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To clarify, YES, you need to use that stupid autozone tool on the rear calipers to compress them in the cylinder. I had about as much success with it as with needlenose on the drivers side, but it went much better on the passenger side. Front calipers the ol' c-clamp works fine. The rears are harder than the fronts, so I recommend starting with them first. I didnt have any special tools to disconnect the ebrake line. Just used needle nose to disconnect them. Whenever I do brakes, I get about 1/3 of the fluid out of the master cylinder before I start and leave the cap either off or just loosely covering the reservoir to prevent dust and dirt going in. As I compress the pistons, I'll periodically check the fluid level to make sure it's not overflowing or anything like that. An old school mechanic told me once that in a perfectly operating brake system, you never have to add fluid. The level will stay the same because as the pads wear down, the calipers adjust accordingly, dropping the reservoir level the same amount. Once the pistons are fully seated, the reservoir should be full and require no additional fluid. Well, he's probably theoretically right, but air gets introduced into the system and if you bleed brakes like I do (turn the screw while assistant pushes pedal) then obviously some needs replaced. Hope this helps.
Great write up. I recently installed new powerstop slotted and drilled rotors and brake pads on my 2005 Mustang GT. I did get the caliper tool set from Advanced Auto Parts and it was extremely easy to push the piston back in.
I did run into one problem where the rubber part got caught up and was twisting inside it. I simply pumped the brakes a few times to push the piston back out, and started over again with no problem.
I did run into one problem where the rubber part got caught up and was twisting inside it. I simply pumped the brakes a few times to push the piston back out, and started over again with no problem.
I've found that a SMALL squirt of WD-40 on the dust seal allows the piston to be turned by the tool without it catching and getting all twisted.
What the heck is the guy talking about in the second post?
"Just a word of advice..when looking behind the front calipers, there are two small bolts going into a rubber sleve. dont touch them!
You want to look a little lower for the larger bolts."
Is he talking about the slide pin bolts? This post kinda ****ed me up cause I tried to change pads by removing the caliper bracket. Which is almost impossible. Anyways, thanks for messing with my head. I wish I wouldn't have looked at this thread before I worked on my car.
What the heck is the guy talking about in the second post?
"Just a word of advice..when looking behind the front calipers, there are two small bolts going into a rubber sleve. dont touch them!
You want to look a little lower for the larger bolts."
Is he talking about the slide pin bolts? This post kinda ****ed me up cause I tried to change pads by removing the caliper bracket. Which is almost impossible. Anyways, thanks for messing with my head. I wish I wouldn't have looked at this thread before I worked on my car.
haha sorry i was 17 when i wrote that. just a high school auto shop kid, Im now certified and am a full time mechanic specializing in european cars.
those bolts i was talking about, if i remember correctly were the caliper slide bolts, and the jacka$$ who did the brakes before me cross threaded the hell out of them so i had to buy new slides. my teacher at the time said to leave those bolts in in future and just remove the whole caliper bracket with the pads in it and replace them that way. its more frustrating. Now i always remove the two caliper slide bolts. i have never seen a cross threaded caliper slide bolt other than the one on my 05 v6.
again, sorry for the confusion.
I had the new guy work on my front brakes today and when he was done, I went to close the master cylinder cap... turned out he didn't open the cap when he compressed the front calipers for the new pads. He's been doing brake jobs for a while and says there's no need to open up the cap (??), though I always have.
Car brakes fine. I hope he didn't mess anything up!!!
Good chance he's right ...... IF no brake fluid was ever added since the last set of pads were first installed, likely his method would then just push old fluid back to "about full".
I do have to open mine and even go so far as to draw some fluid out with my Mighty Vac because I add fluid every once in a while through the life of the pads.
I usually just vac all I can out, squeeze both the calipers to allow for new pads, and vac some more.
Then before I apply the brake pedal after changing to the new pads .... I add back fresh new fluid instead. Then I slowly depress pedal a few times and top off fluid again and so on until the new pads are tight against rotors.
It's still a poor idea, as you will push dirty fluid into the ABS HCU and the dirtiest fluid in the system will still be down in your calipers as soon as you take up the pad to rotor clearance needed to install the new pads. As somebody who tracks their car, just the thought of doing that makes me cringe. That you can generally get away with such a sloppy practice for street driving is no excuse.
Your new guy needs to start reading Brake & Front End magazine.
Guys, brake fluid is cheap. You don't have to use the $20/half liter stuff that I do, but you should be using the fluid with the highest wet boiling point that you can find.
Brake fluid with, on average, a few hundred street miles plus a couple hundred or so track miles shown below. Maybe a month total in service. I would not expect the fluid at the calipers to be in much better condition after several years of street duty.
10-20-2015, 10:20 AM
