cyclopticgaze
Brake Job on the WRX (Rear)
Mar 29, 2009
Yesterday, I covered how to swap out worn brake pads for new ones on a 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX. As promised, here's a walk-through of the rear brakes. It's not really different from the front, so we'll run through it quickly.
Lift the rear of the car and lower it onto a nice, sturdy jack stand (the jack itself is not good enough!), pull off the wheel, and here's our driver's side rear caliper.
Remove the bottom 14mm bolt and loosen the top one. The caliper should freely rotate upwards on that upper bolt. I held it in place with a length of wire wrapped around the caliper and the strut. Now we see our old brake pads.
The pads can be removed with your fingers and perhaps a small amount of cajoling with a flat object like a screwdriver.
While we're here, I removed the clips that hold the pads in place. They get a quick cleaning with some steel wool and . . .
. . . a little brake grease to prevent squealing. I applied it to the surfaces that will get the most pressure and vibration when braking.
I greased up the backs of the pads and re-fitted them. The clips should hold the pads snugly in place. Unlike the front brakes, the rear pads appear to have no metal plates to attach to their backs.
I should state that what you see is way more grease than is needed on the backs of the pads. What really matters is that the contact surfaces between the caliper and the pad are greased. Too much like here isn't really a problem other than dirt, brake dust, and small pebbles might stick to it as you drive. Maybe just wipe off the excess at the end of the job before putting the wheel back on.
Now it's time to pop the hood and open the brake fluid reservoir. I again used a bar clamp to depress the caliper piston (only one per caliper in the rear), but these depressed very easily and a clamp probably wasn't necessary.
Everything's ready to go. Now, just flip the caliper back down and tighten the two 14mm bolts that hold it in place. I found this to be much easier to do on these rear calipers than the front. They simply seem to have more wiggle room.
With the wheels back on and the car on the ground, I closed the brake fluid reservoir and then pumped the brake pedal. Pressing the pedal will extend all of the caliper pistons so that they contact the new brake pads, so the pedal will feel soft and may go all the way to the floor on the first press. After that, the pedal should have normal feel.