper slide pin bolts to 25 foot-pounds. If the slide pin bolts spin, you'll have to counter-hold them here with an 18-millimeter wrench. We got lucky, those didn't want to spin. Once it clicks, you're all set. You can remove your lug nut. Push the whole assembly straight ahead.
And reinstall your wheel and tire, and reconnect your battery. Take our wheel and tire and reinstall it. Start our lug nuts by hand, you don't want to cross-thread them. Use the socket just to snug these up. Put the vehicle on the ground, and then we'll torque them. I'm going to torque the lug nuts to 80 foot-pounds in a cross pattern using our torque wrench. When it clicks, you're all set.
Reinstall the wheel cover, going to line up the hole with the valve stem right here, and then it'll just push into place. Since we compressed the pistons back into the calipers, we need to gently pump the brakes to bring them out to meet the pads. You don't have to slam them to the floor, just gently pump them up. That should be good.
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