Car folk, caliper question help.

[Freakie_frog]

as long as you are careful and don't draw any air into the system you shouldn't have to bleed the brakes

[littleindiangirl]

as long as you are careful and don't draw any air into the system you shouldn't have to bleed the brakes

LOL, and there's the sticker. careful.

[Neal]

When changing a caliper, you're going to have to bleed the brakes, you're going to get air in there, just make sure you know what you're doing.

Just because it's hard to push a piston back in doesn't mean the caliper needs to be changed. Not all vehicles require the piston to be pushed back in with a C-Clamp(which can be purchased at autozone) Some of the newer fords, require you rotate the piston to get it back in, some are clock wise, some are counter clock-wise, refer to the manual.

I work on cars almost everyday, as I have my own drag car, and I fix several of my friends.

[Freakie_frog]

When changing a caliper, you're going to have to bleed the brakes, you're going to get air in there, just make sure you know what you're doing.

Just because it's hard to push a piston back in doesn't mean the caliper needs to be changed. Not all vehicles require the piston to be pushed back in with a C-Clamp(which can be purchased at autozone) Some of the newer fords, require you rotate the piston to get it back in, some are clock wise, some are counter clock-wise, refer to the manual.

I work on cars almost everyday, as I have my own drag car, and I fix several of my friends.

Correct if yours has to be rotated back in you'll need an ABS wrench. Its this little cube thing that fits a socket and basically screws the piston back in

[littleindiangirl]

Just because it's hard to push a piston back in doesn't mean the caliper needs to be changed. Not all vehicles require the piston to be pushed back in with a C-Clamp(which can be purchased at autozone) Some of the newer fords, require you rotate the piston to get it back in, some are clock wise, some are counter clock-wise, refer to the manual.

LOL, I'd appreciate it if people gave me a little bit of credit.

This thread was not a "I think it's time to grease/change the caliper, because I don't know how to push a piston in" thing, it was me remembering that the last time I changed my brakes, it was more than a little difficult to push the piston back in with the C-clamp, and it hasn't been that hard in the past.

[2kdime]

Is it froze up Connie? I've had calipers freeze up on me. But I've never had one that didn't give when I used a big ol c-clamp. I've never even heard of lubricating or greasing a caliper.

[scales owner]

It's hard to push the piston back in. I'm not referencing when I push on the pedal.

If you haven't you need to pop the master cylynder top when you push them in. If it id not poped then air gets trapped and makes it hard to push them back in. Hope this helps.

[littleindiangirl]

Is it froze up Connie? I've had calipers freeze up on me. But I've never had one that didn't give when I used a big ol c-clamp. I've never even heard of lubricating or greasing a caliper.

This is what I mean when I say grease.
http://www.lukekailburn.com/caliperrebuild.html

It wasn't froze, just was extra difficult to push in.

[littleindiangirl]

If you haven't you need to pop the master cylynder top when you push them in. If it id not poped then air gets trapped and makes it hard to push them back in. Hope this helps.

Popping a master cylinder? No clue.

[orphan]

The rear caliper piston usually turns clockwise to push back in. The reason it's only on the rears is that it is a self adjusting caliper that keeps the brake pads close to the rotor so the e-brake works like it's supposed to. Some cars have an drumbrake style e-brake on the rear as well as rotors and calipers for normal braking. In that case, the pistons shouldn't need to be turned in to compress them.

*you may want to remove a little brake fluid from the reservoir before compressing the calipers. You can do this by drilling a tiny hole in the top of an empty water bottle. Compress the water bottle stick the end with the hole in it into the reservoir and release the water bottle so it sucks up some of the fluid.

*Buy a one man brake bleeder from your local auto parts store. It shouldn't be more than $7. It's basically a hose going into a bottle with a magnet on the bottle. Follow the directions in the kit and you should be fine. You put a little fluid in the bottle, attach the hose to the bleed valve, hang the bottle above the the caliper, crack the bleeder open, pump brakes until the bottle needs to be emptied or you get the fresh fluid coming through. Make sure to close the bleeder before emptying the bottle but also make sure to leave a bit of fluid in the bottle.

*when bleeding the brakes, start at the end farthest away from the master cylinder and work towards it (rear passenger, rear driver, front passenger, front driver). The first caliper will take the longest to get fresh fluid to it for obvious reasons.

Those are the basics