Rear Brake Caliper - How to Compress Piston?
 

I own a 2001 Protege 2.0 ES with the rear disc brakes. I tried in vain to replace pasd the other night, but, was unable to push the piston back into the caliper using a C-clamp. Anyone know how this is done? Read something about a manual adjustment screw on earlier Proteges. Does mine have that screw, too?
Thanks for any info!!!

PS- I tried bleeding some brake fluid at one point when I got desperate, so, I guess I need to bleed the brakes. Anyone know if I just need to do that on eside or both? (ie, diagonal circuits?)

Thanks,
Jim

You need to screw the PISTON in. There are 2 indentations on the face of the piston that you can put a pair of long nose plier jaw tips in and screw the piston in clockwise. (You can also grab it with a pair of channel-locks, but don't tear the boot.) The pistons screw out to self adjust for the emergency brake to self adjust. Actually, when you put it back together, actuate the emergency brake until it has resistance in the handle again, this will remove all the play in the caliper & pads.

Thanks for the quick reply! Not to be paranoid, but, are you sure this applies to my 2001 2.0 ES? (can't stand the thought of another night of wrestling with the piston!)

Thanks,
Jim

as far as i know, this applies to 99% (if not 100%) of cars with rear disc brakes.

Another possibility is a system they have on the Miata. There is a small cap which looks like a bolt on the back of the caliper. If you remove that, there is an allen screw in there which you can turn to retract the piston...you can't turn the piston itself.

Just another idea to check if the above doesn't work for you.

sounds just like the old Subaru wagon I had... the e-brake acted on the front discs so you had to turn the piston in when you replaced the pads. It's the only car I have seen so far that had the hand brake on the front and not the rear of the car... nice, as the discs hold the car in either direction. Of course with rear discs it is just as good.

And the answer is.....!
 

Turns out that the 2001 Protege ES has the 4mm allen adjuster behind the bolt/cover on the backside of the caliper. Works like a dream compared with having to compress or rotate the piston out of the way. Took me 30 minutes per side...including set-up and jack-up, etc.

Appreciate the thought, but, I got tons of incorrect advice on this issue....makes a case for not responding unless you KNOW you are correct.
(I get to complain because of the 3 hours of hell I spent two nights ago following such bad advice about using a c-clamp to compress the piston.)

WOOHOO, what do I win? :D

Sounds like that's the way Mazda usually does the rear calipers. I really like the system, but I have heard reports of that allen sometimes stripping out (the threads, not the head) which would cause you not to be able to retract the caliper. That usually doesn't happen unless there are other problems with the caliper though.

Sorry to bring this 5 year old thread back to life, but I need to change my rear pads on my 2002 Protege 5. Anyone know if the rear caliper can be compressed with a C-Clamp (which I did on my front brakes) or does it have another mechanism to compress it?

I've tried compressing the piston with a C-Clamp and ended up breaking the clamp. The brake plunger also does not work. I am having the same struggle.

A c-clamp doesn't work. You have to screw the piston back down with the alan-head screw under the little rubber cap on the caliper itself. You'll see it. :)