ProTip - Have front of car jack up and swing the wheel to the side you are working on so the caliper is facing out, then stick a big screw driver in there and pry against the rotor and pad and BOOM the piston goes back into the caliper, no tools needed ever. Rear brakes are different though most of the time.
did this today^^^^ this is really only a good idea if you have new rotors to put on, they get torn up when doing this. but it does make it easy to compress the piston back in.
I was going to say, I tried this once, and fubar'd my rotor something fierce. After that when I went to buy new rotors I bought the compression tool for like 10-15 bucks and never looked back. that little tool has paid for itself time and time again.
did this today^^^^ this is really only a good idea if you have new rotors to put on, they get torn up when doing this. but it does make it easy to compress the piston back in.
so today for money, lmao. i did front brakes and front hubs on a FORD explorer. working on this truck just makes me hate fords even more.
the caliper slider lives in the caliper bracket, and one was rusted solid, no wonder they squeaked....so i beat it free, cleaned it up best i could re greased it real good, installed it, told my friend to get a used bracket with 2 good sliders as this one is f'ed, that brake still squeaks when coming to a slow stop.
with any luck the howl is gone on the highway, if not its off to do the rear hubs
That's a common failure point on the exploders/mountaineers. Mom and dads was the same way. Napa had a loaded caliper with bracket cheaper than just a new bracket with sliders.
this one the rubber boot was missing on the slider that was sized up. im calling it a 10 dollar JY part at this point.
hes got a customer that gets him used parts real cheap and fast from lkq auto parts. he owns a dealership or some kinda car lot. so he gets the better price.
he got him a whole front clip for a sebring for $300, hood, bumper, bumper cover, fenders, headlights, rad support, new rad with fan, everything. even the plastic splash shields.
LKQ does good work...