How to Install Brake Pads on a Honda Civic

Installing brake pads is a fairly rudimentary procedure, though it does take some car know-how and shouldn't be undertaken by amateurs. Honda Civics are straightforward vehicles and those with mechanical inclinations can install new brake pads pretty easily with the proper equipment. These instructions should be adequate for most contemporary years and models of Civics, though there may be some slight variations depending upon your particular vehicle.

Instructions

1

Jack up the front right side of the car, or use a hydraulic lift if you have access to one. You don't need to raise it especially high, just high enough to slip the tire off.

2

Remove the lug nuts with a lug wrench and carefully lift the wheel away from the car. Set the lug nuts somewhere safe where you can retrieve them when you need to replace the tire.

3

Find the caliper assembly on the front side of the rotor (the metallic disk behind the wheel). Remove the top bolt with a wrench, then loosen the bottom bolt.

4

Rotate the caliper on the bottom bolt until you can see the piston.

5

Look for a valve toward the top of the caliper covered by a rubber cap. Take the cap off and loosen the valve ever so slightly with a wrench. This releases brake fluid pressure on the piston.

6

While continuing to hold the valve firmly with the wrench, depress the piston using a C-clamp in your free hand. Then, still holding the piston down, retighten the valve. You should be able to remove the C-clamp safely.

7

Slip the old brake pads out of the caliper and replace them with new ones. The pads are often slightly different sizes, and one of them probably has a thin length of metal used to make the scraping sound that alerts you to the need to replace your brake pads. Make sure you match the orientation of the new pads to the orientation of the old.

8

Turn the caliper assembly back into position and tighten the bolts so that it stays in place. Make sure you put the cap on over the pressure valve as well.

9

Replace the tire, tighten the lug nuts, and lower the Honda to the ground.

10

Repeat the entire process with the brake assembly on the left-hand side.