Honda rear brake design Why?

[blankman]

So my nephew wanted to learn how to do brakes. I had him help me with my suspension as an introduction to dropping tools on someone's head, I mean working on cars. Well it's got him hooked on doing all his own work now. Fantastic.

So i showed him some brake kits, found a powerstop kit for $160 for all four. He ordered it and we started work today after I got up. I work nights so we didn't start till 4.

So teaching him things and watching him work, trying to help him understand how things work and trying to get into his head about lefty loosey , but when your working on a bolt faced away from you its the other way. Funnest thing was watching him trying to install the pads while the caliper was attached to the mounting bracket with the seperater springs installed.

So after I helped him with some easier ways of doing things and the no swearing rule for not problem solving, 2hrs for the one side of the front, down to 22 minutes for the other side. I timed him. He is learning.

So his 2017 Civic has an electronic rear parking brake. I've never worked on one before so it was an experience for us both. The fronts are basic c clamp to compress the piston. The rears though, you can't just compress them. Im not sure why they designed it this way. The rears, you need a tool that not only compresses them but also twist them back in.. the rental tool looks like a c clamp but has notches in it to also rotate the piston while its being compressed.

I remember drum emergency brakes on trucks and older cars have the inside shoes to lock it down and a twist dial to.loosen it and adjust itself while going in reverse. I just can't imagine why they would design a piston that has to rotate and be compressed at the same time that needs a special tool? It makes no sense at all to me.

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[DonnieO]

It's a Honda thing. Even the 90s honda rear disc had a cross in the casting piston. You had to twist it to get it to go in.

 

[Vlad Soare]

The rears though, you can't just compress them. Im not sure why they designed it this way. The rears, you need a tool that not only compresses them but also twist them back in.. the rental tool looks like a c clamp but has notches in it to also rotate the piston while its being compressed.

I'm not sure I get it. Most, if not all, cars with disc rear brakes have pistons that need to be twisted, due to the integration with the handbrake. The S550 is no exception.
I had to use something like this when I replaced the rear pads in my Mustang.
Doesn't look like a Honda thing to me, unless I'm missing something.

 

[MD18EcoStang]

I'm not sure I get it. Most, if not all, cars with disc rear brakes have pistons that need to be twisted, due to the integration with the handbrake. The S550 is no exception.
I had to use something like this when I replaced the rear pads in my Mustang.
Doesn't look like a Honda thing to me, unless I'm missing something.

Yep, I've had this kind in my toolbox for years. It's been used on a lot of cars, maybe even once or twice on a Honda.

 

[JTM88]

My S550, Mk7 GTI, and v6 new edge all had this, and I’m sure others I owned did too. These are just then ones I changed brakes on.

 

[Canadian Crimson]

I bought a brake caliper service kit off Amazon. Works great and it has all the different types of piston adapters. Think it was 40$ well worth it

 

[robvas]

Sounds like you haven't done brakes in a long, long time.

wait until you do one where you have to turn brake service mode on!

 

[JTM88]

I bought a brake caliper service kit off Amazon. Works great and it has all the different types of piston adapters. Think it was 40$ well worth it

That’s not a bad price, I usually get the loaner tool from AutoZone. As rarely as I do brakes it’s not too bad to pick it up and drop it off, plus I don’t have to store it.

 

[blankman]

Sounds like you haven't done brakes in a long, long time.

wait until you do one where you have to turn brake service mode on!

Just did brakes 2 years ago on my 2007 scion and brakes last year on my father's avalanche. C clamp was used to just compress both of them with no twisting needed. His civic we just finished up this morning "needed service mode on". Thought I could do it with my obd2 tool but nope, you need a special obd2 tool to be bi directional to send commands to the ecu. Stupid. Anyways, I figured out if you pull the motor off you can just manually retract the motor with a 9mm and then compress it.

Makes me wonder if I want to tackle replacing both cv assemblies on my mothers 2020 explorer. Dealership quoted them about 2500$ to replace those.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Just did brakes 2 years ago on my 2007 scion and brakes last year on my father's avalanche. C clamp was used to just compress both of them with no twisting needed.

Some cars with disc rear brakes have separate brake shoes for the handbrake. In this case the pistons can be simply pushed back in. Maybe the Scion is built like this?
But most modern cars have the handbrake implemented with the same calipers and pads as the actual brake. In this case the pistons must be twisted to retract. It's because of the auto-adjustment mechanism of the handbrake.
You'll have to do it on your Mustang, too, when the time comes to change your rear pads.

 

[compprep]

Not saying the brake issue is not PITA but my 24 Audi S5 pops up a message EVERY time I start and stop engine with "Inspection Due". It passed with flying colors!!!

No way for me or my many decades Audi/VW specialist can reset. For now, only the dealer can reset it. Dealer is a 100-mile round trip. It does go away after a few seconds, but still.

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