How to Change Brake Pads on a '98 Chevy Tahoe

Badge engineering -- the automotive industry's tendency to create "new" models by simply changing a model's name -- is no stranger to General Motors and none of these engineering jobs were as obvious as the introduction of the Tahoe in 1995. Essentially, GM grew tired of distinguishing the full-size Blazer from the midsize S-10 Blazer, so it simply renamed the full-size model the Tahoe and made minor revisions. The front brake pads recently started grinding on my 1998 Tahoe and I found this process to work well to complete the task.

Removal

I found that the best place to lift the front of the Tahoe is at the front suspension crossmember, and the jack stands should go under the frame rails, just behind the front wheels. I found that my Tahoe's caliper used a pair of bolts to secure it to the bracket, and these came off with a ratchet and socket.

When I removed the caliper, the pads actually remained with the caliper and I removed the inner pad by simply pulling it away from the caliper piston until the retaining pins disengaged from the piston. The outer pad was a little trickier, as I had to pry one the retaining arm on the rear of the pad upward with a flat-head screwdriver to disengage it from the caliper body, then pivot that side of the pad from the caliper. I then pried up the opposite side of the retaining arm and pulled the pad from the caliper.

My rotors were pretty rough, so I needed to replace them. I had to pry the metal dust cap from the center of the rotor with a flat-head screwdriver, pull the cotter pin from the spindle in the center of the rotor with needle-nose pliers, then remove the castellated nut with a ratchet and socket, and pull the bearing washer from the spindle. From there, I pulled the rotor off of the spindle, and inspected the wheel bearings, but I decided I didn't need to replace them.

Installation

I repacked and installed the bearings and tapped a new grease seal on the back of the rotor. I then slid the rotor back onto the spindle, and installed the wheel bearing washer and loosely installed the castellated nut. To seats the bearings, I spun the rotor forward as I tightened the castellated nut to 12 foot-pounds, then loosened it again and tightened it until it was only finger tight. I then slid a new cotter pin into place and bent its legs, then tapped the dust cap back into place on the center of the rotor.

I reinstalled the brakes pads by aligning the tabs on the rear of the new inner pad with the cavity in the caliper piston and pressing the pad toward the piston until the pad sat flush against the piston. On the outer pad, I simply sat the pad against the edge of the outer portion of the caliper body and pressed the pad into the caliper while prying upward on the retaining arm on the rear of the pad until the buttons on the retaining arm seat in the divots in the caliper body.

When I installed the caliper, I tightened it to the manufacturer's specified torque of 38 foot-pounds. I then installed the wheels, raised the SUV off of the jack stands, removed the jack stands, lowered the SUV and tightened the lug nuts, in a crisscross pattern, to 140 foot-pounds. To pressurize the brake system, I simply pressed and released the brake pedal until it felt firm, then I topped off the master cylinder to 1/4-inch from the top with fresh DOT 3 brake fluid.