How to Replace Rear Brake Pads on a Buick LeSabre

A key safety feature of your Buick LeSabre is the braking system. Maintaining your braking system is a critical responsibility as a car owner, as failure to do so can lead to injury or worse for you or others. Replacing the rear drum brakes on your LeSabre is a task that you can do yourself in just a few hours with the right tools and knowledge.

Instructions

Park the LeSabre on flat ground. Make sure that the emergency brake is on and that the car is in "Park."

Loosen the lug nuts on the rear tires so that you will not need to apply a great deal of force to remove them when the car is up on the jack stands.

Jack up the rear of the car and place one jack stand underneath the outer frame of the car on each side. Look in your owner's manual for the exact position. Slowly lower the car onto the jack stands.

Loosen and remove the lug nuts from the rear wheels, then remove them. From this point on, work on the brakes one side at a time.

Remove the brake drum from the wheel hub. If it won't slide off, you will need to retract the brake shoes. To retract the brake shoes, remove the rectangular rubber plug from the back of the brake, then rotate the sprocket inside the drum with a flat-head screwdriver. Use an upward motion and keep rotating the sprocket until the drum comes off.

Clean the drum with brake wash. The brake dust might contain asbestos, so wear rubber gloves and safety goggles and avoid making direct contact with the brake wash and brake dust.

Disconnect the shoe retracting springs from the pin at the top of the brake with the brake spring removal tool, then use the tool to remove the springs at the bottom of the brake.

Locate the auto-adjuster tab and lift it up with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver and disconnect the auto-adjuster cable. The auto-adjuster tab is a small metal tab at the bottom of the wheel hub.

Remove the primary braking shoe from the wheel hub (it should be completely disconnected), then detach the secondary braking shoe from the parking brake cable and remove it.

Wash off the wheel hub with brake wash, taking the same precautions that you did in Step 6.

Apply brake grease to the areas of the wheel hub where it will come into contact with the brake shoes.

Slide the new brake pads into the same position where the old pads were located.

Re-assemble the brake, reversing the process that you used to take it apart. Repeat this process for the brakes on the other side.

Place the tires back onto the hubs and screw the lug nuts into place. Don't tighten the lug nuts all the way; just use enough force so that you meet resistance when you turn the lug wrench.

Jack the car up and remove the jack stands. Slowly lower the LeSabre to the ground and tighten all of the lug nuts.