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Hi there, i have a little nagging issue here that am hoping you guys will solve for me.

I noticed brake fluid leaking from the right rear side of my 1991 honda civic si. (drum). The nut at the end of the brake line , which screws into the wheel cylinder is badly rounded up. I have tried using vise grips and wd40 and this thing won't budge. How am i surpose to get it out? cuting the brake line will be a last and costly alternative which am not quite willing to partake yet.


Just to clarify, only an open end wrench will slide onto the nut. This is why i can't use an extractor on the the nut because the ones i knw of are all boxed/rounded like a socket.

 
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Brake lines shouldn't be very expensive. You're probably better off replacing the lines and wheel cylinders on a car of that age because they're corroded anyhow. In the future, to reduce the likelihood of rounding off the flare nut, use a flare nut wrench.

 
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try use a plumber wrench

 
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I had the same issue this morning while working on my sons car. One of the wheel cylinder mounting bolts was seized and rounded. Specifically, on the right rear brake assembly the mounting bolt on the right side of the wheel cylinder. I believe the initial poster wanted to convey an access issue to this bolt head. The bearing surface (flange) of the bolt head contacts the backing plate. The shoulders of the bolt head can only be reached with an open end wrench. The open end wrench cannot turn the rounded bolt head. THIS BOLT HEAD CANNOT BE ACCESSED WITH A SOCKET OR CLOSED END WRENCH BECAUSE THE SPINDLE KNUCKLE IS IN THE WAY.

You may want to skip this next step. I loosened this bolt by drilling an indent into the bolt head shoulder. I then took and old chisel / drift and placed its tip in the indent. I then took a hammer and struck the chisel and by extension rotated the bolt. I was able to unscrew the bolt. A WORD OF CAUTION. Even if you get this rounded bolt loose the spindle knucle will prevent its removal. You will want to install a new unrounded bolt. To remove the loosened mounting bolt I found the easiest solution was to remove the four bolts securing the backing plate. The backing plate can be rotated with these four bolts removed.

You may want to proceed by loosening the backing plate and then using an impact bolt remover or a pair of vice grips to extract the wheel cylinder mounting bolt. With the backing plate disconnected and swinging freely, I am not sure how easily the bolt can be torked? I will let someone else provide this information. Good luck

 
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Thanks for posting this. I picked up a project 2004 Civic and needed to replace the pass rear wheel cylinder. There's is no space to remove one of the bolts. Way too close to the knuckle. I'm surprised there isn't more info on this or a video. You have to remove the four bolts holding the backplate to get the wheel cylinder off for years before 2005. In later years it looks like they addressed this. It's a bigger pain if you have ABS and a stuck wheel sensor, cause that needs to be removed to be able to fully swing the backplate for more space.

 
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Do I have to remove the brake shoes in order to remove the backing plate? Or can I just move the wheel sensor out? And is it just 4 bolts ?

Thanks for your reply in advance I have been struggling to get this wheel cylinder off for 12 hrs now ;(

 
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I found out there is no need to take off the wheel sensor. you have to remove all the braking components, like the springs and shoes to get to the four bolts. I placed a compact socket wrench on each bolt and hit the wrench handle with a hammer to loosen it (or use an extension to have more leverage) then I used a combination wrench to take out the bolt the rest of the way since there's not much space there.

once the short bolts are off, you can turn and wiggle the back plate enough to get to the wheel cylinder bolts. Mine were rusted and rounded, and with no room, i used a multi-tool to cut off the bolt closets to the knukle. pita!

 
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you actually don't have to remove anything other than the drum to get those 4 backer plate bolts out. not on my 02 civic DX anyways. there are holes in the hub that will fit a 3/8drive 14mm socket. just rotate the hub around to line them up. they cam out pretty easy on mine with a standard 3/8 ratchet. no real over the top effort considering it's probably the first time they have ever been out in 20+years. i'll be attempting the plate rotation to get the wheel cylinder off in the next day of two. today was enough of a s**t show after blowing a line and cracking the fitting on the cylinder.