Acura RSX Brake Pad Replacement (Front and Rear)

With the wheel already off and the car resting on jack stands, place chocks against the wheels that remain on the ground so it cannot roll, especially on any slope. For rear brakes, release the parking brake fully; if a rear caliper will not swing free later, an engaged parking brake is the usual cause. Put on gloves if you have them, since the caliper grease is very difficult to remove from skin.

Look over the caliper and, if it is dirty, spray it with brake parts cleaner and wipe it down with a rag. Direct the spray away from the flexible rubber brake hose, its fittings, and the piston boot. If the caliper is already clean, you can skip this.

On the front, back out only the lower guide bolt with the 12mm socket; the caliper then pivots on the upper pin. On the rear there is a second fastener that clamps the brake-line bracket, so free that as well. As the bolt loosens, watch for the hex-shaped guide pin turning with it. If the pin spins, hold its flat with a thin 19mm wrench, gripping the metal and not the rubber pin boot, then break the bolt loose against it. If the bolt threads out on its own you will not need the wrench at all.

Swing the caliper up and off the pads on the upper pin. The rounded center section is the piston side and it presses the outer pad against the rotor; the fixed outer body does not move. Support the caliper on the suspension or hang it with wire so its full weight never pulls on the brake hose. Do not stretch or kink the hose.

Slide the old pads out of the bracket. Before they leave the car, note how they sit: the retaining clips staked or screwed into the pad backs sit on different sides depending on which corner of the car you are working, so keep track of which pad came from which side. Then lift the brass anti-rattle clips out of the bracket by hand. They release without force, so take your time and avoid bending them.

Whether you reuse the old shims depends on the replacement pads. OEM-style pads usually keep the shims, so pry each one off its old pad with a small flat tool and clean it, or fit new ones. Many aftermarket pads are designed to run without shims; when the original writer forced the old shims onto a set of Axxis Ultimates they squealed within a day, and the noise stopped once the shims came off, so confirm the correct setup with the pad maker. Scrape and clean the gray baked-on grease from the shims and from the bracket abutment surfaces.

Spread a thin, even film of silicone brake grease on the back face of each shim (the side away from the rotor) and on the bracket surfaces where the pad ends slide. Keep every trace of grease off the friction material and the rotor face. Use only a light coat and wipe away anything that squeezes out when the shim is pressed down. Acceptable products include the over-the-counter Permatex Disc Brake Quiet or the factory-specified Dow Corning Molykote M77 or Dikalub 528D.

Check the rotor face and edges for a raised wear lip. If you are reusing the rotors, scuff the friction surface lightly with 100-150 grit sandpaper to give the fresh pads a clean, keyed face to bed against. This is a light hand scuff only; a rotor with real grooves, scoring, or thickness variation should be machined on a lathe or replaced.

The front piston pushes straight back into its bore; press it in evenly with a flat-faced piston tool or a wood block and C-clamp so it does not cock sideways. The rear piston is a screw-in type: rotate it while applying inward pressure, using a wind-back tool that fits a 3/8 in. ratchet or a pair of needle-nose pliers in its cross slots, until it seats. You only need to retract the piston when fitting new pads or if someone pressed the pedal while the caliper was off; reinstalling the original pads needs no retraction. If the piston resists, briefly loosening the master-cylinder cap can help, though it is usually unnecessary.

Seat the brass clips back in the bracket, then install the new pads in their correct positions. On the rear, the piston face carries a groove that must line up with the raised tab on the back of the pad; rotate the piston as needed so the tab drops into that groove, otherwise the pad wears unevenly and squeaks. Swing the caliper back down over the pads without dragging on the hose.

Refit the guide bolt (and the rear brake-line bracket) and tighten the caliper bolt to 24 lb-ft. Reinstall the wheel, lower the car, and pump the brake pedal several times until it feels firm before moving, since the pistons must travel back out to the pads. Reset the parking brake to its normal tension, confirm the car stops properly on a low-speed test, then bed the new pads in following an established procedure such as the one published by StopTech.