They Said It Would Be Easy

So, the other day, my daughter and I changed the brakes on her car.

Ok, not a big deal really. All the YouTube videos told us so. My daughter watched at least a half a dozen, and with her car being a tiny 2002 Kia Rio, it seemed like an easy, peasy job for the two of us.

Two Hours to Change a Light Bulb?

Now, I would never, ever attempt to change the brakes on my Volvo, albeit it’s also an older model, a 2001. However, the Volvo has ABS brakes, which are a beast in themselves… Also, the good people who have engineered this great car (mine has 314 628 miles) have not made it easy for you to even change a light bulb… one time it took me about two hours.

Yes, two hours.

I’ve even had my oil change place change them a couple of times. Now they don’t even ask to do that because it is SO hard. It takes them too long to call themselves a ten-minute oil change place… I don’t blame them at all, as I can barely get my girly hands in the space needed to do this simple task. So now when I need to change a light bulb in my car, I take it to my mechanic.

Ok, Back to The Brake Pads on My Daughter’s Car

Oh yeah, the reason she is doing this herself is because she just bought the car (knowing the brakes needed to be changed) and therefore had spent her money on purchasing the car to go back and forth to work — she needed the car, good brakes or not.

So, now we have the car jacked up, the tire is off, and we are looking at these completely rusted brake pads and rotor. I mean, they were entirely brown and as we took off the tire and started to remove the pins, bits of rust just kept falling on the ground.

My daughter had already bought the brake pads, and now we realized she must also get the rotors changed. They were that bad.

As We Were Ready to Go…

…there was a strong gust of wind and the car fell off the jack.

Yup, a gust of wind toppled the car. Luckily, we had done the right thing and put some blocks of wood under the frame as you’re supposed to. And the car now laid on top of these blocks. Whew.

We went to the local Napa [means belly button in Finnish, by the way ;)]

Of course – they didn’t have the rotors…

The only store with a set of rotors in the entire county was about 20 miles away. They had exactly one pair.

We paid for them at the local store and the other held them for us to pick up.

Two Jacks are Better Than One

When we came home, we used two jacks to lift the car — just to make sure it stayed up.

That was the easy part.

Now to take off the rotors and brake pads.

They were so rusted, we were hammering away for about three hours. I felt sorry for my neighbors. The clanking sound was ear-splitting.

Seriously, three hours to get the pads and the rotor off.

From one side of the car.

Hammering made the rotors and the pads (which were completely falling apart) release a ton of rust. A pile was forming underneath the car. By the time we were done, there was enough rust under the wheel well to build new brake pads.

Floating Rotors?

When we finally got everything off, and the new rotor and pads installed, the bolts to keep the tire on were not cooperating.

My daughter had tried several times now to get the bolts placed into the tire.

But they just weren’t’ going in.

And here’s why….

The holes of the rotor weren’t’ aligned with the holes of the tire.

Sigh.

Off with the pads so we can rotate the rotor. Oh, and by the way, a Kia is one of the only cars out there that does not have floating rotors. This means that that we had to disassemble all the work we just did.

Yup.

So, off with the entire system again, so we can rotate the rotor.

Oh, oh — It Happened Again!

After we do this, and have the tire right under the car, the jacks fail again.

Yup.

Luckily, again, the tire took the blunt of the force along with the blocks of wood. The entire weight of the car did not fall onto the new rotor or the axle. Lucky us.

So, now we are looking to put yet another jack underneath the frame — just to make sure.

By now, a friend of my daughter’s is there to help us (they were supposed to meet two hours ago for dinner….) and looks under the car for sturdy places to put the third jack.

Wishing We Had a Pneumatic Hammer

And while doing so, is so gracious about telling us about his first car, which had to be put up in a shop to take the brakes off as they were so rusted. The mechanic ended up using a pneumatic hammer to loosen the rotors. Ok, that did make us feel a little better.

Now, with three jacks under the dinky little car, we were ready to proceed. And we figured out why the car fell off: we had turned the wheels to face one way so we could bang on the rotor from the rear and so the angle of the tires was not good for balance.

We finally, (finally!) got the tire on and aligned.

Took the three jacks off and left the car to sit there.

Until the next day.

And then it was time for the other side.

Which only took us two hours — we felt quite accomplished.

What Can We Learn from This Adventure?

Hire an expert.

It’s not worth the hassle to do it yourself.

Hire the writer, the editor, the proofreader, the designer, the professional.

Guaranteed she’s worth her weight in gold.

I could probably fix your brakes, too, but I don’t want to. I’m not the expert there. But I am an expert when it comes to writing. If you need a writer, call, text, email, or fill out the contact form on my website.

P.S. No one was hurt during the changing of the brakes. How lucky we were.

And if you’d like, you can check out the PowerPoint I used during my speech at Toastmasters here: We can Do this_KiArio _Toastmasters 8-2017.

©Taru Nieminen 2017