Replacing Front Disks on a 200sx S14a

1. Loosen the wheel nuts off slightly, jack up the car and then undo the nuts and remove the wheel

2. You need to take the pads out of the caliper before it can be removed

Lever the pin clip out of the pad pins using a screwdriver and pull the pad pins out. The cross spring will then fly across your garage leaving the pads and shims to be pulled out. It's likely that they wont come out easily so you'll have to push the pistons/pads back away from the disk. Undo the brake fluid cap in the engine bay to make this easier and just carefully lever the pads back a bit and they should come out nice'n'easy. Make a note of how the pad retainers clip the shims to the pads.

3. The caliper is held on by two 19mm bolts which need to be undone. Unclip the rubber brake hose clipped to the strut to give more movement with the solid pipe (thx to SteveCarter) but be careful at this point not to damage the fixed brake fluid pipe.

The caliper will now be resting on the disk and is only connected to the car through the fixed brake fluid pipe. The Nissan service manual recommends undoing this pipe but that involves bleeding your brakes and all that. If your careful, there's enough play to move the caliper aside whilst you slide the disk off.

4. Sliding the disk off: It's unlikely that this will happen in reality as years of rust will have secured it tightly to the hub. The two options are:

• Get the rubber mallet out and whack it firmly

• Look at the first picture above and there's two holes in the disk where you can screw a bolt into to prise it away from the hub.

Once loosened, move the caliper away slightly, and slide the disk off.

You'll need something to rest the caliper on at this point. An axle stand is good or a toolbox and tub of grease is even better!

4. Get hold of your new disk and make sure it's clean of any grease or lubricants. Move the caliper away gently again and slide the new disk on. Put the caliper back in place and rest it on the new disk.

5. Bolt the caliper back on again and refit the pads in the reverse order you took them off. You may have to push the pistons back even further this time. Just use a suitable screwdriver or something and be careful not to damage the pistons (or your new shiny disk).

6. Put the wheel back on tighten the nuts and drop the car.

7. Now do it again for the other side.

NJK 11/02/03