I would very much appreciate a DIY with pics for this. Thanks.

 

It is really easy. Basically you just raise the car and support it, remove the front wheels and then there is 2 bolts on each caliper that hold it to the bracket and slide pins. Be sure to hold the boot firmly when you remove the slide pins so you don't tear the boots. The PITA for me was getting those stupid spring clips back on the front pads! I found the easy way to do it was to install the caliper on the pads without installing the bolts. Then maneuver the spring clips into position, then re-install the caliper bolts.

If your car has high miles I would not wait to do it! All four of my front slide pins were very difficult to move because all the grease had dried up.

 

Like AJ noted, it's not difficult and I can do a write up on removing, checking pad wear and lubing pins and sliding surfaces but it might be a few weeks before I can get to it.

I need to replace the fuel pump on my old pickup truck and finish up the Mustang (new aluminum radiator, electric fans, new SSBC 4 piston calipers, drilled/slotted rotors, Wilwood master cylinder and proportioning valve, new brake lines and converting the original rear to a late model 8.8 with 5 leaf springs.

I also need to cleanup, repaint and reseal the engine and transmission out of the '64 Fairlane and get them back to the body shop.

In addition to all of the above, I have to walk my daughter down the aisle in 2 weeks. Don't know why she couldn't get married during the week so I could spend the weekend working on the fun cars...

 

Congratulations and best wishes to you and the soon-to-be newly weds!

Sears says they can lube the brakes for $19.99 after a $15 brake eval, which all seems very reasonable. I think I will go that route. So, please don't take the trouble of writing it up.

 

Thanks for the best wishes, she is a great kid working on her PHD at Georgia Tech. Must have gotten her brains from mom.....

Watch out for your "evaluation", don't be surprised if they think you need new pads....

I will still do a write up on the brakes when I get the chance as it only take a few minutes per wheel. I think that most of us will only be lubing the pins and other areas as the brakes might outlast the car.

 

I remember reading somewhere that a new pad would be 12mm in width. Is this correct? Thanks.

 

12mm in the front, 10.5mm in the rear. Both have a 1mm minimum thickness.

 

My 07 TCH is at 180k miles and the original brakes are still in great shape, according to the dealership. Also, my 12 volt absorbed glass matt battery is the original as well and tests fine. Literally, the only work this vehicle has needed is to pro-actively replace the fluids (coolant, CVT, motor oil) and tires. I have never had a better, more reliable vehicle. When I am in big cities I notice that many of the taxi cabs are TCH's and the cabbies tell me that this is not unusual that these cars can go hundreds of thousands of miles. The car looks great too - thanks to me pampering it and using Turtle Wax Ice products. The only thing I think it needs are new struts, but I am not mechanically inclined enough to do it myself, and the repair shops want over five hundred dollars to do it because you have tear out the backseat, etc. So to me it is not worth it since they are not leaking, and the ride quality is still half way decent. This is truly one heck of a great car.

 

Ride safety can be adversely affected with poor struts, and 180K is a long time on a set of struts. If you plan on keeping the car at least another 50K, then I would certainly put new struts on the car. You will notice the improved ride quality immediately, even though you never noticed the very very slowly deteriorating ride quality up to this point.

 

2008 TCH - Replaced rear pads at 75k miles as I was noticing the loud noise when in reverse at slow speeds. Inner pad had about 2mm remaining, outer pads about 4mm (rough guess, I didn't measure). Pulled front tire and they still had plenty of life remaining. Was a pretty easy job to do, I'm enjoying learning how to do these types of maintenance. After installing the new OEM pads now no more noise in reverse.