I am almost to 79,000 miles and still on the original, stock brakes. Lots of highway miles and I'm sure I've saved some brake life thanks to it being a manual but still amazed. I'm used to cars warping their brakes, since most of my cars have been FWD sedans until this one! I've done 5 or 6 brake jobs in my life but never on a Mustang, and am thinking it's about time to do it whether they're squeaking or not (they're not).

I did a ton of searching, comparing, etc. across vendors and ended up buying it all from TireRack.com, surprisingly. I went with StopTech drilled rotors, partially for style but thinking their performance should be as good or better than OEM too, and with Hawk HPS blue pads. I don't aggressively track the car - just a track touring session or two a year along with some fun backroad driving all the time. Any opinions on that combo of pads/rotors?

Then, while I was at it, I bought the Ford Racing Boss 302 brake line upgrade and the Ford Racing brake cooling shields, both from Summit Racing. I've never been blown away by the brakes in these cars so figured those were two relatively cheap upgrades that would help and look good too (about $140 together).

Before I started, I just wanted to check on a few things with you guys that have done brake jobs already:

• I'm used to a standard, old-school 1 person in the driver's seat pumping the brake pedal style bleeding procedure. I have one of the Mityvac things but is there any reason the old school way doesn't work just fine on our cars?
• I am remembering that the clutch and brake share a master cylinder for some reason; is that correct and, if so, do I need to do anything differently to account for that?
• Is there a need to depressurize the ABS system? The Mityvac manual makes a big deal out of that but have never done that before, and never had any problems with other cars?
• Can I upgrade the brake fluid to DOT 4 while I'm doing all this anyway? And if so, should I?
• Any other special things to our cars that I should know?

I've read the factory shop manual procedures but still thought I'd ask! I think that's it - thanks in advance for the replies.

 

The old fashioned method works just fine. To make things easier, I bought a one way valve in line with the tubing that connects to the bleeder nipple. This way I connect the catch can to the bleeder, open it up, and just start pumping, as fluid only will flow out from the caliper and new fluid is pulled from the path of least resistance (which is the reservoir when the 1-way valve is connected). Check on Amazon, they are like $5

The clutch and brakes do share a reservoir. I pull fluid from the reservoir (both partitions), then fill just the clutch partition (small portion on the drivers side), bleed the clutch (pump like 200 times with car off), drain again, and the refill the whole reservoir with fresh fluid for bleeding the brakes

I have never messed with the ABS - bleeding manually will leave some fluid in the ABS module per my understanding, but it shouldn't be a big deal

Yes, upgrade fluid! It can't ever hurt... If you want the best, go Castrol SRF. It's overkill for most, but its wet boiling temp exceeds everything else. Next best is something like Motul RBF600 - plenty good fluid for almost everyone. You would need 1 bottle of Castrol for a full flush or two bottles of Motul (1 liter vs 0.5 liter bottles)

Other things: Torque the brake bleeders appropriately. I think it's around 100 inch-lbs (not foot lbs!!), but double check that.

Bleeding sequence: right rear, left rear, right front, left front (left = drivers side)

Bed the pads once they are in - 6-8 hard stops (just under ABS engagement) from 60-10 in a row (in a safe place) then 10-15 minute cool down drive with minimal braking.

That's all I can think of. I've done this a few times

 

Awesome - thank you!

 

You could always gravity bleed. Been working great for me for years. Make certain the brake fluid reservoir never goes empty. Install your new lines, mount the rotors,calipers and pads then simply crack the bleeder. Wait for fluid to start dropping out then simply close the bleeder. All air will be gone.

 

Kyle... I wish I had hearty advice to offer, but alas, I've never done the brakes myself either (on any car). I usually just have a shop do it. Let me know how it goes?

On the same token, just curious, how much would this have been if a shop does it? I'm preparing for when I have to do mine.

 

Nice man, i have to agree, brakes really do last longer if you drive smart with a manual transmission. I replaced my wife brakes in her Tucson. being it as she got 90K out of her factory brakes, i decided to just go with factory hardware the next time around. they were actually in good shape, she just hated the squealing.

cost me a little over $500 for the rotors and pads all around, but you really save on the labor by doing it yourself!

 

Parts aside, replacing all the pads/rotors and doing a fluid flush is probably a 2-3 hour job at a shop so figure $300 if they'll let you bring your own parts?

 

Doing your own brakes is smart if you know what you're doing. Double-check everything and walk your way through the entire process first so you don't end up destroying your car's brakes/wheels/suspension because you forgot to do some part of it. I personally enjoy the ease and time saved by using a pump to both bleed and refill the fluid. Good luck!

 

Is that what you did?


Before you almost took out your entire undercarriage?

 

double post

 

Not on the Shelby, but that's precisely how my very first car, a '73 LTD with the 429, died a horrible death. Thought I'd save my dad some money and do the brake job myself in high school. I'm still not sure about everything that went wrong on that poor car.

Re: your reference, the suspension and all four rotors/pads are going to be brand new in about two weeks. Sucks.

 

I'm sure you read this in the manual but the rear pistons has to be screwed back into the caliper, whereas the fronts can be pressed in with a c clamp.

 

Because of the parking brake?

John

 

I assume, but then again I've never removed the rotor to see if it has its own E brake shoes.

 

Op, I am trying to fabricate air ducts for brakes on our car, could you link me that from summit racing?

 

I think this is what you're asking for? http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fm.../model/mustang

 

Yep, that's exactly why and it's pretty common...it's also the worst part of the job. I've got 3/4 of the job done and, on the right rear, the caliper piston is completely stuck (yes I have the wind-back tool) and the hard brake line screw wouldn't come free either, and I ended up rounding the **** thing off (even with a flare nut wrench). So I'll be taking it to my dealer to have them replace that hard line probably, as I think that's beyond my skills. Agh.

 

Try vice grips? Worth a shot...

 

Got it all done last night and I like how the final result looks!



Some additional thoughts about the whole thing:

• Old school brake bleeding worked great, no problem there.
• Whether you've actually bled the clutch right is confusing. When I pumped the clutch a lot, both slowly and quickly, after the brake bleeding was done, the pedal kept squeaking. Wasn't sure if that was something I'd done or not but when I finally drove the car, it was fine. Here's the more official clutch-bleed procedure, which I may do today to see if it makes any difference:
  Bleed clutch on 2005- up Ford Mustang - YouTube
• The rear caliper pistons are **** tough to get compressed. I have the right tool and it still took a while, and my hand is **** sore today from cranking on the tool.
• Other than those couple things, it was a completely standard brake job and pretty easy.
• I like the StopTech rotors a lot - they look good, plus the hats are painted black so they won't rust like normal rotors. Wish I could have gotten the calipers powder-coated though!

 

^ Kyle that looks awesome. Wish I had the kohones to do my rear brakes like that. Would love a larger set for my rears.

p.s. thanks for the KC info Kyle.