ok so when i pull my e-brake lever only my rear wheel (drivers side) holds. So i jacked up my car took the wheel off the opposite side to take a look. I found out that its a cylender that controls the E-brake and when i pull the E-brake the cylinder only comes out a little bit, barely touching the brake pad to hold the wheel from spining. I tried tapping the cylinder with a hammer and adding some WD-40 to loosen it up but i got nothing. Any other ideas or ways to free the cylinder? thanks

 

a new caliper maybe?

 

is that my only option

 

Probably.......or get a kit and rebuild it. But IMO its not worth it because remanufactured calipers are pretty inexpensive.

 

bleed it

 

got to advance auto, get their master disk brake kit loaner tool. The rear pistons screw in and out of the caliper, you should be able to screw the pistion out slightly, so that it will touch the pad. Just make sure that one of the grooves on the piston lines up with the metal dot on the back of the pad.

 

do both brakes work when braking?

 

thanks a lot people, and screwing the piston out worked perfectly!! i placed it where it would just touch the pad and lined it up. now it works perfectly ahh what a relief!! now i can park on a hill without the car rollng away

 

sounds like you fixed the simptom but not the root cause, make sure whatever caused the cylinder from coming out in the first place is fixed otherwise it might wear your pads improperly or not brake evenly, that might be very bad if you have to make an emergency stop at highway speeds in not so ideal weather conditions.

 

yea i see where your coming from and while it was jacked up the wheel spins freely then we i hit the e brake it stops, i drove it around for a while pressing the brakes hard and it seems stable. i guess ill just have to see as time goes by.

 

i was told the older maximas are infomous for the e-brake seizing up on the calipers...what bout the 5th gens???

 

I would agree with this for rotors and pads. But if he replaces just the caliper, he doesnt necessarily have to do both.



The brakes are supposed to be self adjusting, so if you needed to unscrew the piston for it to make proper contact, something is binding up in the caliper.