chikai

Changing brake pads (F/R) over the weekend.

I received my Colbalt pads...going to install this weekend. Anything I should be conscious of? I'm talking about the actual installation procedure.

I know they require a bit of "bedding".

silverdevil

Just saw your post, you've probably already put them in and bedded. But for next time here's the best tip I've gotten yet about wrenching on an S2000: To put on thicker pads you need to screw in the piston on the rear calipers, a 3/8 ratchet is the perfect tool for this otherwise ugly job.

Which Cobalts did you get? I use the GT-S for the track, but switch back to OEM for daily driving. BTW, I found when switching to a thinner pad (happens a lot as I go back and forth between Cobalts and OEM with different wear) I have to screw the rear pistons OUT, otherwise the E brake handle gets all screwed up (comes up too far or not far enough, I don't remember which).

mikegarrison

I hope you didn't do what I did this weekend. I overcompressed the front pistons without watching the fluid level in the reservoir, and it overflowed. Doh! I tried my best to absorb it with paper towels, then dumped a bunch of water on it to try and flush it away.

davepk

If I'm not mistaken the stock brake fluid resivour will hold enough fluid to allow all 8 pads to wear down to the point of needing replacement. At that point the resivour will be at its min level.

The upshot of this is, if you top off your fluid resivour as your pads wear down you should expect it to overflow when the pistons are compressed to fit new pads.

mikegarrison

Yes, exactly. I flushed the system with partially used pads installed. Then I swapped for track pads which were even more worn, so I didn't have to compress the pistons at all. When I swapped back, I knew there was a risk that I would do this. I should have only compressed the pistons far enough to reinstall the partially used street pads, or I should have been more careful about monitoring it and sucked a little bit of fluid out. I did only compress the fronts, and then I checked to see how much reserve I had before I compressed the rears. But....

I was taking a shortcut, which turned into an annoying "long cut" in the end.

RT

... what Dave is saying is if you have the "right" amount of fluid in the system you'll never need to worry about the brake fluid geyser deal

mikegarrison

Yes, I know. And what I'm saying is that I was even stupider than it sounded like at first, because I *knew* I had too much fluid in there but I still managed to be sloppy enough to do it.....

RT