Changing the front rotors requires special tools and hours of labor, but the rear pads and discs are pretty straightforward.

As the weather turns warmer here in Southern California, off-roading season rapidly approaches. Anyone who put off a bit of maintenance over the winter needs to get their rig ready now, which for me meant tidying up a few details on my 2006 Porsche Cayenne Turbo and 1998 Mitsubishi Montero. My busy schedule of first drive events and ski trips got a rude awakening about a month ago, when I arrived home to find the Montero making a horrible, terrifying grinding noise while driving and especially while braking.

Turns out, the truck's front right brake pads had worn all the way down to the backing plate, which ruined the rotor, as well. Even more upsetting, replacing a set of brake pads on the Gen 2.5 Montero requires little more than pulling one single guide pin bolt—but replacing a front disc requires special tools and full disassembly of the wheel hub. With no time on my plate to tackle the job, I dropped the Montero off at a shop and paid to get the work done. A set of new front brake pads and rotors improved the truck's braking performance so well, despite using relatively budget brands, that I then decided to replace the rears myself and hopefully acquire even more bite.

Luckily, the rear job requires only basic tools and the parts cost less than $120 total. Keep scrolling for step-by-step instructions on how to replace the rear pads and discs on a Gen 2.5 Mitsubishi Montero.

With the tires still on the ground, first use a breaker bar to loosen the wheel nuts. Then get the truck up off the ground, either with a floor jack or on a lift. Remove the nuts fully and then slide the wheel off and set it aside—I took this opportunity to do a tire rotation, since I used a lift with all four wheels off the ground.

Take a moment to check out the Montero's braking system. Do you see any damaged parts, like broken clips, scored rotors, or leaking fluid? Check out around the inside of the caliper and identify the four different retaining bolts holding the caliper to the wheel hub. In the case of mine, no alignment screw held the brake rotor to the hub—yours may still be in there.

This is a good time to mention that you should not engage the parking brake, as it will make the rotors impossible to remove.

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As I mentioned above, replacing just the pads on the front or rear brakes requires loosening only one single bolt—quite possibly one of the easiest jobs on any car I've ever worked on. But replacing the discs gets a bit more involved, even at the rear. Begin by using a 17-millimeter deep socket to loosen the inner bolts holding the caliper to the hub mounting bracket. Loosen both first, then fully remove and slide the caliper off the disc, trying not to put too much strain on the brake fluid line. Your old pads will likely fall out at this point, but double-check for pieces of the retaining clips stuck in the caliper.

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I used a zip tie to hold the caliper back up and away from the rotor, steadied with the sway bar without pinching the brake line too hard. The caliper will sit happily on the rear axle, seeming quite balanced, but I still recommend securing it somehow just in case pulling the rotors causes any jostling or jerking.

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Your rotors may slide right off, as one of mine did, or may require a few pounds with a mallet or hammer. If you plan to take the discs to a shop and have them turned, in the hopes they can be reused, don't hit them with a hammer! If you plan on throwing them away, as I did, go for it.

In my case, the first rotor presented a bit of a struggle, until I remembered I had set the emergency brake. Don't be like me. With the e-brake disengaged, both discs slid off easily.

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With the rotor off, you can see the e-brake shoes. Check to make sure they still have enough thickness to engage. Mine looked pretty good on both sides, so I just slid the new discs on and moved to the next step.

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At this point, you can decide whether to reinstall the caliper or attempt the next few steps with the caliper separate from the rotor. I went with the former, in the hopes that using the single top pin guide bolt as a hinge point would allow me more leverage to push the brake piston back into the caliper. To do so, I slid the caliper without pads back onto the new rotor, reinstalled the 17-mm bolts hand-tight, and then loosened the upper outside pin bolt with a 14-mm wrench. You'll need the wrench to prevent a socket and ratchet from banging into the brake line where it connects to the caliper. A socket will work on the lower outside pin bolt, which you want to pull out entirely.

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The brake piston in my first caliper pushed back in easily using the typical flathead screwdriver method and an old pad as a shim. Mitsubishi designed the caliper with a gap on the outside that serves perfectly for this purpose. Don't push on the piston itself with the screwdriver, though, always use a shim or block of some kind.

The other piston put up more of a fight, so if you're struggling here, the next steps are for you.

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Depending on how full you keep your brake fluid and how worn your old pads became, you may need to bleed a bit of brake fluid to allow the piston to retract enough. Use an eight-millimeter wrench and slowly turn the bleeder valve until fluid begins seeping out. Be ready for a mess with plenty of paper towels. Once you can see some fluid dripping, try compressing the piston again—it should move more easily. Don't forget to tighten the brake bleeder valve afterward!

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With the piston retracted, re-installation is almost the opposite of removal. Install your new retaining clips first, then apply silicone grease (which should have come with your pads) to the backing plates, plus the rim of the piston, and slide everything into place. Check if your brake piston actually compressed back into the caliper enough. If it still struggles, you may need to use a caliper press. Once the piston retracts enough, the whole caliper will slip onto the pads easily. At this point, you can reinstall the caliper's lower guide pin bolt. Then tighten the caliper mounting bracket bolts to 65 lb-ft and the guide pins to 54 lb-ft.

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Pop the wheel back on and hand tighten the lug nuts. Lower the truck and torque the nuts according to your specs—with my Toyota steelies and ball-seat nuts, I went to 114 lb-ft. Always tighten lug nuts where the wheel retains the brake discs diagonally to avoid warping the rotors, which for the Montero applies less up front given the hub assembly design. After completing this job, take a slow test drive and purposefully apply the brakes, checking for a soft pedal or squealing, scraping noises that might indicate low fluid or pinched pad retaining clips.

All told, this job should take around an hour for an amateur with average experience and common hand tools. The labor alone to have a shop replace my fronts, meanwhile, cost $287.50 even though I brought the pads and discs. That seemed fair enough given the time required, but talk about a friendly reminder to keep an eye on your pads, which would have taken me under 20 minutes to replace if the backing plates hadn't scoured the discs beyond repair.

At the rear, I used rotors by Centric that cost only $39.79 each from Rock Auto, plus TRW brake pads that cost $37.79 total from Amazon. Despite using budget components—I would have spent more willingly but faced very few options due to current parts shortages—my truck brakes even better now after replacing the rears to complement the fronts.

Sources: centricparts.com, rockauto.com, trwaftermarket.com, and amazon.com.

Michael Van Runkle grew up surrounded by Los Angeles car culture, going to small enthusiast meets and enormous industry shows. He learned to drive stick shift in a 1948 Chevy pickup with no first gear and currently dailies his 1998 Mitsubishi Montero while daydreaming about one day finishing up that Porsche 914 project. He's written in various media since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2010 and started at HotCars in February 2018.