Brake Time

To finish the lug nut story, I went to my parent's on Wednesday and my Dad went at the lug nut cap with a pick and a hammer. Although my wheel got a little dinged up in the process, we were able to break the cap off. None of the other caps gave me trouble.

On Friday, I got off work early and went about replacing the brake pads. Starting on the front left wheel, I removed the pads and compared them with the new ones out of the box. They were hardly worn at all. The seller must've put in new pads before he sold me the car. So I ended up putting these back on. I ran out and got some quiet brake grease stuff from the auto store to put on the back of the pads. I also slipped in the anti-squeal shims I ordered. It took me a couple hours to do this on the one side, which is probably laughable to any competent mechanic.

Today, I did the same on the other side. It went much quicker. I noticed some rust on this rotor that wasn't present on the left side (as seen in the above photo.)

Regardless, I drove the car about 30 miles today and the brakes didn't make a peep. So I'm pretty happy.