I'm planning on changing the rotors and brake pads in my '05 STR. Is there anything special I need to look out for or do while I'm working on the brakes? Does anyone have any threads/links with instructions?

 

It's pretty easy, two pins for the pads and two bolts for the caliper for the front. Backs, you have to take out two calipers. I was able to put release the parking brake which droped the tension enough to disconnect the parking brake caliper cable. Instead of trying to play wack-a-mole in setting back the multiple pistons, I used the following tool. Not necessary but makes it a much faster job.

http://www.zdmak.com/wbstore/main.as...CTMP=1&LowCt=0

 

Yes pretty straight forward job.... I find the easiest way to retract the front pistons is to use a C-clamp and one of the old brake pads. You do not want to push in the pistons one at a time. Also, if changing the rear parking brake pads, you will need to use a tool to turn in those pistons. I don't know what kind of pistons are on the rear calipers of the R. On the standard S, the parking brake is integrated with the rear brakes and that piston turns in.

 

With a normal pad changes on the brembo brakes (front & rear), the caliper doesn't come off when your tap out the two pins that hold the pads in place so you will have to use a screw driver or prybar to slightly push against the rotor and the tab on top of the pad to clear the lip of the rotor that doesn't wear with the surface so slide the pads out from the top (depending on the wear, you can use the tool in the link as a spreader on the tabs), with the pads out, you have about 1/4" to 3/8" between the rotor and the pistons (4 on the front, 2 on the back) to retract so the tool I suggested just slides in there and moves all of the back at the same time (not too sure you can fit a C clamp in there). The cool part of the design is it takes about 5 min to change the pads (longer to jack up the car and remove the wheel).

If you slightly retract the pads then remove the caliper to change the rotor, you have about 1" to get two clamp(s) in there but be careful the caliper body is made out of Al and painted.

On the rear, there is a dedicated parking brake caliper and if memory serves me correctly, I was able to retract the piston with a pair of needle nose pliers, the biggest issue with me was "fooling" the system to release the brakes with the engine off. If those tiny pads are worn, they cost more then the main braking pads to replace from the dealer.

 

On mine, if you keep the key in the ignition, the parking brake doesn't engage; remove the key and the brake engages.

 

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm probably going to get the slotted and dimpled rotors and ceramic pads from www.brakeperformance.com

As everyone knows the dealership charges an arm/leg and 1st born son.

Here is the email I received from the service advisor:

"of course you know you have the Brimbo high performance brakes on your supercharged S Type.. Fronts for pads and rotors $1084.82 and rears w/ pads and rotors 826.21 and I could give you 10% off"


That's insane!

 

Oh, BTW, to stop the parking brake from engaging, simply hold down the button while the car is running then turn off the ignition while still holding down the button. That will stop it from auto-engaging.