How to change brake pads yourself and what’s after that?

[jellyfish1234 0]

We will need to change brake pads after thousands miles of driving, and actually you can do that yourself without visiting the dealer’s. Doing it yourself also will save you a lot of money. Even if you're not interesting in doing this yourself, knowing what's involved makes it easier to understand what your mechanic tells you. 

I will use my 2013 BMW 320D E70 FL as example here, and a Topdon Artpad to do the brake pad matching(old tightness vs new one).

 

My steps:

1. Ignition ON, but don’t start the engine.

2. Choose Brake Pad Matching module in Artipad.

3. Choose brand “BMW”

4. Tap on Manual Select

5. Tap on Brake Pad Replace

6. Choose 5 series

7. Choose 5’_GT(F07)

8. Now the display showing “ignition ON”, tap OK

9. Now we need to loosen the wheel cylinder, tap that option on screen, this is a very important step, you could only take off the brake pad after it gets loose.

10. Set parking brake OFF according to display prompt, then tap OK.

11. Step on brake paddle and press and hold parking brake button for 3s, check if your wheel cylinders are loose.

12. Ignition OFF for 30s before you actually change the brake pad, when you finish that, tap OK on screen.

13. Now we are ready to tighten the wheel cylinders, choose that option on screen.

14. Again, step on brake paddle and press and hold parking brake button for 3s and you can here the sound.

15. Set parking brake OFF till you here the sound again.

16. This is a repeated process, so step on brake paddle and press and hold parking brake button for 3s and you can here the sound.

17. Now the display saying that brake pad matching are succeed.

 

It is very necessary to use a professional tool when replacing brake pad, it’s not a pure mechanical process, rather that just disassemble the wheel, it’s involving ECUs of car. Hope this illustration above could help you understand more.

[a1autotransprt 0]

Great advice. As you said, it can be helpful even if you don't change your own brakes just so you can understand what your mechanic is talking about. 

[ThomasDiSantarem 0]

I would not dare to change this mechanism itself, it is too risky.