How to Inspect Front Brake Pads

"MARK BLOCKER: In this segment, we're going to cover inspecting the front brakes. Prior to the assembly, we'll want to inspect them for any other previous damage and it can also give us some good indication that everything is working correctly. The first thing I want to do is inspect the rubber brake hoses. It's a section--the brake lines are all running in steel and it'll come down--it'll have a rubber section that connects it to the wheel and this allows a suspension travel. The rubber being a flexible line allows a suspension travel. And what we want to do is inspect them for cracks and look up near the fittings. That's where they usually crack at. This one here does have a crack down at the bottom and it's a crack in the outer shield. And generally, what causes is just age and deterioration of the rubber dry rots and it'll crack and that's going to create a weak point and when you got a braking pressure or extreme braking pressure from like, a panic stop, there's a lot of hydraulic pressure force going down through and that'll create a weak spot. It could create a bulge or a split in the line. A split in the line is going to cause instant loss of brake pressure and breaking and that can be real bad. So, this brake line is going to need to be replaced. We'll cover brake line replacement in another training video because that requires opening the system and bleeding the system and there's a lot involved in that. The next phase is--what I'm going to do is release the lock on the steering column and turn the wheel all the way to my left and that'll tilt this rotor and brake assembly just like the wheel has turned to left, give me access to see into the inspection spots and better access to the nuts when it comes time to remove it. So, you'll need the keys to unlock your steering column. Okay. You want to be careful. All you need to do is unlock the steering wheel. We don't want to try and start the car or turn the car over so you just want to click it one notch or whatever your particular vehicle requires until the steering wheel's unlocked. And then, standing back, just slowly rotate it to my left, all the way and kinda keep an eye on the car and make sure it staying stable and not doing anything out of the ordinary. And once it comes over towards all the way over to your left, you can just leave it there and leave the wheel unlocked. The key is released on notch. It shouldn't be in the on position, it energizes any of you electrical system. And as you can see, when this turned out to our left, it gives us the ability to visually inspect the brake pads through the caliper. And what I'm looking for is to look at the brake pad wear and see if both brake pads are wearing evenly or if one pad is wearing more than the other. If the pads are wearing unevenly, it can indicate a problem with the caliper--with the caliper piston or the caliper sliding on the mounts. So, when the pressure's being applied, it's being applied equally to both pads. And if things are working correctly, one pad will have a tendency to wear faster than the other. So, we just want to inspect and see that both pads are wearing the same and also when you pull them out, you'll have a good opportunity to see that but looking out on me in position, it allows you to inspect and see everything is sitting correctly and exactly how it is when it's on the vehicle. Once we've verified the pad wear and seen all the pads are in there correctly and setting, that concludes the inspection part of it. Please watch our next segment on removing the caliper."