The brake system is undoubtedly the most critical system on an automobile. The efficient operation and optimal performance of your braking system is critical to your driving safety and comfort. It is therefore extremely important for your brake system to be in serviceable condition at all times.

Having interacted with thousands of vehicle owners by virtue of my job as an aftermarket supplier of top quality brake system components, I felt a hunch to create this thread to raise a conversation on proper preventive maintenance of brake systems.

It is my hope that experienced more automotive technicians, service advisors, quality component providers and engineers will join me here to share vital information on this thread that could enable members to better carry out proper preventive maintenance of their brake systems in order to get them performing optimally and keep the vehicle owners safe on the road.

TODAY'S TOPIC: TOP 10 IMPORTANT BRAKE PAD INSTALLATION TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU MAXIMIZE YOUR BRAKE PAD PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE LIFE!

Optimal braking performance is required to bring your moving vehicle to a safe stop. And one critical part of the braking system that’s relied upon to deliver that performance on a vehicle is a set of high quality brake pads with good friction properties to also effectively control Noise, Vibration and Harshness during braking.

After purchasing a set of high performance brake pads, it’s important for your product to be properly installed.

The 10 proper brake pad installation tips i'll share below will help you or your mechanic to achieve proper installation that will potentially maximize your brake pad performance as well as prolong and maximize their service life.

Please take time to read and observe these tips during your brake pad installation:

1. Before installing your new brake pads, please look out for any form of uneven wear on your old pads. Uneven wear patterns indicate areas of problems in your caliper(check your caliper slide pins or pistons).

2. Lubricate the two slide(guide) pins on each caliper(it's important to always use silicone based brake lubricant on the slide pins. Any petroleum based lubricant will damage the dust boots and expose your guide pins to rust, causing them to become stuck; and this will impact on your braking efficiency as well as compromise your pad's service life).

3. Lubricate you caliper slide clips. These clips are at the top and bottom of the brake pad housing on the calipers. They form a track for the brake pad’s back and forth movement, hence any rust on them causes a movement problem for the pads.

4. Inspect your discs for grooves, scars or warps. Ensuring that your disc surface is smooth on both sides is key to smooth, noiseless braking and brake pad longevity.

5. If your discs are grooved, warped or scarred, ensure you measure the disc thickness with a micrometer before resurfacing. Discs have minimum surface thickness that must be maintained for safe and smooth braking. If you aren’t sure, it’s safe to replace your discs. But if you can determine that the thickness is still well within manufacturers tolerance thickness, you can very well resurface the disc install a less abrasive brake pads(i recommend our low copper, high performance ceramic brake pads available for nationwide delivery at www.du-craftbrakescom/buyhere)

6. Before pressing in your caliper pistons, ensure the outer walls of the pistons are cleaned of brake dust and road debris.

7. Test again to ensure that your brake calipers are sliding horizontally along the caliper slide pins after lubricating the slide pins.

8. Ensure that the brake line bleeder valves on the calipers are not rusty and blocked.

9. Test your brake fluids with a good brake fluid tester strip or electronic tool to determine that the water, copper and corrosion levels of your fluid are within acceptable limits. If your brake fluid has been in there for two years, please DRAIN IT COMPLETELY AND REPLACE with a good Dot3, Dot4LV or Dot5.1 specification fluid(cars without abs should use only Dot5 specification)

10. Lastly, bleed your brake lines to rid them of any form of air or bubbles. Use a proper brake bleeder tool to achieve maximum result.

NB: Remember that servicing your brake system each time you service your car keeps your brake system functioning optimally, prolongs your brake pad and disc service life and ultimately keeps you safe on the road.

It’s great to move your vehicle; but far greater and vital to stop it safely, with lower disc abrasion!
Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com to learn more!

Excellent guide, gotta save it! I just need to buy new brake pads, would be grateful for some helpful recommendations. Does anybody ordered something from this Canadian company http://www.crossdrilledrotors.ca/kevlar-brake-pads.html ? I like the brands they offer, and the prices are lower than those of their analogues. Thanks.

