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$660 rear brake job

vailskier3

vailskier3

just call me john-o
so i decided to try to change my rear brakes by myself last monday. i have done a few different vehicles with some friends and thought i would be fine. that was my first mistake. i was only able to get one of the calipers off of the rotor, and when i attempted to push the piston back in to get the brake pads installed, i could not get it to budge. I had a 6" clamp that i bought at autozone in order to do this task. it would not turn. I actually bent the arm that you turn to tighten the clamp. I figured something was wrong. So, I decided to put the caliper back on without the brake pads, and have it towed to the local shop. I called the tow truck, and the guy said he had to move my car. I warned him that there were no brake pads on the vehicle in the rear. I was very hesitant, and asked if it would be ok and he said, "it should be fine". so he backed up my car, and put it on the truck. a few hours later, i got a call from the shop stating that i was going to have to buy 2 new calipers because apparently, when the guy hit the brakes, it blew the piston off of the caliper. thus, he said he could get them at cheapest, $220 a piece. with labor and all...$660 oh, and i forgot to mention, i payed the guy $60 to tow my car so that i could get raped. thanks a lot dickhead.
 


Shouldnt have mattered, but you are supposed to crack open the bleeder when you push the pistons back in, to get all the crap out of the calipers. Pinch the line with correct tool and bleed out the caliper. But... i have no idea why it would not push back in.
 


did you push the brakes when the caliper was off? it took me about 2 hours of work but i managed to put the piston back in on my friend's tiburon. Also i totally understand, getting those rear calipers of was a PITA!!!! I had to hold a blowtorch to one of the bolts to heat it up and get it out. Then had to heat it up again to get a new bolt in. I replaced the bolts with ones with bigger heads so the next time i need to get it off it won't be as terrible.
 
i always just open the brake fluid reservoir cap. i also compress the piston with it still attached to the rotors and all. not sure if gm started doing this on newer cars but on fords you had to turn the rear caliper pistons with a special tool while compressing it in order to get it in.
 
No our rear calipers do not have the internal parking brake so you dont turn the piston. Yes the proper way to do it is to crack the bleeder, pinch off the brake line and let the old fluid run out the bleeder. You dont want to push the old nasty crap that settles in the caliper back into the system.
 


I havent had any issues with my fords or gm cars but i did a full brake system for my sisters mazda protige(sp) and that job sucked i didnt know about the allen screw behind the piston that releases it was using my c clamp and triing my brake caliper press it was all bad tilli started playing with it and found that screw


thats weird that they would have froze up like that though
 
wickedintent79 said:
I havent had any issues with my fords or gm cars but i did a full brake system for my sisters mazda protige(sp) and that job sucked i didnt know about the allen screw behind the piston that releases it was using my c clamp and triing my brake caliper press it was all bad tilli started playing with it and found that screw
thats weird that they would have froze up like that though
Click to expand...

Agreed x2

Had the same style allen screw on my 01 Miata... found it while painting the calipers red, fortunately avoiding having to go thru these problems with trying to force them in. Planning to do the same to my GTP this spring... red calipers are sexy... but this is scaring me... mine is a 99 and im worried about being able to push it in with my tools, dont want to break either :th_nervous:
 


well, i will be sure to buy that for next time. i think i'm going to be doing my front brakes myself. or maybe i should just learn my lesson and let the *******s work on my car. (no offense, i just hate it when other people touch my car)
 
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