The front brake pads look thin. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a mechanic look at it.

 

It’s your money, but if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, then ok.

 

Do you have a wrench/socket set and basic knowledge of using them you can save a bit of money and you should have no problem doing it in an afternoon taking your time.

 

They checked and cleaned the HHR brakes on the 14th and I brought it home after paying them $75. It rained yesterday, so I waited until today to look at it. I took the front wheels off and looked at the brake pads and there seems to be enough there for now. One pad looks like its getting thin. I can't turn the bolts on both sides. I even tried using a piece of pipe as an extension on the ratchet. I sprayed WD 40 on them and put the wheels back on. I was going to look at the rear brakes later. I took some pictures.

 

Wd40 is not a penetrant. Get some PB Blaster, or Kroil if you can find it.

After spraying, give each bolt or nut a few taps, the vibrations help it work in.

 

You remove the 14 mm head bolts from the caliper slides first to remove the caliper . If you are replacing the rotors, the remove the 15mm head bolts that you sprayed with WD40, those are torqued to 85 ft lbs, so maybe somebody used an impact gun on those!

 

Look at the back side of the caliper to see how much pad is left.

 

It lloks like I was trying to turn the wrong bolts. I looked at a Haynes repair manual and it shows the caliper being removed while the U-shaped doohicky stays on.

 

The caliper uses two small bolts to secure it to the BRACKET which uses the larger bolts. You have to remove the bracket to replace the rotor.

 

As I indicated in an earlier post!