How To: MP3/P5/MSP Front & rear Pad/Rotor Change (No 56K)

no. never, if the rotors don't want to come off easily, you can thread a nut into the small hole in the rotor itself to break it off.

just so you know, there are two large bolts that you should remove for the caliper to come off. do not start loosening the nuts/bolts attached to the brake lines, if you leave them in place, you will not need to bleed your brakes after just changing rotors/pads.. take some zip ties and zip tie the caliper out of the way. DO NOT let the caliper hang from the brake line.

and good luck. if you have any questions along the way, post them up on here and someone should be able to walk you through.

fkmitsu said:
oh ok then..... easy enough :) wasnt sure if that giant nut in the center needed to com off :D
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how about some info on replacing the brake lines w/ steel braided ones & easiest way to bleed the brakes?



roni said:
no. never, if the rotors don't want to come off easily, you can thread a nut into the small hole in the rotor itself to break it off.

just so you know, there are two large bolts that you should remove for the caliper to come off. do not start loosening the nuts/bolts attached to the brake lines, if you leave them in place, you will not need to bleed your brakes after just changing rotors/pads.. take some zip ties and zip tie the caliper out of the way. DO NOT let the caliper hang from the brake line.

and good luck. if you have any questions along the way, post them up on here and someone should be able to walk you through.
Click to expand...
 
well you should use a flare nut wrench to remove the line. then replace it with the new line. bleeding isnt hard if you have a person to help you. start at the pass side rear, then drivers side rear, then pass side front, then drivers side front (the key is to start at the furthest point from the master cylinder when bleeding). i have the other person press and hold the brake pedal when i open the lines to bleed. even if the pedal seems tight, you need to continue until the air bubbles stop. make sure you keep the fluid level full enough in the reservoir while you are bleeding so you dont reintroduce air into the system. after you start the car, the pedal will feel more normal again.
fkmitsu said:
how about some info on replacing the brake lines w/ steel braided ones & easiest way to bleed the brakes?
Click to expand...
 
what if I'm flushing the brake fluid? just keep the resivior full w/ the new fluid?



roni said:
well you should use a flare nut wrench to remove the line. then replace it with the new line. bleeding isnt hard if you have a person to help you. start at the pass side rear, then drivers side rear, then pass side front, then drivers side front (the key is to start at the furthest point from the master cylinder when bleeding). i have the other person press and hold the brake pedal when i open the lines to bleed. even if the pedal seems tight, you need to continue until the air bubbles stop. make sure you keep the fluid level full enough in the reservoir while you are bleeding so you dont reintroduce air into the system. after you start the car, the pedal will feel more normal again.
Click to expand...
 
its basically a "glue" for the bolts...you should put it on there, only costs a few dollars. You dont want to take the risk of one of those caliper bolts coming out due to vibration



nautical2086 said:
very good how-to helped me tons doing my brakes, what does the red thread lock do i didnt use it.
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fkmitsu said:
its basically a "glue" for the bolts...you should put it on there, only costs a few dollars. You dont want to take the risk of one of those caliper bolts coming out due to vibration
Click to expand...

thats why i used it, i had heard horror stories of people losing caliper bolts and damaging wheels.
 
actually I beleive they do, if you looked at them closely when you took the out, there was a greenish residue on the bottom half of the threads, on mine atleast



nautical2086 said:
originally i dont think those bolts have that on there
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Just did my rotors and pads on all 4 corners of my Mazdaspeed Protege and wanted to post in here about doing the rears (the info is already out there, but not in this thread - be nice to have it all in 1 spot).

For the rears on the MSP there is no "set screw" type deal like the regular proteges and you don't even need an allen wrench or anything, so they're actually easier than the fronts. All you do is take the caliper off (easy, just 1 bolt plus the e-brake bolt) and then you'll see that the piston on the rear is a "screw-type" piston with a >< indentation in it. Rather than use a C-clamp to compress the piston like did you do with the fronts, just take a needle-nose pliers and screw the piston in by twisting it clock-wise. It turns somewhat hard so make sure you have a good grip on the pliers and it's a good pair of pliers. Mine took 1 and 1/2 full turns in order to get the clearance needed to slip it over the new pads. You'll need to turn it in 1/2 turn (180 degree) increments because the >< needs to line up with the notches on the back of the brake pad. That's pretty much it though -- they're actually really easy because no retarded "hidden" set screw to mess with.

If anybody has any questions about doing their brakes, just post or PM me and I'll try to help as well while it's all fresh in my mind.

OH, and DON'T use red thread-lock on your caliper bolts! If applied correctly you WILL need a torch to get them off again. Just tighten them up as much as you can (with a hammer and wrench since you can't get much leverage in there by hand) and you'll be fine.
 
Last edited:
I wasn't able to get my dang rotors off... wailed the s*** out of them but no luck. I settled for replacing the pads. My quesiton has to do with the metal shims as well as brake grease.

Those metal shims popped off easily enough, I suppose, but in trying to transfer them back to my new pads I was basically left with a situation where I'm merely hoping they'll stay put long enough for me to slide the caliper back into place. (they didn't snap on in any way) Since it was a pretty tight squeeze, this approach didn't work so well (the shims just slided with the caliper as it was closing in) so I finally just said 'screw it' and moved on. any thoughts on this? the pads I bought, while not having a metal shim, do have something that is exactly the same size and appears to be a very hard plastic. the stock pads didn't have anything like this so perhaps these act in the same way.

Lastly, break grease. If and when I get the new rotors on, I understand I need to greese these puppies up. (correct me if I'm wrong on that) but what about the pads themselves? the can of break grease I bought doesn't have any directions at all so I'm sort've confused where this stuff is supposed to go. I also bought some brake cleaner. I'm assuming that's not necessary for new breaks.... but should I use it on anything else while i'm at it?

THanks guys...
 
I never used the shims in my car and never had a problem. Just keep beatin the s*** out of the rotors with a small sludge hammer....keep rotating the rotor to get all the way around and use a metal bar between the hammer and rotor if that gives you better leverage. Use the brake cleaner for just about anything except your car's paint....it's great stuff.

What part of the rotor are you planning to grease up? The grease is typically made for the slide pins of the caliper....clean them up with a rag, brake cleaner, grease them and put it back together. Sometimes it's used for the edge of the pads so they slide better too. You shouldn't have to grease anything else....everything else should be cleaned thoroughly with brake cleaner.
 
I threadlocked because the car was sans rear caliper bolt when I got it, leading to confusion, frustration, and a destroyed rotor. Anyway, great write up, just put on the Brembo Cross Drilled/Slotted rotors with a full set of Satisfied pro ceramic pads, lovin it so far (the brake in consisted of hard high speed braking, it was a blast). A quick tip, when pulling out the allen screw, we couldn't get one off. My solution, slip an 8mm box wrench around the allen wrench, and you get a lot more torque (you can also use a cheater bar if needed). That was the trick that got it off.
 
Unbelievable.

I just broke the allen bolt / lower slider pin on one of my calipers.

Ugh. I swear, I loathe our P5. Nice car to drive, but a sheer medival torture device to wrench on.
 
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