HowTune

Replace The Brake Pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST

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Changing the brake pads on the 2014 Fiesta ST is not difficult, but requires a little bit of knowledge and a special tool to do correctly. It also helps to have a friend to hold wrenches and double-check your work.

Jacking Up the Car

I chose to replace the pads on one side of the car at a time to save time jacking it up. Warning: The jack point I'm using is not recommended by Ford, so use it at your own risk. It's been working fine for me for years, though.

1

Chock the wheels on the opposite side of the car.

2

Place your floor jack under the bolt that holds on the subframe for the engine and front suspension and jack up the car.

3

Place jack stands under the front and rear pinch joint jack points, then lower the car carefully onto the jack stands.

4

Test the stands by pushing on the car to see if it budges.

Never trust your jack to hold the car up. Always use jack stands. Some people even throw a tire under the car just to make sure.

Replacing the Rear Brake Pads

5

Remove the brake reservoir cap, but do not add any brake fluid. The reservoir is located under the hood behind the battery.

6

Remove the 8mm bolt for the brake line bracket.

Image 8318 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
7

Locate the 13mm slide pin bolts on the back of the caliper.

8

Using a 15mm or 16mm wrench to keep the pin nut from spinning, remove both pin bolts.

9

Pull the brake caliper off.

Make sure you release the parking brake, or you'll never get the caliper off!

Image 8321 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
10

Use either a cube-shaped brake tool or a brake cylinder windback tool to compress the brake cylinder clockwise. If you are using the cube-shaped tool, press on the cylinder while turning. When you are finished winding the cylinder back, make sure one of the four detents is at the "bottom" of the caliper, toward the inside of the disc. There is a bump in the bottom center of the back of the pad that needs to fit into this detent.

I recommend just buying or renting a right-hand brake caliper windback tool. It will save you a lot of time and effort.

11

Place the new pads onto the rails on both sides of the rotor and remove the blue stickers. Both pads are the same. Notice the bump on the bottom center of each pad. For the inner pad, make sure that bump lines up with one of the detents or slots in the cylinder face of the caliper.

12

Slide the caliper over the new pads. You may need to push the slide pins in a bit to get the caliper fully on there.

13

Install the new slide pin bolts that are included with the pads. Remember to use a wrench to keep the slide pin nut from spinning.

Image 8324 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
14

Ensure that the slide pins slide correctly. You should be able to slide the caliper back and forth toward the inside and outside of the car.

15

Reinstall the brake line bracket.

Replacing the Front Brake Pads

16

Using a 10mm socket, remove the brake line bracket.

17

Using a 13mm socket and a 17mm wrench, remove the slide pin bolts. The procedure is the same as for the rear caliper.

Image 8326 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
18

Compress the cylinder back to its lowest position. If you don't have a brake windback tool, you can use a c-clamp and one of the old brake pads to compress the piston (as shown below).

Image 8327 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
19

The front brake pads are different from each other. Identify the inner and outer pads by the markings on the backs of them. Also notice that they have bumps in different places.

20

Apply silicone brake lubricant to the backs of the pads (where the writing is) wherever they will touch the brake caliper.

Image 8329 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
21

Remove the clips from the top and bottom of the brake caliper, making note of where you removed them from, since they are different sizes. The top clip is slightly longer than the bottom clip. Replace them with the new clips that came with the brake pads.

Image 8330 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
22

Slide the new pads into the slots provided by the clips you just installed, making sure you place the OUTER one on the outside of the car, and the INNER one toward the inside of the car.

Image 8332 from Replace the brake pads on a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST
23

Slide the brake caliper back into place and secure it with the new slide pin bolts provided with the pads.

24

Ensure that the slide pins slide correctly. You should be able to slide the caliper back and forth toward the inside and outside of the car.

25

Secure the brake line bracket you removed earlier.

Final Steps

26

Without turning the car on, press the brake pedal as far as you can to take up the slack you introduced while compressing the cylinders. This will prevent you from having a butt-clenching moment when you first drive the car.

27

Replace the brake reservoir cap. Note that the brake fluid level has risen. If you replaced the pads on all four corners of the car, it should be at the full line. If it isn't, fill the reservoir up to the full line and check for leaks periodically.

28

Reinstall wheels and torque the lug nuts to 100 ft-lb.

29

Take a test drive. Start slowly to make sure the brakes are working properly before testing them at higher speeds. Brake hard a few times to make sure you can stop in an emergency. The brakes might not feel as strong at first since they haven't worn into the tiny grooves in your rotors yet.

Optional Steps

If your rotors are really worn, you'll need to replace them as well. Here are the minimum thicknesses:

  • Front: 0.827 in (21 mm)
  • Rear: 0.354 in (9 mm)

If your brake fluid looks cloudy, you should replace it. That deserves a whole article on its own, but you'll need Motorcraft PM20 or another DOT 4 brake fluid.

That wasn't so bad, was it? The rear brakes can be a bit weird, but they are fine once you have the correct tool (and line up that stupid bump with one of the detents on the cylinder face). The front brakes are like pretty much any other car, so you'll be able to take the skills you learned from doing this and help your friends with their brake jobs!

There are 1 Comments.

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Thanks for this great tutorial. Would you know how different it'll be for a 2016 model?

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