How to change rear brake pads on an SRT8
These instructions for the 300C SRT8 also apply to the Magnum, Charger, and Jeep SRT8, which all use the same calipers and brake pads. With a few basic tools, changing the brake pads on any SRT8 is a 10 minute job per corner. This is the easiest brake job you will ever do.
Step one is to jack up the car, using the rubber jack pad located 12" forward of the rear wheel arch.
Jack up the SRT8 using the rubber jack pad
After the wheel is up in the air, remove the 21mm wheel nuts. I use an impact wrench and a
Griot's Garage aluminum socket. The socket has a nylon sleeve and insert to avoid scratching fancy wheel hardware or scuffing the inside edges of your wheel bolt holes. Griot's Garage sells a complete set of these sockets for about $60.
Griot's Garage socket set
Remove wheel nuts
The pads are held in place by a spring clip and a pair of drift pins. Use a small punch and a hammer to drive out one of the drift pins. Then remove the spring clip. Finally, drive out the second drift pin. These steps are shown in photos below:
Remove drift pin with center punch
Top view while removing lower pin – order is not important
Spring clip is easily removed, followed by 2nd drift pin
Normally, the next step is to remove the pads and then retract each of the 4 caliper pistons individually. However, I have a really slick tool that does it in one stroke. You can read more about the tool
here. This is what the took looks like:
You simply stick the blades of the tool inside the caliper and hook them on the inner faces of the pad backing plates. Then you squeeze the handles. In one stroke, the pads are pushed apart and all four pistons are fully retracted. Then the pads simply pull right out. In the case of the SRT8 rear calipers, oriented the way they are, they literally fall out.
For the SRT8, this tool is a luxury, not a requirement. It is possible to pull the pads apart with your bare hands, then use a screwdriver to pry between the pad and the rotor, in order to push the pistons back into the caliper body. If you're only doing this job once, it's not really worth purchasing this tool.
Spread pads apart & retract caliper pistons with special tool
Caliper with both pads removed – pistons are visible and fully retracted
The rear brakes on the SRT8 are more prone to squealing than the front brakes. My own SRT8 developed an intermittent faint squeal from the rear calipers under light braking. If you're installing C-Tek pads or any other aftermarket pads which don't come with anti-squeal shims, I suggest transplanting the shims from the original Jurid pads (with "Brembo" markings). Transplanting shims to the C-Tek pads completely eliminated the squeal from my SRT8 rear brakes.
If you're installing Centric Posi-Quiet pads, the following steps are not necessary, since the Posi-Quiet pads come with composite shims pre-installed.
Remove clip-on shim from OEM pad, exposing composite shim underneath
Use screwdriver to gently pry off composite shim
Now take the composite (black) shim, which is probably curved like a potato chip, and bend it as flat as possible. Place it on the aftermarket pad, paying attention to the proper orientation. Clip the stainless steel shim on top.
Aftermarket pads without any shims
Composite shim transplanted
Clip-on stainless steel shim transplanted
Finally, you can insert the new pads into the caliper, being carefull not to let the shims get snagged on anything. Hold them in place with one of the drift pins. Tap the drift pin all the way into place with a small hammer, being careful not to chip the paint on the back of your caliper. Insert the spring clip into place and insert the second drift pin, working it all the way through the caliper while keeping pressure on the spring clip. Use the hammer to drive it all the way home.
Here's how everything looks after the new pads are installed:
Caliper with new pads installed
That's all there is to it. It took me much longer to write this than it did to do it. Much easier than changing pads on a typical American car.
Now it's time to proceed to the front brakes.
Instructions for installing front brake pads
