Due to a horrible pulsation from the brakes that started about 2 weeks ago, I got around to swapping pads and rotors all the way around yesterday on my 2021 Equinox LT AWD 1.5 @ 74K miles. When I bought the vehicle used 2 years ago, with 34K miles on it, the dealer supposedly "resurfaced" the rotors and did a pad slap before I bought it. This brake job wore me out. Each rotor still had it's torx hold down screw in place. They all started to come out easy enough after a hammer whack, but two of them snapped and one stripped the torx head requiring drilling. The caliper bracket bolts all had factory locktite on them and required breaker-bar use. Lots of rust and crust on the brackets and abutment clips areas that required filing. Pins and boots all needed a thorough clean and re-grease. Two of the pins needed to be wire-wheeled towards the head where the boot seals to it. It was corroded in that area. The pulsations were due to the fact all the pads were hopelessly stuck in place and the insides of all 4 rotors were chewed up pretty badly. A shame too as all pads had plenty of life left on them as did the rotors.
The rear caliper bracket bolts were really the only major challenge for me. The lower bolts are recessed into a pocket in the aluminum knuckles, which makes access difficult. You can barely get a finger on these 18mm bolts. Plus they are blocked by a suspension trailing arm. The trailing arms do have holes drilled through them so you can get to the bolts, but you need an extension and wobble as the hole is offset some and you have no room for a breaker bar. They were extremely hard to back out. I mean like sweating it the whole time getting them out.
For the electric parking brake actuators, I opted to remove the actuator assemblies from the calipers. Each has two torx cap screws holding them to the caliper. One of which is blocked with a metal brake line which you have to tweak out of the way. Very easy over all as you can twist the the parking brake out by hand w/ a torx bit and push the tiny caliper piston in with your fingers.
I used a Detroit Axle pad and rotor kit for the front and a Callahan kit for the rear. All in was under $200 off the Amazon machine. The look and fitment was good. They seem about the same quality as any white box parts store kit.
The rear caliper bracket bolts were really the only major challenge for me. The lower bolts are recessed into a pocket in the aluminum knuckles, which makes access difficult. You can barely get a finger on these 18mm bolts. Plus they are blocked by a suspension trailing arm. The trailing arms do have holes drilled through them so you can get to the bolts, but you need an extension and wobble as the hole is offset some and you have no room for a breaker bar. They were extremely hard to back out. I mean like sweating it the whole time getting them out.
For the electric parking brake actuators, I opted to remove the actuator assemblies from the calipers. Each has two torx cap screws holding them to the caliper. One of which is blocked with a metal brake line which you have to tweak out of the way. Very easy over all as you can twist the the parking brake out by hand w/ a torx bit and push the tiny caliper piston in with your fingers.
I used a Detroit Axle pad and rotor kit for the front and a Callahan kit for the rear. All in was under $200 off the Amazon machine. The look and fitment was good. They seem about the same quality as any white box parts store kit.
