I believe that's the Caliper pin that holds the caliper down. I hope you got some Lubrication spray for it, then try loosening it up.

 

Yeah, I think we are talking about the same thing. The Honda manual just calls them pins. I've heard them referred to as slider pins on this forum and in some of the youtube videos I've looked at. Guess I need to go find something to soak them in to loosen up. I've heard of some people saying the drilled a small hole at the opposite end of the bracket and then soaked it from both directions, but I'm a little leary of that. Also read where some were applying heat. Don't know which is best, so still looking...

 

If you use a torch you can say goodbye to the rubber boots (though your local dealership might have them in stock and they shouldn't be very expensive). Try pulling the boots back a little bit, spraying some penetrating oil in there, let it work its magic for a few minutes, and try to turn the slider pins with vice grips or some good pliers. Once you get it to turn (it might take a few cycles of spraying and trying to turn it), you should be able to work it out. If you absolutely can not get it to turn after several attempts, you might want to consider applying heat. I can absolutely not condone the hole-drilling method as it leaves the opposite end exposed to the elements which means this is just going to happen again.

Basically, what's going on is the grease that's supposed to be in the slider channel is MIA (as in it made its way past the boot either through the end or there's a hole in the boot) and water has managed to find its way in there. You can probably see where this is going. Once you do get the pin out, spray some penetrating oil down into the channel and let it sit for a while. Drain it out, spray some brake parts cleaner in it and let dry everything out. If you have access to a bench grinder with a wire wheel, clean up the slider pin (or replace it if you want). Coat it with a film of wheel bearing grease and reinstall it and you shouldn't run into this problem again for a very long time.

 

I'm trying one of the recommendations you made to pull the rubber boot back and sprayed it with WD40. If you know of something better to spray it with, I can pick it up tomorrow and try that. Also, I spoke to someone at the NAPA store and they told me that if I didn't get it off, to bring it in and they had a small shop there where they should be able to get it out. Anyway, thanks for the details and I'll come back and let you know how it goes. I'll probably replace the pins with new ones. I think they were about 8 bucks for a pair of them.

Thanks,

Steve

 

I wouldn't even think about replacing the pins, just replace them. That is the reason your pad and rotor are gone. You may have to replace the whole caliper depending on what you find. Every time you replace the pads, you need to re-grease the pins.
When you replace pads and rotors, you should always replace both sides at the same time. And while you are at it, it's probably a good time to flush the brake fluid. Easy to do, just make sure you keep the reservoir full while you are doing it.

 

I'm getting the new slider pins this morning. The one new caliper I bought came with them, so I'm getting them for the other side. This may sound stubid, but is there an easy check to see if the caliper is bad. I had assumed the one on the driver side was bad because of all the damage I found, but after I couldn't get the one slide pin out, I had to wonder if that was the issue and not the caliper. I've already traded it in to get the core charge money back. That wheel was dragging and hard to turn when I started on it. I still have the original caliper on the other side.

Also, I've read enough on how to bleed the brake, but don't have any information on how to replace the brake fluid in the system. Do you have any links or information on the proper way to do that?

Thanks for the advise.


Regards,

Steve

 

Changing the brake fluid is done simply by continuing the bleeding process. Keep pouring new fluid into the reservoir until it comes out like new at the wheels. If you want, you can siphon most of the old fluid out of the reservoir before starting, but be extremely careful not to get any foreign material into the reservoir. Anything other than brake fluid will ruin the whole system.

Some parts stores have "loaded calipers" this is the complete set with everything already assembled to the caliper bracket including new brake pads. With those you R&R the whole mess by unscrewing the two big bolts on the knuckle, hook up the line, bleed and go. No fussing with grease on the slide pins etc. as it was all done (hopefully correctly) at the rebuilder's shop.

 

And to add to what MK said about the brake fluid....Make sure you keep the reservoir full at all times when changing the brake fluid. If any air gets in there then you'll have to basically start all over again because that air will have to go all the way through the brake lines to be properly done. It is possilbe to do it by yourself, but 2 people are better than 1.

 

Try using PB Blaster if you don't already have the slider pin out. WD40 is good for some things, but when it comes to rust/seized components, I haven't found anything I like better than PB Blaster.

And the easiest way to check a caliper would be to just compress the piston (like you'll already need to do to replace pads). If it compresses, the caliper is generally good; if it doesn't compress, the caliper is seized. Keep in mind that since the parking brake is built into the rear caliper, the pistons actually need to be twisted to compress (the tool is fairly cheap if you don't already have one. It looks like a cube with little tabs coming off each side). To save yourself a headache, crack open the bleeder on the caliper while doing this; it'll make compressing the piston much easier.

 

Ok, I bought the tool to srew the piston down with. I got it screwed in and seated flush with the face of the assembly. However, even though I did unscrew the bleeder screw a little, it still had quite a bit of resistance to me getting it in. Can someone tell me about how much resistance there I should get or should I just go ahead and replace that othe caliper as well. I thought I had read some where that you should be able to take the cube tool and screw it in with it alone and not have hardly any resistance at all. Thanks.