How to service your brakes if you live in an area with snow

This series is divided into five sections:
Introduction: Getting started
Part 1 covers tearing things apart and seeing what needs to be done, which for me is usually a lot
Part 2 covers putting it all back together again, clean, lubed and freed-up
Part 3 shows anything specific to the rear brakes that could not be covered in Part 1
Part 4 wraps it up by showing some ancillary checks you might as well do while you're down there getting dirty.
Part 5 More details on cleaning up severely rusted pins, and dealing with shim/rotor contact. (Addendum to Part 2.)
Part 6 What the corresponding parts look like on a 2003 Accord.
Note: All pictures can be clicked on for LARGER versions!

PART 4: Wrapping up

Since we're done with the brakes themselves, there are a few things it's worth doing while you're in there:

Pull off the bleed nipples and put some Sil-Glyde inside. Put them back on the bleed screws and twirl them a bit. This will help keep water and corrosion out of the bleed screw holes. When you bleed the brakes next, you will eject any Sil-Glyde that remains in the bleed screw holes.

At the front, check both anti-roll bar links for breakage. They do crack, and this is a good time to find out if they are broken. That's the CV joint boot and the steering tie-rod end you see on either side of the link.

Check the front road springs for broken coils. They will break either right at the very top, or right at the very bottom. Ride height and handling will not be affected much, so you likely won't notice until you make this check.

Did you know that your superbly-made and top-quality original Honda outer CV joints are very expensive new?

Did you also know that if you never allow the boot to split, those CV joints will easily last the life of the car? Did you also know that it takes about two years from the start of a crack in the boots to the point when the crack turns into a gaping slot that lets water and dirt in?

The vast majority of CV joint replacement are due to NEGLECT: Nobody bothered to check to see if the boots were splitting!

So how do I keep the boots from splitting? Answer: You CAN'T! However...you CAN check them every time you get under the car for an oil change or brake service. It only takes seconds. Pull the bellows apart at the largest one, nearest the brake rotor. With the aid of a strong light, pull them apart with your fingers and see if there is any sign of cracking or checking at the bottom of the bellows. Don't be afraid to pull hard to separate them, you won't tear them doing that. Check all around, not just in one place. If the crack is more than 1/16" deep, get the boots replaced now! It might cost you $200, but at least you're keeping your precious factory CV joints. The newest design of CV joint outer boot is far more durable than the original designs were. A boot change now to new OEM will probably be the very last time you'll ever have to change them.

The picture on the right was contributed by a reader, who also added the black text you see.
The reader was alerted to the problem by the grease that had been flung all over the place in the wheel well.

If caught very early after a break, the joint might be OK, but that's a decision to be made by someone much more experienced than most home mechanics.

A final check, the rear trailing arm main bushing. Eventually they will break up. Not much you can do other than a replacement, but at least damage here is not as dire as it is with CV joint boots. The bushing will have two legs. You'll probably find at least one has cracked (usually the upper one). If they've cracked, consider a replacement. It's an expensive job unless you do it yourself, but it's not essential though.

Damage here will affect handling, but not much else. Your handling will become much more vague, but it will happen so gradually that you probably won't even notice. You may also notice that the rear end of the car swings to one side when you step on the brake pedal or apply the parking brake while on the move, and you may get clunks from the rear end. I just replaced them (July/05), along with all the other bushings on the rear of my car, and it's made a world of difference in the handling (or so I keep telling myself in order to justify the cost...).

Integra main trailing arm bushing, cracked

In the middle photo to the left is the bushing I'm pointing to in the top photo. It was cracked, but was not actually severed right through. This was hard to tell when it was still installed.

The bottom photo is of jim beam's Civic's trailing arm. The Civic arm is almost identical to the Integra's, but they are not interchangeable.

When I replaced my bushings, one thing I noticed was that the new ones were much stiffer than the old ones, which probably explains the change in handling once replaced (I replaced ALL the rear bushings).

Even when I jack it up there is a difference with the new bushings: The suspension now drops about half the distance it did previously.

In case anyone has a '90-'93 Integra, wants to replace these bushings but doesn't want to pay $300 for the whole trailing arm, the part number of this big bushing is 52385-SK7-N02
It is the same for right or left and presses into the existing trailing arm. It cost me about $75 Cdn each, versus over $300 for the whole trailing arm itself (which comes with the bushing).
This bushing itself does not come up on the dealer's software, but the number "52385-SK7-N02" is identified as "bushing, right rear". The number may also not come up in on-line parts searches. This unit may have been produced as part of a recall similar to that issued for contemporary Civics.
The "SK7" portion of the part number identifies the part as being specific to the '90-'93 Integra. The '94-'97 Integra is "ST7", so this bushing may not fit that model.

The same bushing for the Civic around those same years is available on any on-line parts site.

You can use your own common sense, checking for such things as loose or broken splash shields or trim, anything else hanging, new rust, that sort of thing.

We're done! Back to the top of the page!