Just wanted to see how many of the members here have successfully rebuild their rear calipers on the 5th gen. Last night I was replacing my rear struts I did noticed that my driver side caliper is locked up. I took it apart and I noticed that the dust rubber boot has popped off and everything behind it is completely rusted… I do have an extra set of rear calipers sitting around in the garage but before I swap those I want to rebuild them… does Nissan have a rebuild kit that they sell?
How easy was for those who rebuild their calipers? I have rebuild many front calipers, but never got my hands dirty with rear calipers… I know that the piston needs to be unscrewed from the body but that’s where my knowledge ends…

 

Rebuilt mine last fall. It's pretty easy...just tedious. Took me about three hours to do both sides. All you do is unscrew the piston all the way out. You don't even need to take any other moving parts off of the caliper (or at least I didn't). Clean off the rust good, make sure the piston isn't too pitted (so that it maintains a proper seal) and reassemble.

There are two rubber seals that go bad that need to be replaced, usually. The outer one that you saw that was popped off, and an inner one that sits about 1/8" below the edge of the piston cylinder.

Nissan, AFAIK, has a rebuild kit, but it isn't cheap. Shop around. I found an OE-spec aftermarket rebuild kit that came with all the lockrings and rubber boots for around $30. Can't remember the company off the top of my head.

 

thanks Brett, so basically it is the same procedure as it is to the front, but I don't have to use the compressor to pop the cylinder out, just unscrew the piston. I was worried about the entire mess on the back of the caliper about the hand brake mechanist... but I do believe that the one on the car right now is too far gone the amount of rust on the piston is just too much to create a proper seal if pushed back in...

 

No, but if you do go the rebuild route, renting a caliper tool from Autozone would help you immensely. It saved me the frustration and bloody knuckles of trying to unscrew the seized caliper with a set of vice grips.

As far as the parking brake mechanism, it's only held onto the caliper by a simple clip (you'll see it if you get under the car). Once the caliper is unhooked from the mounts, the parking brake cable can be unhooked pretty easily.

 

"isn't too pitted"? Here in the great white north (PA), both of my rear calipers' pistons are rusted to the point of almost being unrecognizable! I replaced one caliper (reman from Advance, $72? with brackets and all hardware) just after I bought the car... because the parking brake wouldn't work. The other will be done in the next couple of weeks because the bottom slide is rusted in place, the pads a worn cockeyed, and the piston and seal are completely shot. I want to get it done, and replace the pads, so I can go into the lesser-maintenance season without any worries about them!

I'd hate to see what they'd look like if my car hadn't spent its first four years in sunny California!!

Den
2001 AE 5-speed

 

well about 10,000 miles ago when I replaced the rear brakes the calipers seems ok, I did use the Autozone tool to press those back in... I mean the store is literally located at the end of my alley basically a 30second walk from my garage ...
The reason why I was asking about the hand brake mechanism is simply if I had to rebuild something on it or not... I can see that the line does literally just pop out from the caliper once you have it off the bracket...