It's been about 6~7 years since I last had to replace the rear brake pads. I remember them being a pain, but not this bad. I don't think I'm that mechanically inept....

So, seems simple enough. Take off wheel. Remove the lower caliper bolt. Disconnect the ebrake cable (took some time to figure this out) Flip the caliper up and remove the old pads. Well, here's the first problem. The brake piston has a groove down the middle and it gets stuck on the little round **** on the back of the brake pad. With a bit of muscle I was finally able to get it up. Opened the master cylinder reservoir cap. Pushed the piston back in with 6" c clamp (takes a lot of effort). Put on the pads. put caliper back on. Installed right side, not too bad, fronts much easier.

Left side, big problem.... got up to the point of pushing the brake piston back in.... it just won't budget after a certain point.... I'm about 4mm from where i need it to be..... it takes so much force.... so much that the C-clamp screw shaft and metal bar are bent I gave up after 11PM... home depot was closed.....

what am I doing wrong here? Do I need to bleed some brake fluid out? Any recommendation for a better c-clamp (I was using a homedepot brand) or do I need to get a brake piston compressor?

please help.....

Thanks.

 

you are compressing the piston incorrectly.

go to the parts store, like AutoZone for example, and buy the special tool used to compress the rear brake caliper piston. It's a square tool with different configurations on it's ends. You put that tool onto a 3/8" drive extension/ratchet and turn the piston back into the caliper.

the tool looks like this...

 

Oh, so it screws back in?

 

yep

 

geez... no wonder. I just about broke my hand trying to turn the c-clamp..... I wonder how the other side went back in....

 

I'm not sure how or why the other side went back in, I've never taken a rear caliper apart to see how it works.

 

finished in 15 minutes...... sheesh.... things go a lot better when you've got the right tools! Thanks touring accord.

I think on the right side, I had the c-clamp down so hard that it was actually turning the piston back in.

All is well!