Sir Edward V

So me and my friends were working on our cars today, and we decided to find out why my emergency brake wasn't working. My emergency brake hasn't worked properly for years and I never really cared enough to look into it or get it fixed. After checking some things, we determined that my emergency brake didn't work because my rear calipers had seized. It seams the calipers had rusted itself in place. I can't believe I never realized this... I always thought my brakes worked really well too, lol. So we went to autozone to get new calipers and rotors, since those were all rusted out as well, and I am sure they have never been replaced on my car anyways (90,000 miles).

I have a 1998 V6 BTW.

After we took the wheels off, and started to work on it, we ran into problems where the e-brake wire clips on to the caliper. We just COULD NOT get it out for the life of us. Anything we look up says it should just slide out, but we wouldn't make it budge at all.

That is my first problem. I need advice for how to get that out... I am considering just buying new e-brake wires at $20 per side (of course, we haven't taken a look at the other side yet...)

The other problem is that we tried putting the new caliper on, and we couldn't get a seal on the banjo bolt. It just continued to leak... I'm pretty sure we installed everything correctly... we had two new washers, one on each side of the brake line, and tightened it to the correct torque... I have no idea how we're going to fix this, but I have to work tomorrow, and my friends are going to take another look at it.

I might have to take it to a shop...

Any advice is appreciated. I am not a car expert, but my two friends have a lot of experience between them. I'm sure anyone at a shop knows more than them, but they have both done their own brakes a few times, as well as many other things including entire engine rebuilds...

Thanks,

Nathan

ayrton02

Well... I can take the rear rotors and calipers out and back on in 45 minutes now because I've had mine apart so many times. I don't know about the banjo bolt, I've never disconnected the rear brake lines. BUT... the e-brake cable, I just release the e-brake (obviously) and take a pair of channel-loc's or vise grips and pull them and take them out. I get the c-clip off with a little screwdriver and put it back on with needle nose pliers. It's pretty smooth for me though (only takes about 5 minutes tops). My only suggestion would be to soak it with a ****load of liquid wrench for about 10 minutes and then have a go at it.

Sir Edward V

Well, thanks for the advice, though it's a little late now. We had another go at it today when I got off of work. We started with the other side, hoping it was easier to do so we could get some motivation to have another go at the first side.

We got the ebrake off easier, but the bolts that held the caliper on broke in half when we tried to take them off. That's right... both broke. So we just said "**** it" and put the wheel back on (no ebrake cable attached now or spring on either side) went to the other side, and re-installed the old caliper and rotor, which we got a decent seal on that brake line. And luckily we got my brakes in temporary working condition, tested the brakes, and drove it to an auto repair shop.

So now it will be their problem. I will gladly pay them to take care of this for me... everything was waaaay too rusted out for us to do anything productive.