Major squeaks in rear after a $500 brake pad job

Hello folks, I need a piece of advice here.

My wife has a Maxima 99, now about 60k, no problems never, used to run like a charm, braking well, accelerating, you name it. After a minor fender scratch at 48k miles I decided to check wheel alignment, just in case, and a mechanic pointed to me that the brake pads are running low, on all four wheels. So, I decided to trust this job to professionals, for which they charged me $529.35. Unfortunately, my wife started to complain about ugly squeaks when braking in reverse, and the squeaking becomes louder and louder over time, so outside people would turn heads to it. Not good. Since the pads came with "lifetime warranty", I brought the car back to the repair garage, they kept it for 2 hours, and said that they fixed the problem. However, the squeaks re-appeared on the next day or so, and it's still squeaking, and getting worse every day.

I wondered around with co-workers, and they suggested that it is quite likely that the garage put in very cheap pads, that's the problem. So I decided to do the job myself - I've done it once on an old Infinity J30 (including rear crossmember and whole left wheel suspension BTW!). For the J30 I had not a single problem, caliper pistons moved freely back, new pads went in like a charm, and the J30 runs and brakes perfectly since then.

Unfortunately, that was not the case with Maxima. I found that I can't retract the piston back not a single millimeter! When I press the brake pedal, the piston goes out, but I can't depress it in no matter what I do! After looking on the web, I found that it looks like my pistons were cocked, and it was done at the professional garage (I found a charge for "caliper rebuild" in the invoice, why the heck would they do this?). I left the other wheel untouched, just in case that I might need a proof of that. According to Nissan Maxima Haynes Repair Manual, I should be able to depress the piston into the caliper before removing anything, using a C-clamp. I tried, gently,

it doesn't move at all, while there is a room of 2-3mm (the pads are pretty new).

So, the question: is there anything I can do to convince the garage to do the job right, re-build the pistons, preferably at their expense? Is there any way to deal with this? I am really pissed off, I hoped for a 2-hour exercise, but it turned out that I am now without brakes ...

Thanks, - Alex

Reply to
alexi
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To retract the pistons:

  1. Front Pistons - these you should be able to squeeze/compress back into the caliper using a C-clamp. Make sure you have opened the master cylinder reservior or the caliper bleeder first.

  1. Rear Pistons - these need to be turned NOT compressed into the calipers. I believe turning the pistons anti-clockwise will retract them into the caliper. You can either carefully use a needle nose plier (careful - means don't accidentally slip with the pliers and tear up the piston seal) to twist the piston back or you can rent/buy a tool that you can use with a ratchet to twist the piston back. Again make sure you have either the bleeder valve open or the cap off the master cylinder reservoir.

If you open any of the bleeders, make sure you purge any air out of the brake lines.

Cheers. Nirav

96 Max GLE 117k
Reply to
njmodi

You're correct except you turn them clockwise. Also make sure the notch in the piston ends up at 90 degrees to the rotor so the nub on the pad fits into the notch.

Reply to
Steve T

Steve T,

Thanks for the correction... it is indeed clockwise to retract the pistons. Also, good to mention the alignment of the notches for the pad nub fits...

Cheers. Nirav

96 Max GLE, 117k

Steve T wrote:

Reply to
njmodi

Thanks folks for your replies. It was quite an effort to retract rear pistons, but I managed it, thanks. Still don't understand why wouldn't they go straight... but anyway, I put in the Bendix brand pads, and ugly squeaks went away. Still they have some weak low "ooooooo" sound when braking backwards, but it is much better than after "professional" job.

Reply to
alexi

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