How to Inspect and Remove the Brake Pads on Your Car

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Nate McCullough on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip we are going to talk about the proper way to inspect your vehicle's brake pads. On this particular vehicle here, this set of pads has some return springs. They just simply squeeze in, just like so and we remove them. We are going to reuse these return springs a later date so don't loose them. What you are going to want to do is remove the pad and take a look at the actual surface of the friction material. This is a semi metallic brake pad. I don't know if you can see the metal flakes shining in it but you definitely will when you are doing this first hand. What it is made of is a sponge steel and some resins. They take and make that goo at a very high temperature and then they do what they call intrigrille molded. There are no holes on these pads for rib bits. This is a molded pad. You are going to want to inspect it to see if it is separating away from its backing at all. This is not. This particular pad here has about 50 percent of its life left. This is your inboard pad. You can see the shim here, you are going to want to inspect this portion and make sure the rib bits that hold the shim on haven't rusted away and the shim is shifting on you. That can cause damage to other components in the braking system if it does shift. You are going to want to remove the other pad, get hold of your retaining clips here and set those down with our return springs. This particular pad here is down to about 30 percent. It still has a decent amount of life left in it. I would reuse these on any kind of brake repair. You may get 15,000 to 20,000 miles out of that and new ones wear just as fast as old ones. As you can see, there are no cracks in the friction material surface. It is nice and smooth. There's an even contour to it, no real excessive grooving going on. The steel backing is still connected all the way around the friction material. No signs of separation and the shim has its rib bits on it are intact and the shim is not wrinkled or shifted position. That is the proper way to inspect your vehicle's brake pads, right there. "