I just got posting privileges, so I copied this from where I originally wrote it, in an inactive 4th Gen Brake Rotor thread.

Well, I just had a successful adventure with my 2002 SE's original rear brakes with 108K miles. I had to douse the rotors with WD-40 and spin them while banging the center hub and outer perimeter back and forth with two hammers, and gently pry on the back of the hub area. There were no threaded holes in the old rotors. Turns out, (no pun intended) that they were too thin to turn, so I went with new $56 each Bremdo's from O'Rieley. A nice match for the Hawk HPS pads ($71.00 from "Place for Brakes" online).

Three note worthy things:

1) The old rear pads had about 1/8" remaining, but they were almost fused to their clips. The sliding surfaces had a coating of hard black crud, probably burnt grease. I had to tap the pads out of the clips with a hammer. Once I chiseled the crud off, the clips were still shiny so I could grease and re-use them. I doubt that the pads were squeezing and releasing properly for a long time. In fact, one outer pad looked like it had stuck partially, and just leaned into the rotor crooked for a while, because part of the surface was worn extensively at a funny angle. Then the pad must have straightened itself out, because the rotor was rusty where the worn part of the pad no longer made contact. I've never seen anything like it before, but I intend to check for stuck pads, and re-grease them periodically in the future.

2) When turning the pistons in (more on that next), the rubber boots were stuck to the pistons and started to get all twisted and bound up. I had to carefully work a small screwdriver under the boot and slide it all the way around the piston to free it up.

3) It was hard as heck to turn the pistons in. I used the "free rental" deal at Autozone and got a caliper tool. Still, I couldn't budge them free-hand. I had to install the extra piece that came with the tool (involves driving a pin out and taking the tool apart). Then I could spin a nut on the tool and get it to wedge itself between the caliper frame and the piston which pushed the "protrusions" on the tool firmly into the "indentations" of the piston so they wouldn't slip. Then I had to halfway remount the caliper to hold it still, and use a pipe to help turn the tool. Is that normal guys? As a test, I put pieces of wood in front of the pistons to prevent them from blowing apart, then applied moderate pressure to the pedal and the pistons drove back out, so I think they are working OK. Yes? No?

How do those crazy things work anyway. Once the pads are installed, they can't spin, so they must push straight out, but they can't be pushed back in. They have to be turned in. I just can't quite picture what going on inside of them. If anyone has rebuilt one, and has a little time to explain it, I'd love to know.

 

I dunno about anyone else, but those colors are just too painful to even try to read that dissertation.

 

Agreed. Please change to default text.

 

orrr to read it, u could highlight the text

 

Which is what I did, but the OP should still change his font color.

 

Sorry about that. It looked fine when I pasted it in, but changed after I submitted it. Still learning! Hopefully I have the color fixed now.

 

Looks good - many thanks.

 

No, it's not normal at all to have to use a pipe for leverage to turn the pistons back in. they're seized up (or were).

I did see a good pictorial around somewhere about how calipers with integrated parking brakes work, I'll have to look around for it again.

 

Thanks for the reply. That's not what I hoped to hear but I figured mine were a tad stiff. This weekend I took the brakes apart on my other Max ('95 GLE..150K) to check, clean, and re-lub them. I found that both rear caliper dust boots were shot and the pistons were rusty. One rotor had advanced rust too, so it was off to Autozone. At least the pads were not stuck to the clips like the 2002.