Special Tools

There will always be someone on a forum somewhere claiming that you need a pentagon (5 sided) socket when removing the caliper. They are talking out of their bum. The pentagon bolt is the hinge pin that you rotate the calliper piston housing on when you fold it down to access the pads. There is no need to loosen or tighten this bolt .

Blue – 13mm hexagon bolt. Removed to pivot the calliper down.
Yellow – Pentagonal bolt. Lower pivot bolt. Doesn’t need removing.
Red – Caliper to hub mounting points,

Thanks to Dave B for the photo.

Removing The Brake Pads

If you are fitting new pads as well, you will also need to look here.

Disc And Pad Thickness

On the smart car, the brakes discs are 9mm thick when new. The maximum wear they can have before being replaced is only 1mm. You can measure them with a caliper gauge, if they are anywhere near 8mm or below you should change them ASAP.

Brake pad minimum is 3mm. This is just the thickness of the friction material, not the metal back plate. Once you get to 2.5mm thickness, the acoustic wear indicators start touching the brake disc.

The noise isn’t something that you can ignore, it’s terrible.

Fitting The Discs

You will need the following tools:
Jack,
Axle stand,
15mm socket to remove wheel,
13mm ring or open end spanner,
17mm open end spanner,
E18 socket,
T30 screwdriver,
Clamp to push piston back.

First of all loosen front wheel nuts, jack up the car and place the axle stand securely. Lower onto the stand. Check for security of car on stand – you’re going to be working on it!

With the wheel removed it will look like this.