Hawk Performance Brake Pad Ceramic Front Set Mustang V6/GT 2005-2014

We all love adding horsepower to our Mustangs, but all too often, the braking system gets overlooked. While stock Mustang brakes can get the job done, a simple pad and rotor upgrade can make a huge impact on braking performance.

Today, we are going to upgrade the brakes on our 2006 Mustang using parts from Hawk Performance and Power Slot. For our installation, we chose the Hawk HPS High Performance Street Pads. HPS uses a unique ferro carbon material to provide 20-40% more stopping power. It works great both hot and cold. It's also going to keep brake dust at a minimum.

For rotors, we're going with vented replacement rotors from Power Slot for both the front and the rear. All Power Slots rotors feature this exclusive vacu-slot design, which will evacuate gases and dust, as well as shedding heat. They also work to channel out water in wet conditions for superior stopping power. All the rotors come with these fully machined hats, which are also e-coated for protection against corrosion.

For this installation, you need a lift or a jack and jack stands, 3/8-inch ratchet, 12 millimeter socket, 13 millimeter socket, 15 millimeter socket, brake caliper piston tool, small pick, and a large set of pliers.

The first step is to get your car off the ground and pull the wheels off. Next, we need to remove the two bolts that hold the caliper to the caliper bracket. Once you remove the two bolts, carefully slide off our caliper. Once you remove the pads, you can rest the caliper out of the way on the control arm and remove the additional two retainers off the caliper bracket. Now we're going to remove the two bolts that hold the caliper bracket to the axle. It's going to be a little tighter than the caliper bolts are. Once that bolt comes out, the bracket will come right off.

Now we can remove our rotor. In some cases, you might find a little retaining washer on it holding the rotor in place, if not, slide it right off. We're going to slide on our new Power Slot Rotor. Be careful with the rotors, they are labeled, so they are side-specific. We want that little sticker off. Once we have the rotor on, we can now reinstall our caliper bracket.

Now we have to press the piston back into the caliper to be able to put our new pads on. Unfortunately, you can see at some point in time, somebody pressed it back in and didn't lubricate it. It had a small tear in the boot, but it should be okay. That should be good enough. With the piston pressed in, we'll reinstall the lower retainer here and we're ready to install our pads. We're going to put the pads in place and we're ready to reinstall our caliper. Make sure everything is nice and straight. Now we're going to reinstall our caliper bolts.

That completes the installation of our rear rotors and pads. I'm going to duplicate the process on the other side, now we're going to move to the front. We're going to start with the caliper bolts. We're going to rest the caliper on the lower control arm, you don't want to let it hang by the hose. It can damage the hose. Now we're going to pull off the caliper brackets. We're ready to remove our rotor. In this case, we do have a washer on it. The washer should thread off, but sometimes it can be a pain to get off. Start with a small screwdriver to get it started. Once it's off, we can remove our rotor.

We're ready to install our new Power Slot rotor. Again, they are side-specific, make sure you get the correct side and we'll reinstall our retaining washer. Now we're going to remove the old pads from our brackets and install the new ones. Pull it upward and twist to remove. Then do the other side. Now we've got to push the pistons in before we can put them back on the car. Grab an old brake pad, line it up against the pistons, get a good-sized set of pliers, squeeze them back in. Now we're ready to reinstall our loaded bracket. Now we're ready to reinstall our caliper.

Once everything's tight, we're ready to reinstall our wheel. Once we get it back down on the ground, you want to torque them to the proper spec. Not only is our pad and rotor upgrade going to increase our braking power by over 20%, it will look great behind the wheels, too. Figure on about two hours to do the front and back, you'll be back on the road in no time.