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Rear brake rebuild on '95 Maxima

This is my first brake job on this car (41,000 miles). Rotating the piston to drive it back into the caliper was a real struggle with the tool ... and probably impossible with needle-nose pliers as shown in the manual. Very hard to turn. Is this typical?

I moved it enough to clear the new pads and allow reassembly, but I'm wondering whether I oughta proceed. Do I need to tear down and rebuild the caliper first? Is this a DIY job or would I be better off with rebuilt unit?

Incidently, when I disassembled the brake, I found that both pads had separated from their backing plates. These were the original Nissan (bonded) pads. I have Nissan pads to replace them and they're also bonded. I kinda with they were rivetted.

Roby

Reply to
Roby
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The pistons move in easily if you crack the bleeder screw as your pushing.

Reply to
JimV

I normally do my own front pads, but had a dealer do my rear pads because my parking cable got stuck in the dead of winter at a time when I had no garage. But that was after nearly 100,000 mi. If your rear brakes wore out in only 41k, it is quite possible that your parking brake cable also needs to be replaced. It tends to seize up over time, not fully release, and drag the rear brakes causing them to wear out prematurely.

Reply to
David Efflandt

Jim and David:

Thanks for the advice. The second caliper was totally stuck. Opening the bleed screw didn't help. Sooo, having been without the car for several days now (not much time to give it), I opted to replace both rear calipers. Nissan wanted $323 each. I suppose they come in a really nice box. I found rebuilts locally for $74, will pick 'em up tomorrow.

Everything was extremely rusty and I have a hunch my rear brakes haven't been working for some time. The emergency cable works fine and in the released position, the bell crank returns to the against-the-pin position.

I guess I need to either move to a place without road salt or disassemble and clean the brake assemblies every 2-3 years to avoid a repeat of this. Or maybe just stay inside all winter!

Enjoy the ride ...

Roby

Reply to
Roby

Everybody swears thtat Green Stuff are the best. But, I prefer factory pads. Look at the bright side and the 41K you got off the factory pads! Pretty cheap if you consider how long they last. I would not worry about it. And, if they seperated at 41K just change them next time at

40K and you should be good. Actuaries and the Mean Time Between Failure MTBF analysts make the decisi> This is my first brake job on this car (41,000 miles). Rotating the piston
Reply to
John Smith

Reply to
lwilliams

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