Iam changing my rear brake pads and now stock because I cant push the piston back in. Tried with c clamp still no luck.pls help

 

The piston has to be rotated and turned into the caliper, not simply pressed in. There are tools available that make this much easier. Avoid putting any tension on the e-brake cable when turning the piston. If the piston is seized, you'll need to replace the caliper, obviously.

 

You have to buy the Tool that pushes them in.

The rear needs to be PUSHED and TURNED at the same time. You, being a 5th gen your probably fine and there not Frozen like alot of us 4th gens. If frozen they need to be replaced.

Try a Needle Noze Pliars and if that doesnt work you need the tool..its sold everyone and goes on a socket.

Oh yea, remember to open up the master cylinder cap so the fluid has somewhere to go

-matt

 

make sure you crack the bleeder screw so the fluid has a very shot path to travel. Also so you do not force the fluid that may be dirty back into the abs unit....can damage it. When you are pushing back the piston you must turn it clockwise with the correct tool or needle nose plyers. Hope this helps

 

DONT crack the Bleeder screw....you will have to bleed your brake system after you finish with putting the pads on...if your gonna do that, might as well take them off and do in on the bench, and replace all your fluid

-matt

 

Just buy the little rear caliper tool. Be careful not to rip the boot around the piston. I shot some lubricant on the boot first just so the piston wouldn't grap the boot and twist it.

I bought the tool @ a local auto parts store for like $8.00.

 

wouldnt it be better to take the time to bleed the brakes then to replace the abs unit? you also dont have to replace all the fluid. You only have the bleeder open for the 2 sec that is takes to push back the piston. The only time I would run the risk of not opening the bleeder screws is if they are very rusted and you might break them.....

 

Wait a second -- you're saying that the rear brake pistons have to be TWISTED while you're pushing them back into position?!

I've NEVER heard this before either.

Is the rear piston differently shaped than the front piston? Is there some kind of groove or indentation that makes this possible with the compression tool.
I'll be changing my pads on the rear tomorrow.
I hope this will be self-explanatory once I take apart the rear calipers.

Thanks for pointing this out...good to know.

gr

 

Yea the rears dont "dip" in...there not Hollow. The pistons are solid with 4 grooves on the face of it for the tool to fit in. Youll see

-matt

 

They do have to be twisted, and it is real fun trying to keep the boot from spinning along with them.

 

Cool.
I'll just shut my big yapper, and dig-in tomorrow!!

gr

 

Lord help you if your piston is siezed, it will still turn slightly and will be a huge SOB to twist by hand

 

go to autozone and rent the tool from them that has all the "keys" for rear calipers, and call it a day, it will save you a lot of time...i just did mine about two weeks ago...

 

Rent??? It will cost less than $10 to own the little bugger.

 

Don't all (most) nissans need that tool?

 

If you rent it, you pay a deposit to use the tool, then they give your money back when you return the tool. It comes out to equal... FREE. At least, that's what they do at my local auto parts store.

As for the question at hand, the other guys are right. It took me a minute to figure it out, but you have to twist the rear pistons as you push them in, unlike the front ones, which just push in.

 

yeah rent as in its free. autozone is on the way so why not?? maybe later if i change out my brakes a lot....but that 10 bucks is nice lunch money after a nice brake change

 

Thx a lot, great help!!!

 

Ok - I swapped-out my OEM pads on the rear today with Hawk HPS's, and kept the OEM rotors in place, as they looked fine.
OEM pads still had 50+% left on 'em....it was almost a shame to toss 'em.

Due to the piston "push and twist", I found this to be the hardest part of the whole operation....other than getting my torque wrench behind the hub assembly!

Frankly, I don't see how anyone could do the "push and twist" thing without the proper tool, and NOT wreck the seal around the piston?? It was hard enough WITH the tool!

Two things I noticed that I've never heard mentioned, and might be helpful to those changing their own rears:

1) Their are FOUR SLOTS in the piston face -- you MUST have these slots aligned horizontially and vertically with the caliper to fit the little bead on the back of the brake pad, as this bead will literally SIT in one of the SLOTS on the piston face to hold the pad in place. This was not the case in the front.
It's hard to explain, but once you get there, you'll know what I mean, and I didn't take a picture -- it was dark.

2) When sliding the assembled caliper and pads back onto the rotor, you have do this BEFORE fully mounting the rotor back on the studs. Sort-of, maneuvering the rotor into the caliper/pads rather than the other way around (unlike the fronts).

Common sense stuff, but I thought I'd mention......

Other than that, it was smooth, and THIS time I didn't bend the dust shields!!
Drove it around the hood, and all seems well - for a change!

I'll post back on how they feel and work in a few hundred miles or so.

gr