How to Clean Your Brakes - SUPER EASY - 2018 Mazda 6

You have the option to lift one wheel at a time or lift all four wheels of your car.

You will need 13, 14, and 17 mm wrenches. If you have this kind of "flexible head ratchet", it will make the job easier.



I don't recommend using the ratchet for the "initial force" when applying torque as you loosen the bolt. There's a possibility that you might break the teeth of the gear.

Another thing, it is better, or should I say BEST, to use a six point wrench for 13 and 14 mm.

You will also need a bottle or two of brake cleaner. For the grease, I recommend using Permatex.



If you have teeny-weeny arms like me, you need this:



You might need this tool if ever you need to push back the brake piston.



If you have the electronic parking brake (EPB), you need first to enter "maintenance mode" before doing any brake job.


Once the rotor and caliper are exposed, you need to remove the bolt from the caliper sliding pin.



Once you take away the bolts, you can now remove the caliper brake by sliding it.



You can now remove the brake pads.



You also need to remove the caliper sliding pin. You can put back the bolts you removed earlier so that it will be easier to pull the caliper sliding pin if it's stuck.

Take note of the position of the pins. You cannot interchange the upper and lower caliper sliding pins.



If you want, you can also remove the rotor. You need to remove the bolts holding bracket.



With the bracket out of the way, you are now free to take away the rotor.



If the rotor is stuck, apply a penetrating fluid to the small hole you will find on its surface.



Then use the bolt that you removed from the caliper sliding pin. Slowly tighten the bolt, and loosening it before further tightening it. Repeat this until the bolt goes all the way to push back the rotor.



Now that you have removed everything, you are now ready to clean the parts.

Clean the brake pads using a sandpaper. I used number 240.



Clean the sliding pins. Again, take note of the upper and lower caliper pins.

Here is the upper pin.



And this is the lower caliper pin. There's a rubber attached to it which is not shown.



Clean both sides of the rotor by using sandpaper.



Clean the rubber boots. I used brake cleaner but I recently read that it's not recommended. Anyways, I already bought a repair kit as the seal and boots are already torn.

Spray liberally the brake cleaner to the rotor on both sides. The same with the brake pads and caliper sliding pins.

Apply grease on the pins before putting it back to the bracket, taking note of the upper and lower positions.

Put back the rotor first, then install the bracket.

Put back the brake pads. You can apply a thin layer of grease on the other surface of the brake pads, the one that do not contact the surface of the rotor.

Once the brake pads are secured, you can now put back the caliper brake by sliding it. Use the brake tool to push back the piston if needed. Make sure you don't push too much. Otherwise, the brake fluid might spill on the reservoir. Don't ask me why I know.






That's it! You are now done. Do the same on the other side.

For the rear brakes, the procedure is just the same.

If there are terms that I didn't use properly, please post the correction as it will be much appreciated.