Going to be doing the Rear Brakes soon...

[Silver03MM]

When I do the rear brakes can I do them without any special tools? The reason I'm asking is because I have done brakes in the past and I usually just use a c-clamp to compress the piston. Can I do that with a MM? I know my 07 mustang I need to borrow a special tool from autozone to do the brakes or the piston on the caliper will never come out again if I use a C-clamp and I will have to replace the calipers. Thank you guys for any info.

[musclemerc]

C clamp will work just fine.

[Got_1]

if you never use your ebrake then you'll have a tough time getting the rotors off

[a_d_a_m]

if you never use your ebrake then you'll have a tough time getting the rotors off +1 to this!

[LeoVampire]

Lightly clamp the rubber hose to keep the old contaminated fluid from going back into the system.

Open the bleeder screw before you push the piston back to prepair for the new pads.

Once the pads are in place and the caliper is bolted on release the clamp on the rubber hose to allow the air to flow out and the fresh fluid into the piston cup and out the bleeder.

You should always try to avoid pushing the fluid back into the sysytem when possable for a numerous number of reasons. This also takes pressure off of the cut seal that operates the return of the piston in the caliper.

You should replace the calipers but if money is tight this is the best option to extend the life of them as much as possable.

[CBT]

You should replace the calipers but if money is tight this is the best option to extend the life of them as much as possable.

Good info, but why replace the calipers??

[LeoVampire]

Good info, but why replace the calipers??


Maybe the fact of the more than 300,000 times the cut seal has to pull back the piston everytime you release the brake pedel in a 3 to 4 year period of time using the car to drive around with.

Between fluid contamination and use the cut seals around the piston loses it's ability over time to fully pull back the piston inside of the caliper and so allows the pads to rub on the rotors more than they should wearing them out faster and heating up the rotors more which can lead to warping them and ending up with a pulsation in the brakes.

On the thread where the guy is looking to buy a Master and Booster one of the members posted a link to the info. Something most mechanics know but most customers don't want to hear when spending thier money on a car.

Unless the caliper is frozen we can not insist on a customer changing them out or rebuilding them unfortunatly.

[CBT]

Aye. So is there a set amount of miles you'd go by as far as replacing?
Maybe the fact of the more than 300,000 times the cut seal has to pull back the piston everytime you release the brake pedel in a 3 to 4 year period of time using the car to drive around with.

Between fluid contamination and use the cut seals around the piston loses it's ability over time to fully pull back the piston inside of the caliper and so allows the pads to rub on the rotors more than they should wearing them out faster and heating up the rotors more which can lead to warping them and ending up with a pulsation in the brakes.

On the thread where the guy is looking to buy a Master and Booster one of the members posted a link to the info. Something most mechanics know but most customers don't want to hear when spending thier money on a car.

Unless the caliper is frozen we can not insist on a customer changing them out or rebuilding them unfortunatly.

[LeoVampire]

Aye. So is there a set amount of miles you'd go by as far as replacing?

I replace or rebuild every time I need pads. It has been a set rule for me on every car I have owned.

In doing this and changing out the brake fluid every 2 years I always have a consistant amount of miles on how long my pads last on my cars.

I usualy average 40,000 miles on my pads with the way I drive and brake.

This will be my first brake job on the Marauder this year. i just figured after 6 years it was time even though I still have plenty of material left on the pads.

I bought a set of rebuilt calipers for this time around seeing I want to do the color work on them to match the engine bay. And with having the braided brake hoses and not being able to cut off flow to them I do not want to take the time to rebuild the one's on the car and just change them out quickly.

I will rebuild the one's on the car after they are off and have them for the next time I need a brake job wich should be another 6 years lator I am sure but they will be rebuilt painted and ready for when the time comes. BTW I bought the calipers with the brackkets so all of it will be painted and matching.

The 2007 Taurus my other half uses for going to and from work plus our shopping and what not I just did the first front brake job on it this last summer after 60,000 miles changed out the rotors to the EBC's dimpled and sloted, went to ceramic pads instead of the semi metalics it had and changed the calipers. It has rear drum's and they were fine seeing there are no drive wheels for them to fight against. Even though there maybe a split brakeing power set up for the wheels which ever set of brakes are dealing with the power to the wheels always seem to wear down a bit faster with the fight to stop the car. The rears on the Marauder are a lot lower in brake material than the fronts @ least with mine anyways and the rears have some heat stress cracks but the fronts do not when I inspected them before the winter down time.