I tried changing the brake pads on my 2017 civic, I was able to replace the front ones easily without a problem but the rear one gave me so much trouble. I broke/cracked the driver side e brake actuator. I’ll tell you what I did in order and how it happened. So first I take off the rear tire on the driver side, remove the 2 dust caps, remove the Allen key caliper bolts, remove the black plastic cover on the actuator, turn the motor clockwise all the way until it couldn’t turn anymore, used a brake pad spreader to compress the piston on the caliper, install the black plastic cover on the actuator, put on new brake pads. And right here I was having trouble having the caliper fit on. It wasn’t fitting on I put brake lube on the back of the brake pad hoping it could slide in it did not. I was wondering what I did wrong then I look at the piston it wasn’t fully compressed it popped out a little. So I repeated the process again and I noticed every time I screw on the black plastic cover on the actuator its piston decompresses. So I used the brake pad spreader to hold it to make sure it stayed compressed while I screwed on the plastic cover and, right as soon as I got the feeling this doesn’t seem right the plastic on the actuator cracked and the bolt broke. I am going to take my car to dealership tomorrow hoping it’s not going to be too expensive but knowing the dealership it will cost me a couple hundred bucks I know it. But I am genuinely confused on why the caliper piston wasn’t staying compressed and kept decompressing, what was I doing wrong? I did everything I seen on a couple YouTube videos and it worked for them.

 

Will my parking brake actuator still work fine? Should I just glue it or tape it to secure it? It’s just cracked. For right now because I do want to replace it but will it work fine if it’s cracked while I wait for a new one to come in. I don’t think I will go to the dealer they will over charge me for sure.