ISDC Article on installing 4-Pot Brakes

Article on: Installing Subaru 4-Pot Brakes

Subaru 4-Pot Brake install

I purchased my Subaru 4-Pots from Lisa Wilkins (subaruperformance@yahoo.com). From what I understand not all Subaru wheels will clear these brakes. I know MY 99' will and my P7's have no problems. I think standard WRX wheels don't fit however. For the 4 pot upgrade with a WRX you don't need the rotors because they are the same ones included in the kit.

Also, keep in mind if you get a flat tire in the front, the space saver spare will not fit over the front 4-Pots. You will have to put the spare on the rear and move the rear tire to the front. If you happen to have an automatic, you should also place a 15 AMP fuse in the fuse holder under the hood. The holder is marked FWD and is located by the firewall. Info is in your owners manual on this fuse.

What you will need:

Floor jack or something to get the car safely in the air.
Jack Stands - to keep it there
Torque wrench - for lug nuts and other things
19mm socket - to remove lug nuts
17mm open end or sockets - To remove caliper bolts
14mm open end - to remove brake line banjo fitting from caliper
8mm open end - for bleeders
Brake Fluid - I purchased a 32 oz. bottle and had plenty left over
Brake parts cleaner - to clean rotors when you are done
2 - 8mm standard pitch tread bolts about 1" or better long in case the rotors are suck on the hub
A one man brake bleeding kit, or recruit someone to help bleed the brakes
Bucket - or something to catch the brake fluid that comes out of the line you remove from the caliper
2 brake line sealing washers - for the Banjo fittings that go on the caliper

How to do it:

I actually dreaded doing this install but turned out to be fairly simple. Get the car safely in the air and remove the front wheels, the lug nuts are 19mm. Put a bucket under the caliper and with a 14mm wrench or socket, remove the brake line from the caliper. (fluid will start leaking out - brake fluid will remove paint clean it up quickly) There will be a washer and a bolt like thing that holds the line in place, save the bolts but use new sealing washers. Sorry I don't know the part number. With a 17mm open end or socket remove the 2 bolts holding on the caliper. They are on there fairly tight. I could use a breaker bar on the bottom Bolt but the top one in close quarters and I had to use an open end. I used the locking wrench trick to get more leverage.

Once you remove the caliper, put that aside, now it's time to remove the rotor. If you're lucky it will just come off no problem. Just tug it straight off the wheel studs. The first one I did was stuck, but the second came off no problem. If it's stuck, there are 2 threaded holes between the wheel studs that will take 8mm standard pitch tread bolts. Put those in and turn them in
as evenly as possible, the rotor will come right off.

Next put the new rotor in place. My kit didn't include the dust shields. You really don't need them but I found that the ones there fit fine. I just pushed the shield in a little with my hand to give it a little more clearance.

Now put the 4-pot caliper in place. Be sure to place the caliper with the bleeder valve on the top and not the bottom. If you don't you will not be able to properly bleed the brakes. Air will get trapped. The 2 /17 mm bolts that hold the caliper on should be torqued to 51-65 ft/lbs. Now prepare the brake pads for installation into the caliper. There are 4 pads. Two of them have wear indicators on them and two don't. (see pics below) Make sure each caliper gets a pad with the indicator. The pads appear the same other than the indicator; I don't think it matters if it goes to the inside or outside of the rotor. Find that copper colored packet and cut a corner of the plastic. This is the anti-squeal compound. Put some on the back of each pad, then put the vented shim, more compound, the solid shim and a little more compound. On the top of each pad, fit one of what I call "locating clips". Those small gray metal things. You should have 4 of them one goes on the top of each pad (see pics)

Slide the assembled pad in the top of the caliper. Push it in till the holes in the pads line up with the holes in the caliper. The two holding pins will come through the holes and secure both pads . Watch the position of the top locating clip, it's a pain to get in properly. Now put the long holding pins in from the outside of the caliper to the inside. If the shims didn't move this will go smoothly. If they have shifted it's a pain. After the pins are in, take the long wire, with the bent ends and hook in the center, and put the ends of the wire though the holes in the pin ends. Then put the hook in the hole in the caliper. See pics below to get a better understanding of this. Next install the anti-rattle clip. The small end hook goes under the top pin and the long loop clips over the bottom pin. Again look at the pics.

Next re-attach the brake line. I was installing Stainless Steel brake lines at the time an they came with new sealing washers for the banjo fitting. From what I understand you are supposed to replace the washers with new ones. Torque the banjo bolt fitting (14mm) 132-180 inch lbs (according to my Haynes Manual). Use brake parts cleaner liberally and spray the heck out of the rotor to clean it. Make sure there is no grease or brake fluid on the rotor front or back.

Now you are done with the first side time to do the other one. After you do both sides you need to bleed the brakes, do all the calipers not just the fronts. According to Cobb Tuning you should bleed the brakes w/ ABS in this order Front R, Rear L, Front L, Rear R No ABS this order - RR, RL, FR FL

After bleeding the all 4 brakes torque the wheels down I use 70 ft/lbs.

Now you are done

Take it easy on the brakes when they are new try not to kick in the ABS if possible. The silver on the rotors will wear off after the first few stops.