A couple of weeks ago my little nice got baptized in Oklahoma City and accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. Summer and I drove up from Dallas to see the event and while there I had the organization that installed the tires on my Excursion do a little work.

I had the tires rotated and balanced and an alignment on the front end at Hibdon on the Northwest Expressway. It has only been about 6,000 miles since I purchased the tires but they were already starting to show some uneven wear. The alignment was $59 and is good for a year so I plan to take the Excursion back in 11 months or so and have them do another alignment. I could feel the improvement with the handling immediately after hitting the road.

Hibdon wanted $130 before tax to put on new brakes in the rear, which seemed reasonable, but I felt I could save some doe if I did it myself. I also prefer the idea of purchasing brakes that can easily be returned for new ones at O’Rilly’s. High performance, lifetime guaranteed rear brakes cost less than $50 bucks with tax and we had them swapped out in about 30 minutes. Below are the pictures.

I started with using a jack and a jack stand. The jack stand is a must for safety. Never rely on just the jack. Loosen the lug nuts before jacking the wheel off the ground or else the vehicle rocks or the wheel rotates. Also make sure the parking brake is released. Once the wheel is removed there are only two little bolts to remove and then the caliper can be forced off the rotor. I rested the caliper on the jack so it did not hang by the break line. Using a c-clamp and the old brake pad I forced the hydraulic plunger open as wide as it would go. I then replaced the pads, two per rotor, and bolted the caliper back into place. Each wheel took about 15 minutes and we were back on our way to Dallas in no time. Swap out brakes at your own risk and always double check with an expert.