rear brake piston!! Arrgh

[offtheline]

Ok here is my predicament. The person that owned my car last obviously did not take care of the brake system. When the fluid is low, rather than replacing the pads, he/she just added fluid.

Now, the brake pads are super thin.

So today I change the front brake pads and then change the left rear pads. You see, because the brake pads are so much thicker now, the fluid way past the max line. Now I am stuck on the right rear pads. The piston is really just not going in at all. We have been working on twisting it clockwise for a really long time now (don't have the mechanics tool) and it still isn't in far enough to fit over the shims and pads. Could there be too much pressure in the lines somehow? Is there anything I can try to make it work better?

Its just super frustrating because it really is going much much slower than the other side. And my friend had to leave so now Im stuck with it by myself.

[Touchdown038]

Did you take off the master cylinder cap?

Or you could try cracking the bleeder valve while you push it in, if you have some extra brake fluid handy.

Oh and you might wanna get the piston tool. It makes it so much faster.

[offtheline]

yup the cap is off.

I guess I might try opening the valve a bit. I have some extra fluid so that shouldn't be a problem.

If I had known how handy the piston tool was, I definitely would have gotten it. However, everyone on the boards said that pliers do the trick just fine.

[offtheline]

It turns out I was using channel locks because i didn't have any beefy needle nose pliers. I really didn't think that would be a problem because I could still turn the piston with the channel locks.

The main problem was that I didn't realize you had to push as you turn... which channel locks couldn't do. I thought it was more of a screw type thing. So anyways, I used a little expander and finished the job in about 5 minutes. Man, sometimes the little things really get ya.