Change The Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
Changing the rear brake pads on Honda's roadster isn't too bad. The biggest challenge is compressing the caliper piston - this how-to describes a trick that'll help you do it.
If you're looking to replace the fronts as well check out my other article - Change the Front Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
- 17mm Wrench
- 12mm Wrench
- 12mm Socket (Optional)
- 10mm Wrench
- Socket Wrench with a 3/8" drive extension
- Tire Iron
- Jack, Jack stands and wheel chocks
- Paper towels
- Clear hose and container to catch excess brake fluid
- Ramps (Optional)
- New Rear Brake pads (Honda Part No. 43022-S2A-000)
- Brake grease (Comes with the OEM Brake pads, you may need it if you order different pads)
- Brake cleaner (Optional)
If you begin hearing a squeal when braking coming from the rear of the car then you'll want to change your brake pads immediately.
If you are hearing a metallic rubbing sound coming from the rear that could mean your brake pads are worn completely - that's bad news (not to mention dangerous)! Don't let your car get to that point if you can help it.
Loosen wheel lugs
With the car on the ground go ahead and loosen the wheel lugs on both sides. You don't need to remove these - just break them free.
Jack up the car
Remove wheels
If you have the emergency brake engaged release it. The emergency brake will prevent you from removing the calipers.
Remove Caliper Body
The brake pads are held in place by the caliper body and the caliper body is held in place by two bolts, which you'll need to remove next.
Using a 17mm to hold the bolt closest to you use a 12mm socket wrench (or open wrench) to loosen the top bolt
Do the same procedure with the bottom bolt, however you may need to use a 12mm open wrench instead of your socket wrench as the workable area is tight
The caliper is heavy and you don't want it to hang, so rest it somewhere behind the brake where it can sit safely.
Re-lubricate caliper pins
You'll now want to remove the top and bottom caliper pins. These are fitted around a rubber boot - you'll want to be careful not to tear the rubber. Compress the boot to unseat it from the pin, then slowly rotate the pin out.
Compress Piston
Next, you'll need to compress the piston to be able to slide the caliper back on with the larger brand new pads. Compressing the piston will drive brake fluid back through the system. To avoid that you can attach a hose the the bleed screw and let fluid exit here, which is what we have done. This will require bleeding the brakes after. (If you'd like to avoid that you can instead open the brake master cylinder, however you'll want to keep an eye that you don't overflow brake fluid from the cylinder.)
One more thing - compressing the piston requires a bit of force. After some trial and error we found that reattaching the caliper body with one bolt allowed us to rotate the caliper and gave us enough room to work while keeping the caliper steady. Here's an example:
Attach a 3/8" drive extension into your socket wrench, then (with no socket attached) fit the extension into the middle of the "+" shape and rotate clockwise. This will slowly compress the piston, but it requires force so be patient. This should also slowly drive fluid out of the bleed screw.
You'll continue to compress the piston until it sits flush and the grooves are aligned to the caliper. That's because the brake pads have a raised nub which slides into the piston groove.
Slide in new pads
The new pads should slide in as shown. The pad with a large metal tab should be put in the side nearest to the car with the tab on top.
Reattach caliper body
Slide the caliper back into place, reattach the other bolt and tighten both. You may need to press the caliper towards you to get both bolts seated into the caliper pins that they screw into.
Second side!
Wrap Up
Put your wheel back on and tighten lug nuts (tighten in a star pattern rather than sequentially).
There are 1 Comments.
Say Something.Hi Zach, I have just overhauled my S2K callipers and replaced pads and disks. Non of the aftermarket rear pads seem to have a pin on the inside pad for locating into the piston. Is this a new idea or have they got it wrong? I have installed Pagid pads and so far everything works correctly.
Regards and thanks for the articles you produce.
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Written by:zachberry
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