anybody got detailed instructions online on how to do this.. and any other advice i should be aware of

your help is greatly appreciated

 

oh yeah.. it's a 2000 accord coupe EX V6 - i have disc brakes in the rear

 

Its easy.

Make sure your E-brake is off. And block the front tires from moving. Use jackstands to hold rear of car in air. Make sure tranny is in a low gear 1 or R or P if auto.

1. find the soft line running to the caliper and run your hand along it. When you reach were it bolts to the lower control arm remove that bolt. (the bolt in question holds a small clip that hangs the brake softline onto the lower control arm to keep it from moving around, it takes up slack. It is not a connection fitting for any fo the fluid.) This will give you movement for the caliper when you have unbolted it.

2.Then remove the 2 bolts that hold the caliper in place on the monting bracket. They are on the back inside of the caliper. One on top and 1 on the bottom.

3. Once the rear caliper is off remove the pads.

4. Loosen the cap on the brake resivor. (optional.)

5. 'Spin' (not push like the front) the rear caliper piston back down into the cylinder to make room for the wider new pads. ( at this moment I can't remember if its clockwise or counter clockwise.) In any case, it should only take 2 or 3 full turns.

6. Now test fit with pads. Make sure the raised mark in the pad lines up in one of the groove lands of the piston you just turned in. You may want to turn the piston back out some to get a tighter fit with the new pads. Once happy, reinstall pads and shimes as original. Install all the bolts we removed in 1. & 2.

7. Tighten up the resivor cover again, please! or you will make a mess and ruin your paint.

Start car--pump up brakes a few times and carefully test at slow speed. You are done.

 

I will be changing the rear pads on my daughter Accord 2000 this weekend. I'm familar with changing pads, but I not familiar with the a piston that must be screwed in, rather that pushed in, to make room for the new pads. I'm tryng to understand the concept of how this works.
As the pads wear down, does the piston screw out to take up the slack? On the front brakes, the piston just protudes further to take up the slack and the fluid level falls.
Let me try to state the question a different way. If you screw the pistion back into the caliper to make room for the new, thicker pads, does the piston screw out to take up the slack as the pads wear down? How does this happen?

 

Yeah...i wanna know that too

 

the piston works the same way. the only difference is that when you step on the brake, the piston spins to clamp on to the rotor. so when you're at the point of putting the pads in, you screw the piston back into the caliper to compress it. its not very complex.

 

The piston doesn't spin when you work the brakes.

This is the auto-adjust mechanism for the handbrake. There's a cam that turns a funky nut-thing inside the caliper, to apply the handbrake. So that part ratchets out each time you use the brake. You can't ratchet IT back in, so you spin the piston itself. Clockwise, like you're screwing it in.

Clean off the piston & the rubber dust boot really good. Then when you spin the piston, make sure the dust boot slides. If the boot sticks, it's gonna wrinkle & tear. Then you'll get to learn how to take the calipers completely apart...

If you screw the pistons in too far, then you have to apply the handbrake up & down a couple hundred times to let this mechanism take up the slack. That's why you only turn them far enough to fit together. You'll still have to exercise the handbrake to let the adjuster catch up.

 

Don't panic or fret too much over the rear caliper boot.
It's only purpose is a dust cover the piston itself has an internal seal. A small crack or tiny tear in the boot can be remedied with some grease--so as long as dust doesnt settle in the boot you are fine.