@Willie5, you need not go too far. Especially if your car is a Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai or Range Rover. You can get high quality of ceramic brake pads of US standard @ Du-Craft Brakes, an aftermarket supplier here in Nigeria. Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com or call the hotlines(09085690931,08175748544) to order. Your product will be delivered to your doorstep.

jideakins:
@Willie5, you need not go too far. Especially if your car is a Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai or Range Rover. You can get high quality of ceramic brake pads of US standard @ Du-Craft Brakes, an aftermarket supplier here in Nigeria. Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com or call the hotlines(09085690931,08175748544) to order. Your product will be delivered to your doorstep.

wow thanks!

jideakins:
@Willie5, you need not go too far. Especially if your car is a Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai or Range Rover. You can get high quality of ceramic brake pads of US standard @ Du-Craft Brakes, an aftermarket supplier here in Nigeria. Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com or call the hotlines(09085690931,08175748544) to order. Your product will be delivered to your doorstep.

Would you have parts to rebuild the caliper of most brands? more importantly do you guys sell Brake grease?

Would you have parts to rebuild the caliper of most brands? more importantly do you guys sell Brake grease?
I'm sorry Erico2k2, we do not have brake caliper rebuild kits at the moment as we still have our hands full expanding our high performance ceramic brake pad stock to cater to the needs of more brand of vehicles in the Nigerian market. On the brake grease issue, we are working on making our silicone based brake lubricant available in the market soon. Silicone based lubricants are the best for brake component lubrication, especially the caliper guide pins due to the presence of petroleum based materials such as the dust boots. Any form of petroleum based lubricants on the caliper guide pins will cause more problems as they will damage the dust boots.

jideakins:
Would you have parts to rebuild the caliper of most brands? more importantly do you guys sell Brake grease?
I'm sorry Erico2k2, we do not have brake caliper rebuild kits at the moment as we still have our hands full expanding our high performance ceramic brake pad stock to cater to the needs of more brand of vehicles in the Nigerian market. On the brake grease issue, we are working on making our silicone based brake lubricant available in the market soon. Silicone based lubricants are the best for brake component lubrication, especially the caliper guide pins due to the presence of petroleum based materials such as the dust boots. Any form of petroleum based lubricants on the caliper guide pins will cause more problems as they will damage the dust boots.

If I was you I would concentrate on Brake Grease as the falure of most brake system comes from jamming of brakes due to lack of lubrication, as it stands there are little or non in that area of market.The brake pads market is saturated and lack of lub for the brake system would kill your brake pads anyway.

jideakins:
@Willie5, you need not go too far. Especially if your car is a Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai or Range Rover. You can get high quality of ceramic brake pads of US standard @ Du-Craft Brakes, an aftermarket supplier here in Nigeria. Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com or call the hotlines(09085690931,08175748544) to order. Your product will be delivered to your doorstep.

Hello, do you have brake pads available for the W204 Mercedes Benz?

erico2k2:

If I was you I would concentrate on Brake Grease as the falure of most brake system comes from jamming of brakes due to lack of lubrication, as it stands there are little or non in that area of market.The brake pads market is saturated and lack of lub for the brake system would kill your brake pads anyway.

Thanks for your advice. But on the contrary, the reality of the market as it is today is that both brake pads, brake lube and even brake fluid contamination contribute to the brake system poor performance. In Nigeria today, most brake pads in the market have metallic friction surfaces which excessively wear brake disc surfaces, causing majority of vehicle owners to spend a huge sums on premature disc replacement or resurfacing. Some generally resign to fate and continue to live with braking vibrations, thus endangering themselves and other road users.

The first step therefore is for vehicle owners to switch to less abrasive, better performing ceramic friction options, then begin to adopt the use of proper brake lubricants and then also maintain proper scheduled servicing of their brake systems which include flushing their brake fluids every 50,000kilometers or two years(whichever comes first).

The braking system is at the heart of driving safety. Providing high performing, top quality, low copper ceramic Brake pad options is an important starting point. The lube solution is on its way just as we shall unveil other brake system solutions as time goes on.

Our brake lubes should be available from sometime in early 2017. For now, we are improving the braking experience of an increasing number of Nigerians with our HIGH PERFORMANCE CERAMIC FRICTION(BRAKE PAD) OPTIONS.

They are currently available for TOYOTA, HONDA, KIA, HYUNDAI AND RANGE ROVER CARS and we're still expanding to cover other popular vehicle models. Visit www.du-craftbrakes.com to learn more.

TheGrandMaster:


Hello, do you have brake pads available for the W204 Mercedes Benz?

For now, Du-Craft Brake Pads are only available for Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai and Range Rover models.