Promotion!

[Brentbba]

I'm self promoting myself from a 1/2 to a full 1 (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best) after Sunday.

Saved my son about $200 doing front brake pads and oil on his Scion TC. The discount from our favorite parts manager CDAN helped as usual.

Scion pads are even easier to change than our LC's. That starts with the weight of the wheel!!! One bolt and the piston portion of the caliper swings away exposing the pads. Pop out, pop back in, compress the piston - done!

DAMN I love this site. Confidence garnered here with the likes of Mo, Boyd and Dave, to mention our locals, has been awesome. Eric thanks you for saving him the $$$.

 

[boydmick]

Wait just one minute!

How can you promote your wrenching ability in the very same post that you explain how easy it was to do the job???!!!

Are you saying that you deserve because you figured out that the job was easy -or- was it because you had the guts to even attempt brakes and then found out it was so easy

Baby steps grasshopper; baby steps.

 

[SOCALFJ]

Yeah, a SCION... that's like go-cart Tech.. that doesn't count towards banana capability Bent!

 

[e9999]

check them caliper bolts!

 

[cmjrfan8]

You didn't have the rotors turned?

Or is that unneccesary on a go cart?

 

[Brentbba]

because you had the guts to even attempt brakes and then found out it was so easy

Baby steps grasshopper; baby steps.

Because I had the guts. You know me better than that. Anything mechanical, I gotta have my hand held the first time thru.

Yeah, a SCION... that's like go-cart Tech..

See comment above Dave.


Oh - Eric - one caliper bolt to remove and it only gets hand tightened at the end. No 90 ft/lbs like the LC caliper bolts!

I AIN'T no fliping mechanic!

 

[lacruiser]

Pop out, pop back in, compress the piston - done!

You did loosen the bleeder screw when you pushed in that piston, didn't you?

 

[Brentbba]

You did loosen the bleeder screw when you pushed in that piston, didn't you?

Very careful with placement of that C-clamp!

 

[Giulitto]

You did loosen the bleeder screw when you pushed in that piston, didn't you?

Why do you have to loosen the bleeder screw when you push the piston in? Me and Ulyses just did his brakes this weekend with out doing that, actually that is how I always do my calipers. What is the reasoning?

 

[Brentbba]

You do have to watch the brake fluid reservoir when you compress your pistons to make sure you don't overflow.

Son's brake pads were SO LOW, there was literally no crease in the middle of the pads left! He wasn't down to metal yet, but he was DAMN close!

 

[lacruiser]

Why do you have to loosen the bleeder screw when you push the piston in? Me and Ulyses just did his brakes this weekend with out doing that, actually that is how I always do my calipers. What is the reasoning?

The proper practice is to loosen the bleed screw on the calipers/cylinders when compressing the pistons back in, because you do not want that old dirty rusty fluid that's inside there to go back up inside the master cylinder, and you REALLY don't want that old dirty rusty fluid to go back up inside your ABS pump, if you have one. Believe me. BTDT, it once cost me almost $2K on a BMW because of that little omission. Expensive lesson.

The crud that builds up inside the caliper can damage the seals inside the ABS pump and inside the master cylinder. As you probably know, brake fluid is hygroscopic, so the moisture will rust the inside of the caliper and those rust particles get suspended in the fluid when it's disturbed (by piston compression). And they end up in the M/C or ABS pump.

If you just did this a couple of days ago, you may still be able to minimize any potential damage by bleeding the system tomorrow. If you've got an ABS pump, I'd do this asap.


Another little thing that a lot of folks do: when bleeding the system, they'll pump the brake pedal to the floor. BAD. This allows the piston inside the M/C to go into "uncharted territory". IOW, it will push the piston and seal into a part of the cylinder that never sees contact with those parts, and therefore is usually not particularly clean. This can cause premature failure of the M/C. So when you bleed your brakes and you're pumping the pedal to build pressure, try your hardest to not go past where the brake pedal would go when you were doing a hard brake stop. IOW, at least several inches off the floor.

Don't feel too bad, there are some "professional" mechanics out there who haven't gotten the message yet. They still do it the old-fashioned way.

 

[Giulitto]

The proper practice is to loosen the bleed screw on the calipers/cylinders when compressing the pistons back in, because you do not want that old dirty rusty fluid that's inside there to go back up inside the master cylinder, and you REALLY don't want that old dirty rusty fluid to go back up inside your ABS pump, if you have one. Believe me. BTDT, it once cost me almost $2K on a BMW because of that little omission. Expensive lesson.

The crud that builds up inside the caliper can damage the seals inside the ABS pump and inside the master cylinder. As you probably know, brake fluid is hygroscopic, so the moisture will rust the inside of the caliper and those rust particles get suspended in the fluid when it's disturbed (by piston compression). And they end up in the M/C or ABS pump.

If you just did this a couple of days ago, you may still be able to minimize any potential damage by bleeding the system tomorrow. If you've got an ABS pump, I'd do this asap.


Another little thing that a lot of folks do: when bleeding the system, they'll pump the brake pedal to the floor. BAD. This allows the piston inside the M/C to go into "uncharted territory". IOW, it will push the piston and seal into a part of the cylinder that never sees contact with those parts, and therefore is usually not particularly clean. This can cause premature failure of the M/C. So when you bleed your brakes and you're pumping the pedal to build pressure, try your hardest to not go past where the brake pedal would go when you were doing a hard brake stop. IOW, at least several inches off the floor.

Don't feel too bad, there are some "professional" mechanics out there who haven't gotten the message yet. They still do it the old-fashioned way.

Thanks for the info! I will definately not do this anymore. With that in mind, would bleeding the brakes prior to compressing the cylinder help with this issue? Sorry for the hijack I say 1 for having the guts!

 

[lacruiser]

Thanks for the info! I will definately not do this anymore. With that in mind, would bleeding the brakes prior to compressing the cylinder help with this issue? Sorry for the hijack I say 1 for having the guts!

Well, I always include a brake bleed anytime I change pads. What I do is crack open the bleed screws on all 4 corners, and let the system drain. Then I remove calipers, compress pistons (which expels still more fluid) and install new pads and tighten everything up. then I pour in new fluid at the top and when I see fluid start seeping out the bleed screws, close them off. Then I do a bleed sequence on the entire system, until only fresh fluid and zero bubbles come out.

If you do this every pad change, you'll probably not have a M/C go bad on you, or caliper either, assuming dust seals stay intact. Most calipers leak from corrosion damage and gunk that builds up inside due to moisture.

Dana