im changing the pads on his car and i cant figure out the rear brake pistons. I just saw a thread showing that you have to screw them back in? and not compress them? I have the autozone tool here and i dont know which way to turn them in...clockwise or counter-clockwise. also, do i have to line anything up when im done with that? i read something about lining up the piston and the pad???

 

turn them clock wise, and just make sure the stubs are lined up with the groves on the psiton. Compress them all the way til they are flush with the rest of the inner caliper.

 

exactly..... but unfortunately, if the pistons seem overly difficult to be pressed or impossible to press, they might very well be seized. this happened to me not even a week ago while changing my rear pads. i got the same tool from autozone but when tryin to press the pistons, no matter how hard i tried, they wouldnt budge. the calipers on our cars are a big issue and always seem to get seized, especially the rear ones. just a heads up so u dont get stumped if the pistons dont move. good luck!

 

removing the cap of the master cylinder helps a bit too...

 

If you're doing the brakes anyways it's probably a good time to bleed them also open the bleeder screws this would make it easier to screw them in.

 

Thanks everyone. I ended up needing new calipers. I appreciate the help though.

 

Why? There should never be any pressure against the cap of the master cylinder resevoir unless it gets way too full and it starts to backflow..

On another note, now I think there might be a problem with my slave piston. I bled my brakes and the front part of the resevoir above the slave pistons ports didnt pump away the old fluid, which was visibly less clear than the new.

 

The rear brake caliper on my i30 seized up when i changed the pad. it was a pain. wasnt able to drive for 2days. But they did have over 100k miles on them. Very common problem