Solution for stuck calipers
Hey, thanks for the awesome guide. I just finished doing the job on my wife's protege5, and I found something that could be useful to all of the people who can't get the caliper back over the rotor.
So the problem, as indicated, is a stuck caliper. There are two pins that hold the outside of the caliper on - one that has the bolt head under the plastic cap, and the other which is hidden. The second one seems to have a huge tendency to rust in place - our car had both of the rear calipers frozen this way.
However, this should *not * result in buying a new caliper. This problem is actually pretty easy to fix - it took me five-ten minutes, and I'm not particularly handy with car parts. You don't need to buy a new rubber piece, and you definitely shouldn't need a torch.
What you need to do is simply pull the two pieces apart, clean off the rust, lube it up, and put it back together. Under normal functions, the bolt that you can remove is the only thing holding the two halves of the caliper together - you can pull them apart with your hands, and they should slide freely. So you can beat on them all you want to get them apart and you shouldn't break anything.
Remove the caliper assembly from the vehicle completely.
Try to twist the two caliper parts relative to each other. On a good caliper, they should twist freely, allowing you easy access to install the pads. If they don't twist at all (likely if you are having this problem) just hit them with a rubber mallet until they start to move, then muscle them back and forth, back and forth until you've broken the rust sealing it together and it will spin around easily. At this point, you *should* be able to pull the two pieces apart, exposing the pin.
In my case, most of the pin was actually pretty clean, it just had a small ring of rust preventing it from moving.
Remove the rubber covering from that hole. You should be able to pry it gently off with a screwdriver or pocket knife, being careful not to damage it. You can get them cheap at a parts store, but there's no need to make a trip if it isn't already broken.
Then take the whole thing inside and clean it out. Wash out the inside of the gasket and dry it well. Use a wire brush or some fine steel wool and maybe some light oil to clean the rust off of the pin and the hole where it resides. Then wipe/blow them out as well as you can - you want there to be no water, residue, oil, or especially rust specs left to rub and wear on the parts. My rust came off pretty easily, and I blew it out with a can of compressed air.
Then take some good grease (the stuff everyone's been recommending you use to lube the parts - if this has been done better at your easily service intervals you wouldn't have this problem to begin with) and grease the pins, then put it all back together the way it came apart.
Congratulations, you've just rebuilt your caliper. It should work fine for years to come. The two pieces should now move smoothly against each other, and you should be able to push them close enough together to be able to install your brakes perfectly.
I hope this is useful for everyone who had the same problem as me. I wasted a whole day worrying that I had the wrong size of brake pads, and then once I came on here and saw what the problem was, that I'd have to either buy new calipers or take it to a shop with a press to be able to get them apart. In the end, at least with my level of corrosion it was all fixable with a rubber mallet and some steel wool. Good luck.
Hey, thanks for the awesome guide. I just finished doing the job on my wife's protege5, and I found something that could be useful to all of the people who can't get the caliper back over the rotor.
So the problem, as indicated, is a stuck caliper. There are two pins that hold the outside of the caliper on - one that has the bolt head under the plastic cap, and the other which is hidden. The second one seems to have a huge tendency to rust in place - our car had both of the rear calipers frozen this way.
However, this should *not * result in buying a new caliper. This problem is actually pretty easy to fix - it took me five-ten minutes, and I'm not particularly handy with car parts. You don't need to buy a new rubber piece, and you definitely shouldn't need a torch.
What you need to do is simply pull the two pieces apart, clean off the rust, lube it up, and put it back together. Under normal functions, the bolt that you can remove is the only thing holding the two halves of the caliper together - you can pull them apart with your hands, and they should slide freely. So you can beat on them all you want to get them apart and you shouldn't break anything.
Remove the caliper assembly from the vehicle completely.
Try to twist the two caliper parts relative to each other. On a good caliper, they should twist freely, allowing you easy access to install the pads. If they don't twist at all (likely if you are having this problem) just hit them with a rubber mallet until they start to move, then muscle them back and forth, back and forth until you've broken the rust sealing it together and it will spin around easily. At this point, you *should* be able to pull the two pieces apart, exposing the pin.
In my case, most of the pin was actually pretty clean, it just had a small ring of rust preventing it from moving.
Remove the rubber covering from that hole. You should be able to pry it gently off with a screwdriver or pocket knife, being careful not to damage it. You can get them cheap at a parts store, but there's no need to make a trip if it isn't already broken.
Then take the whole thing inside and clean it out. Wash out the inside of the gasket and dry it well. Use a wire brush or some fine steel wool and maybe some light oil to clean the rust off of the pin and the hole where it resides. Then wipe/blow them out as well as you can - you want there to be no water, residue, oil, or especially rust specs left to rub and wear on the parts. My rust came off pretty easily, and I blew it out with a can of compressed air.
Then take some good grease (the stuff everyone's been recommending you use to lube the parts - if this has been done better at your easily service intervals you wouldn't have this problem to begin with) and grease the pins, then put it all back together the way it came apart.
Congratulations, you've just rebuilt your caliper. It should work fine for years to come. The two pieces should now move smoothly against each other, and you should be able to push them close enough together to be able to install your brakes perfectly.
I hope this is useful for everyone who had the same problem as me. I wasted a whole day worrying that I had the wrong size of brake pads, and then once I came on here and saw what the problem was, that I'd have to either buy new calipers or take it to a shop with a press to be able to get them apart. In the end, at least with my level of corrosion it was all fixable with a rubber mallet and some steel wool. Good luck.
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