Long story short, I've been hearing some brake noise for awhile, but because there were no performance issues I let it slide until I could make time to figure out how to replace them myself.

On my drive home from work, the inner pad fell off on my passenger side(didn't know it had happened, but obviously noticed the change in the brakes, i.e jerking/grinding/difficulty stopping.) I immediatly decided the brakes couldn't wait any longer.

One stop at the parts store and a dicey drive home, I got started on the brake job.

Two broken lug studs, three trips to the parts store and a lot of cursing later, I discovered this:


The lug stud issue(no clearance to put in the replacments) aside, how bad an issue is this piston? Will I need to replace the whole caliper?
Any help is very much appreciated.

 

I would suggest relplacing the caliper, but having said that, if money was tight, you could probably sneak by on that one for a while. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like its worn pretty straight. If it didn't wear straight, you might have issues from uneven pressure on the brake pad.

The lugnuts might actually end up being the bigger pain. I don't know about the 2000 accord, but on my 93 you have to take the whole knuckle appart. You basically need a big shop press, as I recall. I did it once (long ago), and it was really annoying. But yeah, really do NOT drive around with only 2 lugs on a 4 lug wheel!

 

lug studs are easy to replace. just remove the tire and rotate the wheel so the stud u r working on is facing front (nothing behind it) and hammer it out then install the new one. google it

for the caliper i would suggest getting one from the junkyard. the top looks like it took most of the damage and the bottom looks normal (unworn) cant possibly see how the brake pad fell off. sounds strange to me. u might/probably need new rotors aswell. make sure u torque ur new bolts to 80 ft-lbs to prevent breaking studs in the future and it makes removing them ALOT easier

 

Absolutely, yes. That piston is beyond reuse. Buy a new caliper.

For the lug studs, they aren't super easy to pound out, but with a 5 lb sledge and good aim they'll come loose. Ideally you'd remove the hub and press out the broken studs (and in the new replacements), but you can "pull" the new studs into position carefully, making sure each stud is perpendicular to the hub's face as it fully seats. You can use a lug nut and a few thick washers to pull each stud into position, but it's not going to be all that fun.

 

The only way I see that a pad could fall out is if you were running 28T brackets on a 23mm rotor and the pad was severely worn. Even then I don't see how it could completely fall out. Take a very close look at all the brake components. It may be best to pull the bracket and caliper from a salvage yard. Rotor as well. And check the other brake. What is bad on one is probably bad on the other.

 

even very worn brakes would sit in the bracket. the metal squeal tabs would eat ur rotor badly but they would stay in there. its a tight fit. and since its gone he would need new shims too

 

You must have had the wrong pads.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Ended up having to cut the head off the old studs, grind down one side of the head on the new ones, and grind down a patch on the hub to get them in.
Genuinely not sure how I lost a pad, but it wreaked havoc on the rotor and piston on that side, so I ended up having to replace the rotors as well.
I will replace the caliper as soon as time and money allow, but at the moment I can't afford it, so I'll just have to drive carefully.
Thanks for all the help! I know where to come with questions in the future.

 

Not to sound like an A$$, but you already saw what being cheap got you. Invest in a new/used caliper asap. Whether you have money or not. It's a shame someone would value their own life and others lives the cost of new pads. If you seriously can't afford simple maintenance on a 20 year old honda maybe you should consider selling the car investing in a bus pass.

I am a full time student at a university and last week I more than gladly shelled out the $70-80 to do the brake job (New front rotors and new pads all around) along with $3500 for school. If pads is all you needed it could have easily been a $30-40 job, but now you could have easily doubled or tripled that amount.

 

Hello I recently had the same exact problem on my 1990 HONDA ACCORD EX. My pad fell out on me while driving it was the inner pad. So what I did was replace the rotor pads and caliper after doing that within 48 hours the new caliper started seizing I found the problem to be the aftermarket brake pad clips caused all the problems I had including the pad falling out because it wasnt even worn down all the way I went and bought two oem clips for 7-8 bucks each now the caliper doesnt seize at all no problems with the brakes. When you install the new pads DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING IN make sure the low pad indicater is on the upper part of the inner pad. My mechanic had them facing down and I had a pad shift when going from drive to reverse that too caused my caliper to seize so be sure to install them according to the diagram. Since you are on a budget just try putting the pads on according to the diagram if that still causes problems well ether way you should actually replace that caliper I myself bought the caliper Prpboys with a discount I can help you find discounts on everything you need if you would like. For the lug nut studs I recently had to replace mine too use a harbor freight ball joint remover pops them right out.

 

thats why its best to do things ur self. better no mechanic than a bad mechanic. even if u break something u know whats broken instead of running into mysterious problems later

nice tip on the lug stud ill try it

 

Here is the link to the ball joint seperator http://m.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-forged-ball-joint-separator-99849.html. Yes definitely my mechanic didnt know what to say when I called him out on his faults but I did receive a partial refund. He's done great work on some of my cars in the past over the years but I just don't think he knows brakes as he kept trying to get me to throw new parts at it like brake lines master cylinder I just went into it myself to figure out the real problem UG it pissed me off a bit to find the work wasnt even done right.

 

Clips or no clips I still don't see how a pad can fall out.