Ford B-Max Changing front brake pads- Ford B Max 2016

This job is fairly straight forward- the main tricky bits being raising the car and retracting the brake caliper pistons. In my case it was further complicated as I'd had a tyre changed recently and the garage had totally mullered one of the hub nuts- which caused a great deal of swearing!

Loosen the hub nuts before raising the car.

Raising the car

Ford thoughtfully provide jacking points in the sill seams just to the rear of the front wheels. These are great if you want to change a wheel, but for anything else you're going to want decent support on axle stands. So first problem: if I jack at the jacking points, where do I put the axle stands?  The jack will already be occupying  that position- and if I jack elsewhere- where? 

My solution is to jack the front up with a trolley jack under the front subframe and then use axle stands at the jacking points. Trouble is the car is far too low to slip even a low profile trolley jack under the front spoiler, so the first thing is to drive the car onto ramps or blocks so that the jack will fit.

Jack in position under front subframe

I then use a wide wooden beam about half a metre long to spread the weight to the jack. The front subframe is actually a fair way back, but looking at it, there is a hollow groove or corrugation along it which I think is there to add strength. I position the wooden beam along and across this indentation with the jack underneath. 

You can then raise the front of the car (both sides at once) and position the axle stands under the jacking points in the sills (both sides). Note, you need to use the axle-stand pads with grooves to accept the sill seam to avoid damaging it and you must raise the car high enough that you can pull the ramps out after you've lowered it onto the axle stands (if you intend to remove the roadwheels that is - and you pretty much always will).

I lower the car onto the stands but leave the jack in position (for this job at least) as an added safeguard. When you eventually want to lower the car the order is...

  • Raise the jack (still in position) lifting car to clear the axle stands. 
  • Reinsert the ramps under front wheels.
  • Remove the axle stands
  • Lower the car wheels onto the ramps
  • Remove the jack
  • Reverse off the ramps.

Anyway enough of the basics that no-one seems to tell you. Renewing the pads is a straightforward job.

Renewing Brake pads- Ford B max 2016

Disc and caliper- note the rubber bellows that indicate the position of the guide pins top and bottom.


Disc and Caliper from front

First undo the guide pin bolts positioned at the top and bottom of the calliper. The pins are easily identified because they pass through rubber bellows. The pins will rotate so you need to use a second spanner inboard of the caliper to hold them whilst you remove the two pin bolts. 

Using a socket and a spanner to loosen the lower guide pin
remove the bolt and repeat at the top caliper.


New pads should come with new bolts so you don't need to keep these.

Guide pin bolt- note the collar of retaining compound; pre-applied to new bolts.

Locate the flexible hose support clamp- its going to be pretty dirty from road muck so brush off the threads before you undo and remove the bolt. The nut is a weld nut so its easy to take the bolt out.

Finger indicates flexible hose bracket bolt
Unscrew the flexible hose bracket bolt

Unfiddle the bracket so the flexible hose is free to move.

Hose bracket detached

Pull the caliper out of the caliper mounting bracket leaving the bracket (which holds the pads) still attached to the hub. Its not necessary to remove the bracket unless you want to change the discs as well as the pads. 

Caliper removed- hanging from a bungee

Looking at the caliper you will see the single piston which will probably be protruding quite a lot of your pads are very worn. You should hang the caliper using a wire or bungee, from the suspension spring so that the flexible hose is never strained. If not removing caliper or disc it does actually rest quite stably on top of the disc for short periods with care.

Remove the pads from both sides of the disc 

Pads just unclip from the plates
I was surprised that there was so much pad left considering my MOT examiner had spooked me by saying they were extremely thin, but tbf one side was rather more worn that the other.

Then unclip the anti-rattle plates from the bracket (new pads will come with new brackets). 

Unclipping the old anti-rattle plates

Clean up the mounting points with a stiff brush and brake cleaner and then fit the new anti-rattle plates. 

New anti-rattle plates fitted (sorry about the poor focus)

They should locate over the ridges in the bracket but makes sure that they do, and that they are clear of the discs.  

New anti-rattle plates- check they don't contact the disc

Check you've got the pads in the right orientation and slip the new pads into their holding grooves in the anti-rattle plates. Obviously the contour has to follow the curve of the disc and pad material faces towards the disc! I forgot to photograph that but its pretty obvious. New pads are of course thicker than the old ones so they will not fit back in unless you can push the piston back into its caliper. Naturally, if you do this then brake fluid will be pushed back up into the reservoir. It is said that this can damage the seals in the master cylinder- and although some reports carry this warning I've not yet seen anyone actually saying its really happened to them. A more sinificant concern may be that any dirty fluid or water-contamination would be pushed back into the mc where it could cause problems. Again I've not found anyone saying they've actually experienced this. I'm following the Haynes manual for this job and this simply advises pushing the piston back and thus sending the fluid back to the master cylinder. Open the bonnet and check brake fluid level- this will have dropped as the pads wear so it may be quite low- it was in my case. If the reservoir has been topped up as the pads wore down, then there may now be too much fluid in the system. If so then remove some before retracting the piston to avoid overflow. Remove the cap and leave it off whilst retracting the pistons.

Fluid in my master cylinder had dropped quite markedly as the pads wore.- At least Im not in danger of overflow!

Alternatively if you don't want to back up the fluid then you can clamp off the flexible hose with a hose clamp and then loosen the bleed nipple. You can use a length of bleed hose and connect it either to a one-way bleeding valve or  just immerse the end in a jar of spare fluid. Moving the piston will now expell fluid through the nipple and return none to the master cylinder. It also makes the piston easier to move but runs the risk of introducing air into the system. Its also messier but on the whole I think I will swap to this method in future. 

I retracted the piston using a brake caliper spreader. This is a two plate spreader I think intended mainly for cars with two piston calipers. Since this car has only a single piston, there is nothing for the spreader to push against so I used the old brake pads to bridge the gap in the caliper. Place these loosely in the caliper, insert the spreader between them and spread. This will push the piston squarely back into the caliper. You may be able to spread using a lever to push the pads back against the piston, but if so take care that the piston is pushed back squarely.

Using a brake spreader to push the piston back- note the old pads refitted to give the spreader something to spread against!

Check the fluid level in the master cylinder as you go and remove some if it threatens to overflow. Once the piston is fully back, slip the caliper back into place over the guide pins and pads and fit the new guide pin bolts. Use a second spanner once more and tighten these to 26Nm. Don't forget to remove the wire or bungee you used to suspend the brake caliper. Refit the flexible hose bracket and tighten the bolt home.

If you used the bleed nipple method for piston retraction you will have lost fluid, so check the level in the master cylinder and top up as necessary. Dont forget to tighten the bleed nipple again. Regardless of the retraction method you used, pump the brake pedal a few times from inside the car and check that normal pedal pressure returns. Finally, refit the road wheel. You must always change pads as an axle set so renew the pads on the other side, refit that wheel and carefully lower the car (see above). Fully tighten the hub nuts once the car is standing on its wheels.

New pads take a while to bed in so drive carefully, avoiding heavy braking except in emergency for around 50-100 miles









































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