Changing our Brakes

Disclaimer - Some car part names could be wrong. I try to remember things that Doug and his Dad tell me, but sometimes they get mixed up. But I did my best.

A couple weeks ago we got a notice in the mail saying that we needed to renew our registration for our Miata. With renewing the registration I had to go and get the car inspected with safety and emissions. Well I finally got around to it last week and we passed! Which is always good with a car that was made in 1990. When I talked to the guy afterwards he said that we were close to failing because of the back brakes and I needed to change them in the next week. I assured him that I would get it done and I thanked him for passing us anyway. (Please know that I have gone to this guy for 3 years and he has never lead me astray. Last time I thought our brakes were bad because they were squeaking and he said they were perfectly fine, just a little dusty.) He did, however, mark down that the back brakes were 2/32 (thanks to my dad, I now know how to type that but that basically means that you have an 8th of an inch left..maybe less but I can't remember..before its rubbing metal) and that our front brakes were 7/32. He got me all worried so I immediately told Doug and I was assigned to go get some brakes. We figured why not just replace all four brakes.

Yesterday I picked up the brakes and after Doug got off work, we made the 10 minute trek over to his parents house to use his Dad's tools. It's nice to have family close by that we can just steal their garage and tools :)

I usually help him with fixing our cars because I love learning all of the mechanics of it. I can proudly say that I know how to take apart our engine enough to change the timing belt, the accessory belt, and a third one but I can't remember what it's called. I can also change the shifter boot (did that by myself once), and I know HOW to fix the clutch slave cylinder. Now could I do this without supervision, probably not, but it's still fun to say that I know how to! Anyway, the brakes were a little different. There wasn't a whole lot I could help with considering Doug and his Dad were trying to figure out how the brakes came across. Our Miata seems to be designed differently then any other car.

First they took off the wheel and proceeded to change the brakes like every other car, but the piston wouldn't come loose so they figured it would be better if they looked it up. I was sent to google it, and to our...mainly their...surprise, that wasn't how they were changed at all! They were a whole lot simpler. So Doug reattached all of the bolts that he took off and we (they) started from scratch with the step by step instructions. It is a pretty cool design, according to them, where the brake caliber just flips up after 2 bolts are taken out and then the old brakes slide out, and the new ones slide right in. It took a while to figure out, but if we would have looked up directions first, it should have only taken about 5 minutes a tire.

Here are some pictures that I took with my cell phone. I figured that I have a blog now, I might was well document my fun and exciting life!

The rear brakes. I had already handed them one half of one, that's why there are only 3. Please notice the very old school box.

My job - computer research.

Doug and his Dad following the step by step instructions that I found.

Brakes changed. - Old ones on the floor.

Our so called 2/32 left on our brakes. Apparently they have way more than that.

The other brake that only took about 5 minutes to change.

Dirty Douglas after the adventure. His face is all dirty because he kept putting his head all the way in the wheel place so he could see the back of the brakes.

After this, we probably won't go back to the same Safety and Emissions place. Doug's dad thinks that they sold it to someone else. I didn't notice while I was there, but that's because I only see them once a year. Our front brakes were really good. They have a lot of time left, so we didn't even change them. I always forget how lucky I am to have a husband that knows how to fix things by himself. If we just trusted the guy and brought it to a shop to have the brakes changed, it would have been so expensive! I have never had to take our car into the repair shop for an engine problem, and I hope to keep it that way. I am so grateful for Doug and his Mr. Fix It skills!! (If he doesn't know how, he just googles it. haha.)