85fortheDrive

Hey folks:

Okay, I was "baptized" into 928 maintenance with a recent motor mount and oil pan gasket project. In taking the front wheels off, I noted that the brake pads are pretty worn and should soon be replaced.

So, if the motor mounts are a difficulty of 7 on a scale of 1-10, what would brake pads be?

Any BTDT tips for 84S brake pads?

Thanks folks,
Tim

Bill Ball

1 to 1.5.

The WSM covers it in detail in volume 4, starting on page 46-2.

Imo000

How do you know they were worn? Did you compare them with a new set? If they are replaced too relay it's just a waste of money. As Bill stated, they are a low 1.

whitefox

.5

H2

Whitefox...what do you use to get such a gloss on your car's finish?

I've not changed out brakepads yet but will be forced to eventually. Interested in how it comes out for you.

Harvey

85fortheDrive

Bill - I do have the WSM and have studied the brake pad section. Since I've never been in there to take a close look, the pics and part descriptions are a bit hard to follow. Knowing that this is low on the difficulty scale helps me to think that things will make sense once the wheels come off.

IMO - They look pretty thin - perhaps no more than 4mm or so.

IcemanG17

Harvey
If you mean his avatar is a very special wax called "photoshop"

F451

Where can I get some?

RyanPerrella

brake pads

unhook the pad wear sensor, this is probably the hardest part, i use needle nose pliers to get them off the pads

Use some channel locks to release the pad spring which holds the pads in, this then flips down

grab the pads with some pliers and pull out.

If you need to compress the pistons, take the cap off the brake fluid res. and use channel locks again to compress the pistons individualls into the caliper. Making sure not to mar or gauge the coating on the caliper, i have just used bunched up paper towels to protect the outer finish.

Once they are compressed, you transfer over the pad shims, although if you plan ahead of time, just buy new shims, they should be cheap, apply some anti sceize or i just use that blue aerosol stuff as a "brake anti squeal" and reinstall the pads, compress the spring and secure it, reattach the pad wear sensors and get in the car and pump the breaks and your done.

Pirtle's site has pics of these things, but this is really such an easy job. I almost wished i raced this car just to be able to change the pads in really just a couple minutes. Cool stuff!

F451

Good to know. My '88 needs pads bad. I have them in the box, now just have to find some time to throw then in there. Thanks. -Ed

Bill Ball

If you've got the wheels off, you're almost half done.

UKKid35

I would say that changing the pads on an S4 is one of the most difficult jobs I've done.

Anyone living in Florida will think I'm an idiot, but until you've seen the corrosion that the Ally calipers suffer from in snow/ice/salt enviroments you really won't understand.

The usual symptom is uneven pad wear and squealing. This usually means that the pads are sticking in the calipers, this is because the calipers have started to corrode around the stainless steel plates, which are nearly impossible to remove.

Here is a link describing the issue in more detail, there are four pages in total - Plate Tectonics.

It's actually more difficult than that article makes it seem because some of those small machine screws simply don't budge. The alternative is to grind the edge off the new pads, but this is a crude and inellegant solution, that will cause the pads to move around as they start to wear and squeal badly.

This is how my dad dealt with that for me:



However none of this is relevant to an 84 so apologies for hijacking your thread.

StratfordShark

If:

a) you've done motor mounts (prospect terrifies me!) and
b) a mechanical schmuck like me can do pads

then you'll find it a breeze.

The only caveat is that on my 88S4 the caliper plates are coming away on a couple of the calipers, so it's a pain to remove the old pads as well as impossible to insert new ones without taking the calipers off the rotor (hard at the rear where the bolts are at back and access tricky without car on lift) or grinding down new pads.

I'm not sure if your 84S has the aluminium calipers though so if not none of this applies and it will be simple!

Garth S

You now have lots of good advice on changing S4 4-piston calipers .... but the '84S have a 'floating' caliper: a frame with two pins is bolted to the hub. The single piston caliper 'floats' on these two pins .... and must do so freely - or one pad wears faster than another [ this is the first inspection you make --for symmetric wear].
A large 'C' clamp easily compresses the piston allowing the caliper to move on the pins and sliding surfaces. When compressed, remove the wire retainer and two pins securing the pads.
Replace pads from the back if that is all that is needed.
To do the whole deal, remove the rubber caps and a 7mm allan wrench will pull the slider pins: clean and lube all sliding surfaces with synthetic brake grease.
If the rotors are to be done, the frame must be unbolted from the hub.

UKKid35

I'm in the process of tackling some floating caliper brakes fitted to a lesser car, and part of the job is going to be replacing the dust seals as these are all damaged. Any advice on this part of the job?

Sorry for all the irrelevant info, but the 0.5 comment was too much for me to let pass...

And finally, why were floating calipers ever fitted to the 928? I thought they were only neccessary on front wheel drive cars that don't have the clearance for 2 or 4 pot calipers.