Well today my bro and I attempted to fix my brake problem. The problem was my pads were shot and they made that horrible squeaking noise. I couldnt take it anymore so we decided to swap the pads and rotors from my parts car. They are in good shape.

After we finished my brakes are not working to well and the pedle(sp?) goes to the floor. What did we do wrong?

When we were working on the right side, we had to compress the caliper piston to allow it to go back on with the "new" pads. Well before we compressed it, I pushed on the brakes a couple of times and the piston came out. Brake fluid also started to drip out It wasnt dripping from the hose. I probably f'd it up right there... Why did it start leaking? While we did each side the brake resivior lid was left open for a little bit. Other than that we did everything normally. We also put in new bearings and seals.

Please help me figure out what I did wrong This is my daily driver so I need it fixed asap. Thanks.

 

You probably pushed the piston out of the bore when you pushed the brake pedal and fluid seeped out past the O'ring on the piston. When this happened, you probably drew air into the system and it needs a good bleeding. Hopefully you didn't damage the O'ring on the piston when you pushed it back in. If you did, bleeding the system won't do any good. You will have to replace that O'ring or the calipher and I think it is cheaper to get the calipher.

 

ok I will check the O ring out. Bleeding the brakes isnt to hard right? Obviously im new to this If it turns out to be the caliper I always got the one of my parts car.

 

Yeah, the bleeding part isn't too hard. Just extremely messy. When you bleed the brakes, bleed them is this order. Right rear....left rear....right front....left front and check the fluid in the reservoir after each one.

 

How do I tell if the O ring is damaged? You are always there when I need help Glad to see they made you a mod...

 

If it is damaged enough it will be leaking fluid there. The only way to physically check it is to pull the piston out and look at it.

 

dang, looks like I might as well replace the caliper then. What is the correct way to compress the piston so next time I dont mess it up? I did it by using a brake pad and using a c-clamp.

 

You can buy a special tool for compressing it, The method you used with the "C" clamp is fine for compressing the piston. I always use a "C" clamp without the brake pad and it seems to compress the piston a little more.

 

You probably didnt damage the seal when you pushed the piston back in. It was when you hit the brakes without the pads in. The piston can come out to far and hit a rough part of the bore. That tears the seal. Same holds true for the wheel cylinders on drums.

 

and on older cars, the master cyl too... stuff can accumulate where the pistons dont normally travel (the very end of the stroke, bottoming it out)... so when you have them off, or are bleeding the brakes, you can tear them up too.

 

so do you guys think I should just replace that caliper with the one of my parts car and then bleed the brakes? It seems like if the seal is damaged, it would be a waste to bleed the brakes.

 

If the seals damaged you will see brake fluid leak out when you peel back the boot.

 

I paied 26.00 for both front calipers for my camaro with core. Lifetime warranty too from autozone.