Changing the Brake Pads in Rob's 2004 Ford F150

Rob called up and asked if he could come by and change his front brake pads. They were making a grinding noise. I said sure, and he came by after work. I took photos of the simple steps of changing front brake pads. Disclaimer: these are not instructions on how to change your brake pads. Buy a manual. Or pay someone to do it. I can't believe I even felt it necessary to write that.

First, loosen the front lug nuts, jack up the truck and put jackstands under it, and remove the front wheels.


Now that you have the wheel off, you can see the caliper. Remove the two bolts holding on the caliper and pull it off. Use a big C-clamp to force the two pistons back in the caliper. Don't let them get cocked in the caliper and stuck. Make sure the brake reservoir doesn't overflow as you push in the pistons. Put the new shoes in the caliper and put bolt it back on. Don't forget to put on the anti-squeal goo (Rob took the caliper back off and put on the goo).


The pads on the driver's side were worn and needed to be replaced, but there was still some lining left. One of the pads on the passenger's side was past the rivets and into the backing plate. The rotor was similarly scored. Rob says he plays the stereo really loud and keeps the AC turned up high, so he didn't hear it grinding.


With the rotor off you can see the anti-lock brake (ABS) sensor, about two o'clock on the spindle. Changing the rotors on a F150 is harder, because it's not a separate rotor that lifts off the studs; the rotor is also the hub and contains the wheel bearings. When we did Rob's last F150 (a '95) we had to seat the new races in the new rotor. This rotor came with the races already installed. The bearings were fine, so Rob repacked them and put them back in. I did have to run to the auto parts store for a new wiper seal for the rotor. And then Rob tapped it in. Even though the last photo makes it look like he's hitting the seal with a bare hammer, he's not.



And that's about it. Installation is the reverse of removal. Put the wheels back on, check the brake fluid reservoir, and test drive it. It was getting pretty dark toward the end, so I got a no-flash exposure of Rob. Off he went on the test drive, and then a beer in the back yard, and it was one.