When installing my rear pads on my 94 sol, my haynes manual says to turn the piston clockwise until it bottoms out (or back it out some if the dust boot looks deformed). So i turned and turned but it didnt seem to go down and kept turning. When I try to put the caliper back over the pads and I line up the tab with the piston, I cant get the left side to go over the outer pad. Fit fine with my old pads but it seems like my new ones are too thick or something lol. I dunno maybe i'm an idiot . What am i doing wrong?


As you can see it's like a millimeter short of clearing it

 

It sounds like you're doing it right, the calipers just turn back very slowly. The first time I did my rears I thought it wasn't working either.

 

go to autozone or something and get a caliper piston tool, its basically a clamp that fits over the caliper and your turn the screw to depress the piston, or you can use an old pad and a c-clamp

 

What you need is a rear disk compress tool. It is a block and on each side is a diffrent set of nipples for diffrent vehicles. if you notice on the piston it has a line going vertical and horizontal. this tool will fit into that and then a 3\8" ratchet into that, it makes it so much easier. Just for future refrence any vehicle which has rear disc and uses the caliper as the emergency brake as well, has to be turned down. I have seen C-Clamps broken trying to just compress them and also seen broken calipers trying to do the same thing. but get the tool and save yourself some time.

 

last time i did that, my brakes were soooo soft. It took awhile (maybe a month) to get back to normal firmness. Was I suppose to bleed the brake fluid too?

 

Good practice is to loosen the bleed screw (with a hose into a bottle) so the piston pushes the old fluid out, not into the lines, as it can be rusty nasty stuff. also makes compressing the piston much easier. If the piston is flushwith the casting, that's as far as it goes. Maybe the pads you got are a tad fatter than norm. Rear civic pads/calipers are a pain in the @$$ at the best of times to work with. Did you loosen/disconnect the parking brake cable ?
If none of the above apply, you might want to considder popping the pistons out and inspecting for rust etc, don't install a kit, just buy rebuilt calipers, they are not expensive. Always a good idea to bleed out the old fluid after working of brakes, so get a quart and blow it through the whole system when you get it finished.
Another good tip is to use a quality 12 point socket on the bleeders to avoid damage if they are rusted in tight, a wrench may spin leaving you with a big problem,


Modified by itsmejto at 8:43 AM 6/22/2008