Need help with rear brake replacement

I tried searching for this and really didn't find anything.

I'm trying to replace the rear brakes and rotors on my 06 Liberty.

I've got the caliper off now and i cannot get the rotor off. It is loose but will not come off. Was I supposed to take off the parking brake?

This is the first time I've done rear brakes.

http://colorado4wheel.com/allmanuals/Jeep/KJ/KJ_04-06_CRD_FSM/2006/2006-KJ-SM.pdf

Here is a link to the service manual.

Thanks for the link.

Do I have to take the car out of park when replacing the rear rotors?

It can be in park but do not engage the emergency break. If you have the ER brake on, they won't come off. There are shoes too, small ones, and the inner hub of the rotor is like a brake DRUM. The shoes will be engaged to the drum area, and the rotors won't come off.

Thank you for the replies.

I finally got them done about an hour ago. The e brake really held the rotors on the hub. I wasn't sure if i should continue pulling or not. I finally got it done.

I love this site. Saved me a ton so far.

How many miles do you have on your 06? I have an 06 with 21000 and the dealer was telling me i need new brakes (which is not a problem) but when i got a quote for the job the also listed i need rotors. Which I think it a load of crap to get new rotors at 21k.

ChiefRudy said:

How many miles do you have on your 06? I have an 06 with 21000 and the dealer was telling me i need new brakes (which is not a problem) but when i got a quote for the job the also listed i need rotors. Which I think it a load of crap to get new rotors at 21k.

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I just had my rear brakes (pads and rotors) replaced at 44,000 miles. 21K does sound early, but it all depends on driving style and environment.

I have been told that OEM rotors come from the factory at minimum spec thickness, so you can't turn them when replacing pads. Replacing pads and rotors is a good idea with MOPAR parts.

One thing to watch is your calipers. Mine stuck after the brake job and I got stuck with the bill to fix it.

Depends on how much you brake. If you drive in the city a lot then they will need to be changed sooner.

My rear brakes will need to be changed way before the fronts. Fronts have a good 50%+ left while the rears probably dont have 25% left.. Should get 45k out of the rear though.

I also needed new rears at about 21k on my '06. Fronts were fine.

Just something that makes you go hmm....

ChiefRudy said:

How many miles do you have on your 06? I have an 06 with 21000 and the dealer was telling me i need new brakes (which is not a problem) but when i got a quote for the job the also listed i need rotors. Which I think it a load of crap to get new rotors at 21k.

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At 21000 miles your rotors should be machinable. At least once!
Our Liberty had 100,000 plus Kilometers (63000 miles and the rotors were machined despite what others say.) No more vibrations through the front brakes, just alot of brake pad dust depositing on to the front wheels. Other than that the vehicle stops on a dime.

My back brakes are lower than my front brakes too and i was thinking thats b/c of Traction control system kicking in b/c of wheel spin. i do about 50 city/50 high way driving. infact every trip i take thats more than 3 miles involves city and highway driving.

I thought the same thing about my rotors. They should be able to be cut once. I think for the brake job i'll go to my local shop instead of the stealer


thanks for the input guys

You have to wonder if the rear brakes are flawed then. I bet that the calipers are constantly dragging on the rotor and causing them to wear out faster than a normal setup. We all know that the rear calipers are known to stick and drag so maybe when you brake a lot, the calipers are sticking with the pistons pushed out causing a lot more wear.

And then when you consider that the front brakes do 80% of the stopping, how is it that the rears wear out before the fronts??? In my 2002, I'm still on the original drums and shoes on my rear drum setup. I'm now on my 3rd set of front rotors though (77k miles)

Hum, indeed

My '06 has about 44K on it. The front rotors have been fine, but the rears were terrible. The right side rear rotor was scored over and over and had a large groove all around that I could defintiely feel by just running my finger over the thing.

ChiefRudy said:

How many miles do you have on your 06? I have an 06 with 21000 and the dealer was telling me i need new brakes (which is not a problem) but when i got a quote for the job the also listed i need rotors. Which I think it a load of crap to get new rotors at 21k.

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Some shops don't want to turn these rear rotors as they are solid (ie. do not have cooling vanes in the center) and may overheat while turning them. They don't want to be held liable. If there is no pulsation, the rotors are not below min thickness and you do the brake job yourself, you can just leave the rotors as is. A shop will not want to take the risk of you coming back if they pulsate.

ChiefRudy said:

My back brakes are lower than my front brakes too and i was thinking thats b/c of Traction control system kicking in b/c of wheel spin.

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You might be on to something here. Anyone with another '06 or '07 want to chime in?

My KJ's rear brake pads were toast at under 25k miles. They replaced the pads only at the dealers. The rear rotors were/are still good, and the front brakes are still original, still good (47k miles).

sleeve said:

And then when you consider that the front brakes do 80% of the stopping, how is it that the rears wear out before the fronts??? In my 2002, I'm still on the original drums and shoes on my rear drum setup. I'm now on my 3rd set of front rotors though (77k miles)

Hum, indeed

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Maybe in the '80's but nowdays the brake bias is a little closer to 60/40,and ESP throw's that out the door.By the way by nature drum brakes if properly adjusted will out last disc brakes by alot.Drum brakes have a average of 100,000-125,000 miles lifespan.The OEM front pads,as well as the rear's for disc brakes,are ceramic pads which will eat rotors faster then non-ceramic pads.Chyrsler also uses softer rotors so the pads bite better.

Many vehicles nowdays are a single use only rotor,once you need pads you also need rotors since it has been proven that turning rotors is not a good idea.Many Honda's,Toyota's,GM,and Ford's are like this and have been for a few years now.

Regardless of the Bias setting, the fronts still do a majority of the stopping work. Because of this, I still believe there is a flaw with the rear disk setup causing them to eat rotors. There has always been an issue with sticky calipers so maybe they don't release like they are supposed to and that is chewing up the rear disks.

And thanks for the info on the fronts... my last set was turned, then warped. They have been replaced with new fronts, but from now on I'll just do the "throw-away" approach. As you mentioned, the drums are great. I am still on my original drums. I adjust them every other oil change when I rotote tires and there is still plenty of life left in them.

droptine said:

http://colorado4wheel.com/allmanuals/Jeep/KJ/KJ_04-06_CRD_FSM/2006/2006-KJ-SM.pdf

Here is a link to the service manual.

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John said:

Please refrain from posting links to Factory Service Manuals (FSM's) in any forums. While we're all for helping a fellow KJer out with by far the best manual out there for the KJ, it opens up the doors to some liability and copyright violations....and we don't want that, now do we?

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John is an Admin?

Powerslave said:

John is an Admin?

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Posting links to a service manual shouldn't be a copyright problem. Posting pictures or diagrams or even excerpts directly from said manual would be a problem.

But linking to a manual wouldn't get this site into trouble. Even if the manual on the other end of the link violated copyright.