I am about to install powerslot rotors and hawk HPS pads up front. I just wanted to check and see if there is anything special that I need to know about. Or is it pretty straight forward.

 

Here is a writeup someone on this board wrote before:

Rotor & Brade Pad Installation Notes
My notes from rotor and brake pad swap without disconnecting brake lines or bleeding brakes.

Brake Install Notes:

Tools/Equipment:

• Jack & Jack Stands
• Impact Wrench or Lug Nut Wrench
• 14mm, 17mm, 19mm sockets & ratchet
• C-Clamp
• Rear Piston Compression Tool
• Mechanics Grease or Anti-Seize Grease
• Brake Cleaner
• Rubber Mallet


Front:

1. Put the car up on jack stands and remove the front wheels.
2. Remove the bolts holding the upper piece of the caliper on...14mm...these came off without any effort...slide the caliper off and hang it on the coil of the spring.
3. Remove the brake pads...they pop right off...pay attention to the way they are seated.
4. Remove bolts holding the lower piece of the caliper on...19mm...these require some elbow grease to remove, but I did not need any liquid wrench or a breaker bar...slide the second caliper piece off and set aside.
5. Remove the rotor...requires some rocking and tapping to remove...my stock rotors did NOT have a bolt hole easy removal so I did some light tapping on the back side with a mallet as I turned the rotor.
6. Install new rotor...clean up the wheel hub first and rub some grease around the hub to prevent the new rotor from rusting onto the hub like the stock one.
7. Reinstall lower piece of caliper...clean it up first to remove all the brake dust...tighten up 19mm bolts good and tight.
8. Install new brake pads...ensure that you remove the backing plates off the old pads and install them to the new pads.
9. Compress the piston on the upper piece of the caliper...loosen cap on the brake fluid resevoir by the driver's side strut tower in the engine bay to make piston compression possible...use a clamp and equally distribute pressure as you compress...watch for brake fluid overflow.
10. Reinstall upper piece of the caliper...clean it up first to remove all the brake dust...tighten up the 14mm bolts marginally (remember how easy they were to remove).


You're all done. Differences for the rears:

• You must remove the 14mm bolt holding the mount for the emergency brake cable to get the upper part of the caliper off...underneath the caliper.
• Lower piece of caliper is held on by 17mm bolts instead of the 19mm on the front.
• Piston needs to be turned clockwise to be compressed...I suppose you could use pliers, but you can buy a small piston compression tool which hooks on to a ratchet and makes life really easy...the one they sell at Sears has a piston pattern which fits the rear calipers on the Maxima.
• Make sure you hook the emergency brake cable onto the spring mechanism before reinstalling the upper caliper piece as it will be hard to hook back on after the caliper is assembled.

 

there's also some good pics on motorvate.ca for doing this to go along with the written...

 

FYI, my rotors were stuck on tight (no hammer/mallet helped), I used a "Timing Gear Puller" from Autozone with some bolts from their "Steering Wheel Puller" to pull the rotor (using the bolt holes for removal) against the center of the hub...
For the rears I had to remove the dust cap to do this.

 

Sorry to ***** your thread here, but I couldn't loosen the 14 mm bolts last night when attempting to remove the front calibers. I was standing next to the hub with my hands inside the wheel well, but couldn't get enough leverage to turn the ratchet. What's the best position to get maximum leverage for removing those bolts?

 

Use a ratchet, adjust the location of the ratchet handle so you can slide a 8 to 12 in piece of pipe over it to add an extension to it, this will give more torque. The 14mm bolts are behind on the interior side of the calipers, facing the engine .

 

I was laying under the car......and I had plenty of leverage room. But my 14mm bolts weren't on that tight.....the 19mm were on pretty stout tho.

 

Anything funky you have to worry about with without abs the abs? I've done brakes several times on cars, but someone told me I couldn't do it myself with abs (bs? prolly.)

 

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the pipe. I thought about that last night but couldn't find a piece of pipe in my garage with that length. I do have some EMT lying around so I'l cut a 12 inch section tonight. Earlier in the day I went to Home Depot and got a 3 foot section of 3/4 inch black pipe for $4. I used the black pipe along with the stock lug wrench to loosen up the lugs. It was cheaper than buying a breaker bar for $10 at Autozone.