Aaron Baillio’s Blog

Amazing!  What a week.  Well, got two new cats, had a great easter, sold the car (the MINI) and the next day the passenger window of the Jeep was smashed and our Ipod with docking station and FM transmitter was stolen.  Nothing else was taken!  So, we are getting that fixed up and should be done tomorrow.  It’ll cost us 150 Euro for the deductible, but since we have been striving to be good and more spiritual we have actually been fairly light harted about the whole thing.  But, it has been the straw that broke the camels back as far as staying in this house.  We’re out!  We are going to start looking for a new place to live.  We are allowed a fairly nice allowance and so we wanna make use of it.  Anyway, that has been us in a nut shell.  I’ll try to post a little more often.  I have some cool Easter pics too.  See ya!

If you blow your brains out…money back gauranteed.

1.  Make sure you have the right replacement brakes!  Once you go through the hassel of taking the wheels off and the calipers (we’ll talk about that in a minute) you don’t want to have the realization that you bought the wrong brakes.

2.  Comfort is king!  Make sure you have a padded cart or some knee pads or a soft blanket or something! 

3.  Buy jack stands.  You don’t want this fat car falling on your head…brain loss is fatal.

4.  Make sure you have the right tools!  You need sockets and a socket wrenche!  Depending on the size car you have, you may need to buy some more…and make sure you have both inches and metric.  (I had to buy larger than what I owned.  I also had to buy a new wrench.  After buying $20 of inch size sockets, I realized I would need metric)  Good tools are worth the money and you will always have them/

5.  Okay, first thing, jack up the car and put the front two tires on jack stands.  Then, get your handy tire iron and remove both tires.  Remember, loosen the tires lugs before you raise the car.  Once the car is raised, take off the tire.

6.  Now you should see the caliper…a huge fat and probably rusty looking chunk of metal on top of a shiny disc.  The disc is called a rotor.  On the back side of the caliper you will see some bolt heads and probably 1 or 2 hoses going to the caliper.  Forget the houses for now.  You want the 2 large bolt heads.  Find the right socket and pry those babies off.

7.  Those bolts may not come right off.  Smack your wrench with a hammer, preferably a rubber mallet.  No luck, take a torch and hold it on those bad boys for 3-5 minutes.  That will melt any gunk on the bolt and you should have some more success.  If it still doesn’t work, please proceed to find your nearest gun for brain shooting.

8.  Once the bolts are out, that caliper will slide right off.  So do it! 

9.  At this point, you should be able to wiggle those pads right out.  Now you’ll need a C clamp.  A big one too.  Didn’t tell you that before?  Well, swear your cursings under your breath as you head back to the hardware store to buy a c clamp.  The clamp is to shove that huge piston(s) on the caliper back up inside.  You won’t get the brakes in otherwise.  Now, take off the clamp, and slide in the brakes.

10.  At this point you need a careful examination of the rotor.  If your brakes have been squeeling for some time you may have grooves in it.  Just run your finger over it.  If you feel any, you should probably take them to an auto shop and get them “turned.”  If the grooves are really deep, you’ll need whole new ones.  Either way, they are not significantly expensive, but the whole thing is a pain,  You could just forget about it, which is what I did.  You’ll live (for a while but at some point it will need to be addressed).

11.  After the rotor problem is soved, just slap that caliper back on, put the bolts back, put the tires back and that is it!

12.  Now the real drama can begin.  You have officially passed the easy stuff.  Get in the car and without the key in the iginition pump the brakes about 10 times.  Turn on the car and give it a gentle test drive.  If everything went fine, you can put your gun away and have a party cause you are finished.

13.  If not, keep your gun close.  You may need it to end the misery.  If you unhooked the break line or if the brakes feel spongy then you’ll have to bleed them.  Get out your pad and get back down on the ground.

14.  First thing, go buy some brake fluid.  Probably 3 or 4 bottles worth.  Be careful with this stuff.  It is pretty slimy and can peel paint. 

15.  Open the hood and check  the brake fluid canister.  Best thing to do is get the old turkey baster and suck all the crap out of there.  Keep going till you can’t get anything else out.  Then refill it with nijce clean new stuff.

16.  Get back on the floor.  If you can fit under the car without stands, g reat.  If not, pull out the jack and get that car back up in the air.

17.  Look on the backside of the caliper.  There should be a hose going to it as well as a rubber nob sticking out towards the top.  That is a rubber cap that will pop off.  It will take some coersion but get that sucker off.  Now you should see a little nossle sticking proudly up in the air.  Find a length of tube…(didn’t tell you about the tube did I?  Well, mumble your curses and go down to the pet shop and buy some standard fish tube).  Find a suitable wrench.  Here you need the kind with the circle bit on one side and the open ended wrench on the other.  Stick that on the bolt and then stick the tube on the spout. 

18.  Here you will need a helper.  Have your helper sit in the driver’s seat and when you say when have the helper push the brakes pedal like they are coming to a stop.  The helper says “down.”  Now, give the bolt a half turn.  You should see brake fluid come shooting out along with air. 

19.  didn’t you put a cup at the other end of the tube filled partially with brake fluid?  Well, I bet you wish you did now since there is fluid everywhere!

20.  Once the fluid slows,close the bolt.  Now say, “up” and your helper releases the peddle.  The helper should feel a sensation that the brake releases and the pedal goes to the floor.

21.  repeat the process.  If you do a step out of order, you have just reintroduced air into the system.  Do this process about 5 or 6 times.  And do it for each side you replaced the brakes.

22.  That should be it!  Make sure you never run low of brake fluid in the master cylinder under the hood.  If you do….WHAM!  you’ll have to buy a new one and you’ll want to shoot yourself.

23.  Pump the brakes about 10 times and give it anther test drive.  Still having problems?  You may have to bleed it for a while.  After all that and it still doesn’t work, well, why didn’t you go to a mechanic in the first place!

Well, that is about what happened for us.  I spent way more than I thought and there were numerous sleepless nights and hours of internet research but we got it done.  Once you do it though it should be good to go and you will rue the day you ever read this bog!  Laterz

Well, I am back from Italy and it was Awesome (hence the name of the blog).  We drove down so I got to see the sights on the way down.  Austria was gorgeous.  Once we got into Italy it was really foggy and it stayed that way until late Thursday and into friday.  But, even though I couldn’t see anything I loved it way more than Germany.  The thing with Germans is that they just don’t like anyone.  They are good people but they are just austere people.  They like the minimum.  They don’t see the sun a lot and they are to hard working (if that can be a bad thing).  Italians are really laid back and happy and easy going…that’s me to a T!  Plus, I caught onto the language really quick since a lot of it was similar to French. 

The food was absolutely amazing and I don’t think we stopped eating the whole time we were there.  I definitely gained 5 pounds while there.  We did some good shopping on the last day and I got some cool stuff for Kristin.  I got some flavored olive oils and some balsamic vinegar, some chocolate and some other similar stuff.  It is all really good too!  I got the boys some toys…nothin special but they love it.  Of course, Will is in love with planes and helicopters.  This whole Air Force thing is starting to get to him!  He into planes and “Turtle Power” right now.  Asher is just happy to have something to mess around with.

So, we are definitely coming back here soon.  We can stay on base for about $50 a night and do day trips to all the cool places like Venice or Podova or the mountains.  Lots of stuff to see…but more importantly, lots of stuff to eat.

Everyone else is doing well.  I have to try to show my technical prowess and change the brakes on the car.  Hopefully it all goes down okay.  It’ll be an adventure!  So, hope all is well with you!  Talk to you later!