Nothing anyone here has not seen or done before. My tires needed rotated and Discount Tire refused to do it because they are just over 6 years old, out of warranty. Of course they wanted to sell me new ones. They still have some life left in them, no cracks. I rotated them myself, front to back, back to front.
While I had the car jacked up on its side I checked out the brake pads and rotors. My car is 13 years old and this is only the second time I have checked them. Yeah, I know, lazy, but the brakes are working fine. Car has ~42K miles on it.
Checked the usable pad thickness, measured 8mm back, 9mm front, and the rotors look ok.
The brake pad support plates, the repair manual's name, were in bad shape. Coated with a heavy black something. I used mineral spirits, isopropanol, and an old tooth brush and a small wire brush to clean them and the brake pads.
Greased the brake pad support plates and the brake cylinder/caliper pins with Permatex Silicone Brake Parts Lubricant. FYI: the caliper pin with the ribbed rubber sleeve on it goes in the bottom hole of the caliper. Brake components removal and installation procedures start on page 383 of the repair manual.
Yeah I know the manual says to change the brake fluid at 30K miles but I didn't. It looked fine, good color, clear, and my cheapo conductivity brake fluid tester showed it had only <0.1% water. Yes, I know they can be inaccurate. I checked mine against a Karl Fisher titrator in the lab and they matched. I have found that they are ok if you use a new alkaline battery.
I put everything back together and the brakes work fine.
New brake fluid
