Hot take: The way we handle brake jobs has flipped in the last five years

I just finished a brake job on a 2019 Silverado, and it hit me how different the process is now. Five years back, the standard move was to slap on new pads and rotors, maybe turn the old rotors if they were thick enough, and call it a day. Now, with so many trucks and SUVs having electronic parking brakes, you have to put the vehicle into service mode with a scan tool before you even pull a wheel. I had a job last week where I forgot that step on a Ford Explorer and spent an hour fighting a caliper piston that wouldn't budge. The old way was mostly mechanical skill, but now you need to know the software side too. It feels like the job went from being about pure wrenching to half wrenching, half computer work. Has anyone else noticed this shift, and what scan tool are you using for these service modes?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_owens19d ago

Totally feel you on that. My Autel scanner has been a lifesaver for getting into those service modes. What scan tool are you running these days?

rose_craig9719d ago

My old Launch tool bricked itself last Tuesday.

pats8919d ago

Oh man, that's rough. Which Launch model was it? I've heard some of the older ones can have update issues that totally lock them up.