Is it difficult to remove the rear rotors on a 6th gen Accord EX? I was told once by someone that there is a special trick to removing the rears.

 

Anyone?

 

nothing special.. it's the same as the fronts.. the only difference is when you press the piston in, it needs to be twisted in, not pushed in..

 

I guess that my more specific question is how do I remove the rotor - I haven't removed one before, I have just dealt with replacing brake pads.

But thanks for letting me know that the piston is different.

 

More than likely you will have like two or three screws that hold the rotor onto the hub. I personally used an impact screwdriver to bust them loose, but apparenlty they where already loose, go figure. You might want to remove some fluid from the Master Cylinder reservoir, as when you are pressing the caliper piston back in, you'll a rise in fluid level in the master cylinder.



Anyway, it's pretty much remove the two caliper sliding bolts from the caliper (top and bottom #30), slide caliper out, you might also have to remove the caliper mount too (that would be where part #32 attaches to), depending on whether or not you have clearance to remove the rotor. Remove the three or four holding screws (part #36) either by hand if they are loose enough, or with an impact screw driver. Remove old rotor, clean new rotor surface, both front and back, with brake cleaner (very important as rotors come in with a layer ontop of them that protects the surface during shipping). Attach new rotors, put three or four screws that hold the rotor back into rotor, attach caliper mount, squeeze the caliper piston back into bore by turning it with a special tool, lube brake pad contact points (#18) and then lube back of brake pads with grease also, attach caliper to mount, lube sliding bolt (if it is a sliding bolt) and lube only on non-threaded section, attached securely, and depress the brake pedal a few times to bring the piston back up to the back of the brake pad and your ready to go.

 

Ok, this makes sense. Do you have to get a special tool to turn the piston back in, or will a flat head or other screw driver work?

 

I have a special tool I use to that turns and squeezes at the same time, got that from Mac Tools, but I think Autozone may lend you the tool (for free at that too ), you can't just use a screw driver, that's bad especialy if it slips and cuts the dust boot.

 

i use the brake caliper tool as well, but i've also done it with a big flathead screwdriver as well..

 

Update:

I talked to the shop foreman at the Honda dealership that I usually go to - Arrowhead Honda. I had gotten the rear brakes replaced and the rotors re-surfaced there in December. We chatted about my problem, and I was looking for some advice from him. Since his shop did the work before, and I was having the problem now, he insisted that I bring the car in, because he wanted to see what was causing my problem, and see if it was something that they had never seen before and if they could learn something. He was concerned because they are new pads (only 7 months old) had they had machined the rotors for me.

So I stopped in today, and a tech drove around with me in the card and heard the grinding that occurs on my right rear as I break (that's why I wanted to machine the rotor myself). He said there was definitely something not right. So we drove back and they put the car in a bay.

My service rep - Anton, came back an hour and a half later and said that they figured out the problem - they had never seen it this bad before. I guess that the Honda OEM pads today cannot contain Asbestos (did I spell that right) because of the EPA. Because of that, the semi-metallic formula that they use isn't as friendly, and what can happen is that as the brake dust leaves the rotor it can become static-charged, and get sucked back onto the rotor. The dust then clumps on the rotor, and it my case it got so bad that it was cutting into my rotor. So they cleaned the thing off, and moly-coated the brakes again in the rear, and no grinding!

My rep insisted that I call him on Monday and update him on how things were, and that even if I don't have the problem anymore he really wants to machine the rotors again for me just to make sure things are OK.

Still planning on replacing my front pads next weekend once the pads arrive in the mail - HondaPartsForCheap.com - a dealership in Missouri. Good discounts off of normal retail on OEM parts.

 

I was driving this morning to work, and I noticed that my grinding/rubbing problem was back a little bit, so I'm going to call my service rep and see when we can get it in to get the rotors re-surfaced.