How do you change the front rotors and brake pads on a 1998 legacy L?

Answer 1

AnswerRemove new pads from packaging. Apply anti-squeek substance to back side of pads careful to avoid contaminating friction side (rotor side) with grease, oil, or any other substance. Doing this step first allows the stuff to cure on the pads so it won't be messy at reassembly time.

If the wheel bearings are not of a sealed design, the first step taken before raising the car permanantly should be to remove the wheel's center cap (if possible) or wheel if necessary and axle nut cotter pin. Break loose the axle nut by using the weight of the car on all 4 wheels, the parking brake applied and the transmission in gear or park.

If the wheel bearings are of a sealed design then just raise the car and remove the wheel.

Remove lower caliper bolt. After you remove the bolt, you can swing the caliber up. Remove brake pads. A special tool is required to spin/rotate the piston as you compress it back in to the caliper. Subarus have front wheel parking brakes, so you can't use a regular C-clamp to compress the piston. Once you've compressed the piston you can remove the top caliper bolt. Use a wire coat hanger to suspend the caliper out of the way while working. Do not allow the caliper to hang by it's brake hose. Unbolt the pad holders from steering knuckle.

If bearings are of a sealed unit type then rotors should fall off at this point.

If not then you must remove rotor/hub assembly. Begin by finishing axle nut removal. Remove outer wheel bearing. Remove hub/rotor assembly. Seperate rotor from hub.

Assembly is the reverse of previous steps except:

For non-sealed bearing units, you should apply a little bit of hi-temp disc brake wheel bearing grease bearing/race surface upon reassembly. Do not put too much in or seal failure could occur. A good rule of thumb is to cover all metal parts with grease while leaving at least a AAA battery's volume of air for expansion/vaporization of grease without causing excessive pressure build-up behind seal wall.

Clean all friction surfaces with non-chlorinated brake cleaner while reassembling.

Happy stopping. :-)