Changing Brakes on a Honda CRV

by madebywales

228K2312

Intro: Changing Brakes on a Honda CRV

Step by step instruction on changing front brakes on a CRV.

STEP 1:

Always use jack stands when working with a lifted vehicle!!!!!

Lift vehicle at lift at specified lift points(see owners manual).

STEP 2:

Place jacks under vehicle at specified locations(again,see owners manual).

STEP 3:

Remove lug nuts and tires. If you do not have an air compressor and impact gun, loosen lug nuts while vehicle is on the ground.

STEP 4:

Remove brake caliper. If at any point you find a very tight bolt or nut, spray it with penetrating oil and let sit for a bit.
When you get the caliper loose, do NOT let it hang by the brake line! Support it with a wire or let it rest on the backing plate.

STEP 5:

Next remove brake rotor. Loosen and remove screws that hold rotor to the hub. It is best tom use an impact screw driver to do this.

STEP 6:

If you don't have access to a brake lathe, take it to a shop that has one and have them" turn" the rotors. There will be a manufactures minimum spec on rotor thickness. Make sure it is within spec.

STEP 7:

Remove worn brake pads from brake caliper bracket. remove any old grease and re lubricate.

STEP 8:

Install new pads on bracket. Make sure they will move freely and are not crooked or upside down.

STEP 9:

Re-install rotor and caliper bracket. rotate rotor and inspect. look for any binding or crooked mounting.

STEP 10:

Now you must compress the caliper piston. Using an old brake pad and c-clapm, compress piston.

STEP 11: Re

Re install caliper to bracket. It is best to apply proper lubrication to all moving parts. I like silicone spray.

STEP 12:

Reinstall tires. Torque lug nuts to proper specs.

STEP 13:

Lower car and start. Befor putting the car in reverse or drive, pump the brakes to build pressure. After the brakes regain pressure, check the fluid level in resevoir and top off if neccessary.

STEP 14:

You are finished! Do not forget to roll up the windows!

9 Comments

JesseS3 9 years ago

All in all a good tutorial for the do-it-yourselfer, but you forgot one important thing, especially if you are doing all four brakes. Please check the fluid level in the brake reservoir after compressing EACH caliper piston, if your pads are worn the service person (or you) have been topping off the fluid as the pads wear, if you compress all 4 and don't check you are going to have all that excess fluid on the floor. Use a squeeze bulb to lower the fluid level to 1/2 full after each caliper, either keep the fluid or have some new handy as when you pump the brake pedal the level will drop as the pistons push the new pads against the rotor.

shenrie1 11 years ago

Thank you for telling people to use a torque wrench. So many people don't and wonder why something bad happens... My brothers jeep would break bolts or they would come loose all the time...

shenrie1 11 years ago

Silicon spray washes off, it's best to use silicone grease...
Which you can buy a bottle of it labeled as brake lubricant or something like that at any automotive store. Typically blue. For brake internals I prefer to use silicone dielectric grease from CRC. I always have a large bottle of it.

thewetturd 11 years ago

Wales, let me be the first to thank you for posting this instructable instead of coing on here to complain about your images. BTW, I am not one of those ofended by it and I found it relevent enough hehe. Good thing you can still see it when you do a search for "CRV". ;) "Anyhoo"... I am planning on doing this work to my CRV real soon and it's nice to see what I can expect. The pictures were very well taken and the captions explained them perfectly. I am going to try the following: I don't know if it will work for this car or not but I usually just loosen the bolt closest to the brake line and remove the other one. This way I can just swing the caliper bracket out of the way instead of having to remove the entire thing. When you swing it to where you like it, you tighten the loose one back up and it keeps it there. It makes it a lot easier to handle to swap the pads and compress the piston. Maybe you have to remove it entirely to be able to remove the rotor. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Speaking of compressing the piston, it's also a good idea to take the cap off the brake fluid resovoir before compressing the piston. If it over flows it usually does so without a problem but depending on the style cap it can cause damage to either the resovoir, cap, or both. Thanks again for posting this Wales. Excellent work! See, that is a pertinent comment for a auto mechanic tech instructable from someone that is interested in its content instead of those posted by someone that has nothing else better to do than to troll the site and complain about issues of very little importance. ....and I agree, I don't think that the guy that took the picture gives a rats (you know what) if you use it for something like this. Cheers

scoochmaroo 11 years ago

Please change your main image on this. It has nothing to do with the rest of your project and could be considered offensive by many.

Kiteman 11 years ago

+1

There are also copyright issues (I bet the author didn't ask permission of the image's owner!)

madebywales 11 years ago

Kiteman,
You are correct I did NOT ask permission. I am sorry to the owner of the image. But I am sure they don't mind.