Ok, so I just changed my rear brake pads for the FIRST time following one of the DIY on the forums here. Saved myself $320 over the dealer doing both front and back.
I have the front pads, will do those tomorrow.

I had one concern and that is with the bolt pictured here:


My concern is how hard do I need to tighten this bolt back down when I am re assembling the whole set up.

Like hands of GOD tight or maybe like as tight as a 10 year old could probably tighten it?

Also I used Duralast GOLD pads from Autozone, not what I was hoping to use but I let the old ones get worn to far and was in emergency mode wanting to replace them. Any thoughts on how these will perform. Keep in mind I dont intend to AutoX or anything with them just normal day to day commutes to work.

Thanks!

Also thanks to whoever DIY it was I stole the pic from! =D

 

I did my brakes about 2 months ago and the caliper bolts don't need to be overtightened. Just go hand tight with the ratchet then a turn past that should do fine.

I used anti seize so they bolts wouldn't get seized in the pins. I actually happen to work at an autozone and the duralast brake pads are ... Meh.. I guess they would do fine in commuting. I would suggest them in your exact situation. Brake pads needed ASAP lol.

 

Whenever I replaced my rear brakes I just tightened about as hard as I could without going into "hands of god" mode. Once it got tight I just gave it a few more cranks. And the pads should perform to the effect of the OEM pads, no better no worse. Unless the pads are ceramic, which I am sure they are probably semi-metallic pads and not ceramic. I cant speak for the improvement with ceramic pads with oem rotors, but my ceramics with my drilled and slotted rotors all the way around do perform a tad better than OEM. Also, they have no noise when they are warmed up, and make almost no dust.

 

They are the ceramic pads.

 

Quite tight. I had a caliper retaining bolt fall out on me once (that was with it "hand tight)", forcing the caliper to swing up fromt he bracket itself and jamb against the barrel of the wheel while driving.

 

Ok, well I tightened it to the point where the bolt kind of clicked and then tightened down quite well. It was like it was the pins got pulled taught against the bolt and locked down. Hopefully when I go to do this next time it needs to be done the bolts not seized up in the pin...