Hi all,

I am looking for some advice. My rear driver side break seized up so bought a used caliper and decided to attempt rebuilding it (then have it checked by a mechanic, alternatively have my current one rebuilt by a garage).
So what I have done is I used a flathead screwdriver and pried out the piston, the thing is that these are normally need winding in and out. I could manage to pry the piston out 3/4 way then used the handbrake lever on the caliper to move it till it came out. I checked the thread on both sides (caliper and piston) and they were fine. Reassembled the lot and tried the handbrake arm on the caliper, it moved the piston in and out. Now my question is did I ruin anything that I pried out the piston and not unscrewed it? The piston itself is in good nick, no damage on it. Thank you for the help in advance/


managed to pry it out until this point then from here used the handbrake arm on caliper

 

What is the MY of your S-Type?

If there are no deep wear marks on the piston, you can certainly reuse it with new seals. You may want to try a wire brush on the outsides of the caliper to remove some of the rust accumulation before reassembly.

Make sure you wind the piston in fully using the correct tools designed for the job. Use the correct brake fluid as well when replacing any of the hydraulic components, which is DOT4 such as Pentosin.

 

Thank you for your reply

It's a 1999 first production year S-Type. Now I've bought the correct tool and did try if I can wind it back and it went fine. Do you know if I damaged anything when I tried it out? I received yesterday the repair kit, all seals and assembly pastes so looking forward to put the lot together.

 

Make sure all the handbrake cable fasteners are seated correctly. It's unlikely you damaged the caliper mechanism.

It's always wise to follow the procedure set forth in the Workshop Manual. If you don't have the Workshop Manual, here is a link to download it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp6343385h...e_FSM.pdf?dl=0

Refer to section 206-04.

 

Nice, thank you NBCat

I attempted to wind the piston back in and it went all smooth, the small handbrake lever on the caliper moved the piston a couple of mms. What handbrake are you referring to?