Rear CX-5 brakes dragging

[Scanman73]

2017 Touring. So I changed the rear pads/rotors and I stupidly rotated the caliper piston in an attempt to retract it mostly because it looks like it should be twisted in… I eventually figured it out and put the EPB in maintenance mode for the driver side. Anyway, the side that I rotated the caliper piston is now dragging. What did I break and what needs replacing?
Thank you,
Andy

 

[Anchorman]

I can’t get at my files as I’m in Florida at the moment but the caliper adjustment works by taking up backlash in the threads as the clearance increases. If you turn the piston you strain the threads which are the main components. Have you priced up a replacement caliper?

 

[Scanman73]

Thank you for the reply. I can’t even find one for sale, is this a dealer-only part? I may have to find a used if it’s broken.

I could definitely feel/hear the gears moving when I turned the piston and they seemed to turn without any grinding or roughness.

 

[Anchorman]

That’s what I’m saying, have you priced one from the dealer? It might be the same as buying some tires or an exhaust but it is your brakes after all. I’m a mechanic by trade and 17 years specifically in the brake industry (which is where my handle comes from) and my instinct would be pull it apart and put it back together but I don’t know your level of competency to suggest you do it. You may have just misaligned something but you may have strained the thread which is causing the drag. The instructions for pulling it apart may well be on the Mazda tech gateway site but I’m not home for a couple of weeks so I can’t access it. Put it this way, faced with the same situation, my view would be, either pull it apart and investigate or buy new but keep in mind, there will be a surcharge for the old one so it will have to look presentable if you do give in to buying a new one. Of course you can get one from a salvage yard but they are handed and they were modified to reduce the risk of brake drag. I run the U.K. Facebook site (I’m Don) and I think I’ve got the TSB telling you how to make sure the one you get is post modification. I’ll see if I can find a link or just join up and there is an extensive files section in there.

 

[Anchorman]

Try opening this. You can see the mechanism in the drawings and more importantly the date stamp needs higher than 697 to be of the modified type. By the way, the caliper carried over to the second generation KF model despite the TSB saying KE.

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[erhayes]

Can't we make it even more complicated that the simple Pull-up-a-lever -to-set-the brake?

 

[Scanman73]

Thank you Don! I’m pretty handy (if you ignore the twisting the caliper piston) I will give taking it apart a try and call the dealer for a price quote. And thanks for the advice to keep the old one looking presentable, I ran into that issue pulling a antilock brake module off an old F-150.
Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Scanman73]

I agree about the cable system.

 

[Anchorman]

Can't we make it even more complicated that the simple Pull-up-a-lever -to-set-the brake?

Haha, good point but globally every year people get hurt or worse by runaway cars and these systems let little granny Clampet set the handbrake just as well as Jethro. A funny story on the same subject, over here in Europe, French manufacturer Citroen produced a car called a Xantia (Zantia). It had parking on the front discs by a complicated cable system. They had problems on the cross channel ferries because if they parked a Xantia on the upper deck ramp, they often came back to find it embedded in the roof of the car below. As the parking brake cooled, the pads contracted and let the car go. How did they solve zee probleem? They removed the bottom six teeth of the handbrake ratchet so the operator had to really haul on the lever to even get it to engage!!!