How to change brake pads and rotors on Honda Ridgeline

"Loosen" lug nuts (not loose, just started) before lifting tires off the ground.

Use jack stands, not jacks, to securely hold the truck up.

Behind the tire is the rotor and caliper.

There are two 12mm bolts that hold the caliper to a mounting bracket.

Remove the caliper bolts and move the caliper out of the way. 

Brake shoe pads slide right out. My truck has 107,000 and still some good brake pad material left on them -- because it is the rear brakes. The front ones will be much worse.

There are shims above and below the brake pads. Keep those, you need them.

Remove two 17mm bolts to remove caliper bracket.

Find the impact driver that your brother gave you for Christmas many years ago. It's important to use your ball-peen hammer if you have one -- the poor lonely ball-peen never gets used any other time.

Pound the end of the driver and the screw will begin to turn out.

Remove the rubber plug. You will need to use it in the new rotor.

The rotor comes off fairly easy, but in the rear the emergency brake is inside the rotor and may bind to make the rotor difficult to remove. I had to whack it with a rubber mallet on the emergency brake area and around the edged to get it to loosen enough to come off.

The new rotor slides on over the lug bolts. Remember to put the rubber plug into the new rotor.

Replace the caliper bracket and brake shoe shims.

Apply brake lubrication on the top and bottom edges where the shoes touch the shims.

I put a socket into the piston to make it easier to compress it with a C-clamp. I also loosened the brake master cylinder cover before compressing the caliper piston.

Replace the caliper and secure with two 12mm bolts. Then you are ready to replace the wheel/tire.

Doing the brake job myself saved me a couple hundred dollars (I ordered the parts on Amazon) and gave me a great opportunity to try something new and to enjoy my truck.

How to Change a Starter in a Honda Ridgeline 2007

Weirdly, the starter in my 2007 Ridgeline recently burned out -- literally! The starter motor became less and less responsive over two weeks until eventually it stopped working altogether, emitting smoke and that tell-tale "electrical" odor. I had trouble finding a replacement because it was so new, but eventually found a local shop to rebuild it. The following are the steps I followed to remove and replace the starter.

REMOVE COWLING. Use a screwdriver -- it's easy to figure out how to remove and replace the big black-plastic cowlings, and you'll have much more room to work after they are outta the way.

MOVE TOP RADIATOR HOSE. You could work around the hose, but I found it helpful to get it outta the way. Make sure you have a container handy to catch the small amount of coolant that is likely to drain out.

DISCONNECT ELECTRICAL WIRES. Disconnect battery terminals (10mm). Disconnect starter (12mm).

The selenoid switch connection is worth a mention here. It is very easy to disconnect, as it just pulls off. Later, when it is time to reconnect it, it is a little trickier as it will be impossible to visualize the connection due to its placement. Consequently, it is easy to miss the connection. I found that I had slid the connector on top of the tab, within the housing, causing there to be an inconsistent connection. I was perplexed for a week as the starter worked sometimes and not others. I was relieved to discover my mistake, and the correction was not difficult. It was a little bit tricky, though, getting the connector ON the tab instead of BY the tab.

REMOVE RETAINING BOLTS. There are two bolts that hold the starter to the engine block (14mm). They are not too hard to locate and remove using a socket wrench with an extension. Once the starter is loose, there is plenty of room to extract it with a little twisting and rotating.

ODDS AND ENDS. There is a metal gasket (below, left) between the starter and the engine block that will come off with the starter. It might bend a little bit during the extraction, but will easily bend back. You will want to keep track of that gasket. Also, the starter electrical wire is attached to the bracket pictured below (right). The connector snaps on, and there is a tab to move to release the connection. It is not hard, but it has to be done blind because of the location.

REVERSE THE PROCESS. Putting the new or rebuilt starter back in is probably going to be faster than taking it out. Reverse the procedures for removing the starter, remembering to snap the connector back onto the end of the bracket, as pictured above (it helps to keep the starter wiring harness in place). There is also a little metal bracket that supports a different wiring harness altogether that is secured by the bolt retaining bolt. You will see it when you remove the starter -- don't forget to put that bottom bolt back through that little metal bracket again, although if you DO forget to do that it is likely not a big deal. Remember to reconnect the electricity last. In my truck, and presumably all Ridgelines, I had to enter the code for my radio to get it to work again. The code was found on a credit-card sized card that came with the vehicle (they probably all end up at the bottom of the center storage compartment).

I spent about two hours of actual labor. I like getting to know my car better with little jobs like this, and love not paying hundreds of dollars to somebody else to do what I can accomplish myself.