Changing rear pads - rear piston decompression

[Splink]

I am about to change my rear pads.

Now I have not done the rear ones yet, the front ones were quite easy to change.

I have a question about the piston which compresses the caliper to fit the new pads in. Can i simply push the piston back in so I can fit the caliper around the new pads by using a c clamp or something similar? Or is it a threaded piston, so I need to twist and apply perssure to decomress it?

I need to prepare some time to do the pads - I dont want to spend an hour trying to make enough room on the inside of the caliper so it will fit around the pads.

 

[dan the man]

I swapped mine last weekend. They were solid and with clamps will be hard. Luckily ive got a caliper tool that makes it easy to force back the piston to get the new thicker pads in.

Not so dear and can be picked up from most places like halfords etc..

 

[martin200]

I have not yet touched the brakes on the DC5 (one of the only things I have not p!ssed around with, to be honest)

However...if its like all previous Hondas I have worked on, you will find that the Piston needs to be screwed back in...

Undo the bleed nipple and using a largish screwdriver, wind the piston in. It should have a criss-cross on the top of the piston to aid this.

On a DC5, where the brakes are relatively new, you should be able to easily wind the piston in, on older cars you find they can be a bit stiff due to crap getting into the piston.

Make sure you wind it in so that the criss-crosses are horizonal/vertical with respect to how they would look once bolted onto the brake carrier, two of the brake pads will probably have nipples on the rear so that they can be located beside the piston correctly. The pads without the nipples fit into the outward facing part of the carrier / brake disc.

Don't forget to nip up the bleed nipple before reassembling the brakes. An alternative to messing around with the bleed nipple (and less messy) is to undo the cap on the brake master cylinder in the engine bay, so that when you push the piston in, the fluid is pushed back up through the brake pipes and into the brake master cylinder reservoir. Not ideal as you run the risk of forcing crud from the brake lines into the ABS pump...well thats what I have been told, may be a wives tail, but could be possible, especially if the dust shields on the brake cylinders have been damaged.

Hope this helps. If the DC5 uses screw-type pistons, simply using a G-Clamp will be a lot of hassle as it will restrict the rotation of the piston as you wind it in. If the piston is not a wind-in type, a G-Clamp will make it really easy, especially with the bleed nipple undone!

Martin

 

[C&S Evo7]

As per martin but don't loosen the bleed nipple,you will probably end up having to bleed the brakes if you are not super careful. just remove the fluid res cap instead.
- wind the caliper back clockwise and make sure the pegs on the pads line up with the piston, easiest way is to buy a tool £20 from halfords makes the job a doddle.

 

[dan the man]

Yeah as above, make sure u locate the little studs on the brake pads into the piston lines.

 

[Jayk]

pay someone £20 to do it

 

[Splink]

yer i thought it might be a thread and push job. I am going to pick up one of those things from halfords, i think i have seen them for about 20 quid for a set of the things.

Should be a fun saturday morning when i do it

 

[Wootty]

I use a large very blunt wood chisel to act like a large screwdriver :lol:

 

[Splink]

This was a breeze really. You either need a massive screwdriver to slot into the cross on the piston to turn it, or a small screwdriver, and put the arm of the screwdriver in the piston cross to turn it.

One problem I had was getting the brake line off, in the respect that you have to unscrew the line to physically remove the caliper, and if you do this, there is a chance of leaking brake fluid out of the hose. So you can get a one way hose end for the brake line to make sure no fluid leaks from the line.

The other issue is, pushing the piston back in on the caliper - as there is still brake fluid in the piston - when you push it out, fluid leaks from the caliper, so you must take care doing this.

All in all though, takes about 40mins - 1 hour to do.

 

[C&S Evo7]

you DO NOT need to remove the brake pipe/line when fitting rear pads,
the caliper will come off easily as long as the handbrake is down and the bolt on the cable bracket is removed.

removing the cap on the fluid res allows the fluid to return to the res when you wind the caliper back.


If you have removed the hose and any fluid is present you must rebleed your rear brakes as even a tiny bit of air in the system can cause issues.

 

[dan the man]

yeah handbrake off and release it from the clip thingy to move the caliper away. undo the two bolts too i found

 

[martin200]

Even better, if you have difficulties working with brakes, just get a garage to do it, its not worth losing your (and others) life due to brake failure...