HowTune

Change The Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000

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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

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

1

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.

Image 6338 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000

Jack up the car

2

Find the lift point on the rear differential

3

Jack up the car using the rear lift point

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4

Lower the car on jack-stands at the side jack points

5

For reference, the side rail jack points are where additional material has been added.

Remove wheels

6

Remove the lug nuts and take the wheel off.

Image 6339 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
7

If you have the emergency brake engaged release it. The emergency brake will prevent you from removing the calipers.

Remove Caliper Body

8

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.

9

Using a 17mm to hold the bolt closest to you use a 12mm socket wrench (or open wrench) to loosen the top bolt

Image 6372 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
10

And remove the top bolt.

Image 6373 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
11

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

12

Now with some force wiggle the caliper body away from the brake

Image 6612 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
13

The caliper is heavy and you don't want it to hang, so rest it somewhere behind the brake where it can sit safely.

14

With the caliper out of the way simply take out the old pads.

Image 6613 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000

Re-lubricate caliper pins

15

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.

Image 6614 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
16

Wipe both pins clean and apply new grease

Image 6377 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
17

Slide the pins back in

Image 6378 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000

Compress Piston

18

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.)

19

Remove the rubber cap on the bleed screw

Image 6384 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
20

Attach your house around the bleed screw, then use your 10mm wrench to loosen it.

Image 6385 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
21

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:

22

If you'd like, go ahead and reattach the caliper with one bolt as shown above.

23

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.

Image 6381 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000
24

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.

25

Once compressed, close the brake bleed screw (10mm)

Slide in new pads

26

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

27

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.

Image 6386 from Change the Rear Brake Pads on a Honda S2000

Second side!

28

Repeat the procedure above (starting at "Remove Caliper Body") for the other side of the car

Wrap Up

29

Put your wheel back on and tighten lug nuts (tighten in a star pattern rather than sequentially).

30

Lower car, then give your lug nuts a final tightening

Bleed Brakes

31

If you did use the bleed technique you'll want to bleed your brakes.

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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