Brakes – How to change your front brake pads

Words & Pictures: Tobyn Brooks

With spring in the air, now is the time to start preparing your Figaro for the season.

You will see elsewhere on this site that we have covered the rear brakes but also wanted to talk about the fronts. Although in some ways they are more straightforward than the rears to work on it’s still important to make sure they are maintained correctly. They also carry more of the braking load than the rears.

It’s very easy to briefly inspect and let them go as being ok. With some Figs, the braking can feel soft and unresponsive. We have met Figaro drivers who accept this as normal as the cars are now 32 years old. We find however that with good care and attention, they can work pretty well.

Here is our guide and some tips for servicing the front brake pads and discs.

Firstly it’s a case of removing the wheels and inspecting the brake pads and discs. You can see in the photo the front brakes are a completely different design from the rear. When working correctly they are much more efficient too. Similar brake designs are still used on sports cars today. You can see the surface of the brake discs looks a bit like a record, it’s scored around the edges too.

You can also see a thick lip where the shiny metal meets the rusty edge. Both of these mean the brake doesn’t have the best chance, a smoother completely flat surface is the best for these high-friction areas. To check, run your nail over the contours of the discs, whilst feeling for deep grooves and heavy rust.

Once you are happy that your brake discs have too much wear check the pads too.

These are the small stone-like-looking blocks which sit against the surface of the brake discs, held in the pincer-type grip on both the front and rear of the disc. You are aiming for these to have no less than approximately 3mm of wear material left on them.

This said I would suggest, that if the discs are scored and lipped it’s time to change both parts. Changing both together is a much better practice for long-life repair.

Once the caliper is removed the brake pads and discs can both be removed too. The next step is pretty important.

The caliper is designed to self-adjust as the pads get low it has two sliding tubes that should slowly move in and out with the brakes and also over time.

These sliders are most likely 25 years old and can often be seized into the caliper with a build-up of dirt and brake dust.

You also find on many brakes that although the outer pad has plenty of material the inner one is completely gone and at this stage, the brakes are only working fractionally as good as they should.

You can see here the sliders removed from the brake caliper we are working on.

These sliders need to be sanded and cleaned until they are like new, then covered in high-temperature grease and re-installed. Also, be sure that the rubber sleeves which protect them from dust are in place and working too.

Once everything has been cleaned and the sliders are greased it’s time to start the re-assembly.

Here are the parts you need. Note the brake discs have vents, they look like a sandwich of discs, not one thick piece. these are not Micra parts!

You can also see the thick layer of the new friction material on the pads.

You can see the vents in the close-up picture. These cool the brakes when they are spinning and give better braking under load.

The final step for reassembly is the reversal of what you have done so far, re-insert your cleaned and greased sliders.

Fit the pads back into their carrier with plenty of grease on the back. Clean everything else with brake cleaner and be careful that no grease gets onto the friction surfaces.

I can’t stress this part enough, brake cleaner is your friend when it comes to the disc and pad friction surfaces.

The brakes will take a few miles to bed in although some pads have a special brake in the coating. So drive carefully to start with.
This is only one part of the braking system but it is a major one. If you’re still finding your brakes are soft after doing these you may want to bleed them and change the fluid, if you need any advice on this or other aspects of your car’s braking system give us a call.

Please note that your brakes are the most important safety aspect of your Figaro. Although we are happy to pass on any of our experiences we cannot in any way at all take responsibility for any problems or damage that happen as a result of trying to follow these steps. If you are unsure – don’t mess with your brakes and get a professional to do them!

Shop for parts

The Figaro Shop can provide both the discs and pads