I got a 92 Civic LX with 184,000 miles on it & yesterday I decided to changed the front brake pads myself(both sides of course), which I haven't done before because I'm new to DIY'ing my own car.
Anyway, did everything by the Haynes Manual & finished in 4 hours(hey..I'm new to this ). Took it for a test drive later that night & heard a few clunking noises like something fell off when I applying the brakes...I went back up the street to retrace my driving path & didn't see anything on the ground, so I went home & waited till the next day(which is today) to see what was going on with the clunking I heard.

Today, I took off both front wheels & checked the clips and to see if the brakes were nice & snug in there..which they WERE. I even took the brakes pads out to make sure they fit back in where they belong(THIS was a big mistake on my part..you'll see later). Put it all back together, made the bolts nice & tight and went for a test drive.
As I was driving I can heard the brakes grinding against the rotors everytime I apply the brakes..but specifically on the passenger side(no more clunking sounds BTW). I'm thinking this is normal because when you feel & look at new pads(in-hand) they're slightly rugged and it takes a few applications of the braking to smooth it out. I drove for about 7 miles applying the brakes at many stop signs..and each time I would hear that grinding sound.
I finally went home to see what was going on with all the grinding because it shouldn't last that long..started with the passenger-side...took off the wheel & upon closer observation my OUTSIDE brake-pad was turn THE WRONG WAY ..with the back side of the pad towards the rotor...the bad thing was the pad had a huge metal "Duralast" label on the back side. Got a couple pics of how the passenger-side rotor looks now..it's scraped up pretty bad.

To make it even worst the Caliper Mounting Bolt broke off when I tried unscrewing it ..I can swing the Caliper up but there's alittle bit of that bolt that's still in the Caliper Mount, I sprayed it with Lube and I can barely get a grip with pliers on it..that's the worst of my problems & I'm not sure what to do to get the rest of that bolt out.
I can't hammer it out because there's no "other side" or hole to hammer through. Maybe I could drill it out but I would have to buy a drill set & even if I can effort it what if the drill bit gets stuck in there..then I would have another problem. Got some pics of the remaining stuck bolt..sorry it's kinda fuzzy..took it with my celly.

Can anyone help with this situation....I'm stuck like this damn broken bolt!

 

The part the bolt screws into is called the caliper bracket, it's not real expensive to just replace it. Remove the two large bolts on the inside side and replace the bracket.

 

I didn't know the bracket could come off..because I was feeling around there & thought it was attached to the whole front frame. I'll go down to a pick & pull to to get one..should be real cheap since they're only $10 at Autozone.

Thanks MK!

P.S: I might as well go get a rotor while I'm down at the pick & pull..anything is better than what I got now.

 

Yes, it goes without saying that rotor must be replaced. Ones from the junkyard are usually too heavily rusted to be useful. It would seem the metal surface of the pad would no longer be flat, so a new set of pads is in order too.

 

Well, if it helps I'd guess everyone here has done similar bonehead type maneuvers, I sure have. I feel your pain.

Then again at the end of the day it will still cost less than if you paid someone to do it, and you learned something.

As for broken bolt extraction, it is a hobby unto itself, simple, but not easy, but man oh man is it satisfying.
Center punch carefully, start with a small drill 1/8", resharpen as required to get through the sheared and thus hardened skin, work up in drill size, use an easy out and plenty of cursing. Easy out is a misnomer, ******-****er out is more like it. The hard part is getting the broken bit of easy out out of the hole for a second attempt. The trick is to drill the hole big enough to use a substantial easy out that willnot break, but not so big that the part is weakened enough to be spread open and jammed in place by the easy out.

One gets better after doing about 100 of them.


My repair moto, why pay someone else to screw it up when I am perfectly capable of screwing it up myself?

DO NOT give up!