JohnnyBxo

I can't seem to find any DIYs on rear caliper rebuilds for Honda Civic EX 2007. Any tips or tricks for working with the e-brake? Any modifications from the front caliper rebuild that need to be taken into consideration for rear. I have a sticking rear caliper at the moment.

Any and all advice welcomed and appreciated! Thanks in advance!

ezone

The piston should come out straight but to reinstall it needs to twist in the same as retracting during a rear brake job. You should see once it's apart.

At the shop we do not rebuild them. Too much liability if one fails. Replace only.

JohnnyBxo

Ah, thanks for the reply, ezone. May be this is why I can't find any DIYs about doing this. Sounds to me you would recommend replacing rather than rebuilding. I know you can't tell me to rebuild because of the same liability concerns.

The pads were wore down evenly inside and outside, but only on the rearside passenger side. I suspected caliper pins (I did end up replacing those with the pads), but when I saw the difficulty in screwing the piston back into the caliper, I suspected the caliper needed rebuilding.

What are the chances that it's the flexible hose feeding the caliper? My Civic has 130k on it so far.

RIPSAW

Be absolutely clean. I assume your rear has the cross slot that screws out for the hand brake. Do one at a time to blow piston carefully with hydraulic pressure but slowly with spacers in there and wrapped with rag. If any rust, start over with a new OEM caliper (ouch but aftermarket may be more trouble then you save) I rebuilt my fronts on the CRV. My problem turned out to be be cast defects in the rotors. They measure within .0015 (not MM) and ran within .002 but they kept getting a shudder at low speed. Would clean them and it would go away but come back. Finally new China rotor castings fixed it. Shimming the caliper fwd/aft clip shim .010 took away the click that you normally here coming from reverse. I have rebuild a lot of calipers going way back. Had to sleeve my 46 truck master. If your caliper is really stuck or tight, I would get another. Probably rust.

ezone

I'm just telling what we do in our shop.

You are free to rebuild your own if you wish as you won't have to deal with anyone but yourself if something goes awry.

Slim IMO. Hoses aren't a regular problem I see.... Certainly not like some other manufacturers' issues I have seen repeatedly in the past.

^This^

I still have a wheel cylinder hone....just in case. I wonder if anyone still sells stones for it? LOL
I bought new wheel cylinders for my truck a couple years ago. I didn't even inquire about rubber kits for them.
Did you try resurfacing the rotors? I know there can be issues with uneven friction material buildup on the surfaces of the rotor causing similar slip/stick effect.
THAT'S old school right there! I wonder how far I'd have to travel to find anyone that could do this in a machine shop?

brags

I wouldn't bother with getting old calipers rebuilt. Your better off
getting a quality well built remanufactured set from Cardone these will
be the last set of calipers You will ever put on any car. there that good.!

https://www.cardone.com/products/bra...emium-calipers

RIPSAW

Before we confuse anyone, a caliper cannot be honed. The square seal (similar to and o-ring square fits in the cast iron body and the piston moves out on it.) If the groove is pitted, the body is done. By the time you replace the piston and repair kit, not worth the trouble. I do not trust overhauled ones other than what I do.

The Honda service manual said to machine rotor on car. Dealer wanted more to do this then new aftermarket rotors and I would not ask him to share fixes. At the time, the service manual said they need to be so close, I figured the local NAPA could get them that close and I could not really understand what my problem was since they measure OK. After looking and measuring them, I went this way. So far so good but I did have to go in an shim since the AutoZone Gold pads had .020 clearance and clicked when they repositioned in the stops from reverse to fwd.

The master on a 46 Chevy is the last year that it is under the floor and a simple almost wheel cylinder looking body. Mine was worn .030. I found a source for the cast iron sleeve and machine the body. Rather than press fit it, I o-ringed the OD of the sleeve. I have a small lathe and mill in my son's garage. My granddaughter in the shop working on a small 22LR conversion posing for me without any protective gear..so no fussing. The lathe is very visible to the side.

Wheel cylinders and master cylinders are hardly worth the risk on modern cars. They have to have the glaze broke if you expect them to seal on new rubber and it's just about impossible to measure a dual master cylinder.

JohnnyBxo

Hello folks,

An update to this weekends activities. The rebuild kit was $5 bucks and I thought this would be a great learning process. It turns out that the dust cover had a small crack/tear in it and the piston chamber was full of junk. The piston was still in great shape (no pitting or rust), so I torn down the caliper, cleaned all the junk out, applied new gaskets and rebuilt it. Piston was twisting in smooth as butter. I will tell you what though, getting that piston into the dust cover was a test in patience and personal sanity. 7/10 would do the rebuild again.

I appreciate everyone's help here! I'm thankful for everyone taking the time to respond and offer great pointers and useful advice.

ezone

LOL

Bikergofast

Haha preach it!
New 2015 owner here, and I also wonder what kind of annual brake maintenance I can do when I'm changing to summer/winter tires to keep things free and operational. I know that calipers can seize, do you guys remove and clean parts once a year to just be sure nothing is rusted together? I can do basic service but I hate working on rusty cars!
Is there a good DIY on this topic?

ezone

You probably wouldn't need anything for the first couple years....?

What I constantly see here (on older stuff) is rust buildup on the caliper bracket, under the end clips..
This causes the pads to seize up and not move.
Rears seem to do it long before the fronts.

A close second is the slide pins getting stuck and the grease drying out.

During a brake job, I grind, wire wheel, and clean, then apply silicone grease to the bare cast iron and pins.

Freshly disassembled rear bracket, you can see the rust where the clip was:

Mad Dog Tannen

They didn't even make rebuild kits for my Volvo. I am good at rebuilding them too! Here are the ones I did on my Goldwing...



If you see a torn dust seal, replace it. Contamination of the fluid is the worst enemy of any hydraulic system!