i've changed my pads several times (switching between track pads and street pads) and wanted to know if there was a better tool for compressing the pistons. i've already dinged up the damn brembo caliper paint using large jaw pliers (even with a rag).

there has got to be a more elegant (and less harmful) way to do it. i'm not really a fan of using a crow bar or flat tip screwdriver to push the piston in either.

i have googled and searched and pryed and proded, but to no avail. surely, after over a hundred years of auto history, someone has to have found a better way! surely there has to be a disc brake piston compression tool that the nissan techs use!

maybe something like this:



or maybe someone should fabricate a tool that goes in between the pads, and rotating a nut will push it apart (thereby compressing the pistons). hey, maybe i should patent that!

any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Snap-on and all tool vendors should have it...It looks like that tool you have...Bu t you will use a ratchet to turn it...As for the rears there are another set tool used to compress the rears...You can go to any Pepboys and they have a universal tool to compress the brake pistons....

 

Nick... get a hold of a Snap-On, Matco, or some other tool dealer and tell them you need a 4+ piston caliper depressor and they'll know what you're talking about. They come to my work all the time and i know they have em.
-GP-

 

but how would you use with the brembo's? if you're talking about this tool:



it wouldn't work...the rears would be the same. you couldn't use this tool for the rears (you wouldn't have to since you don't need to rotate the rear pistons to compress them):

 

that's not the tool i'm talking about. that's for single or dual piston calipers.

http://www.brandsplace.com/0246-otc7034.html
read the description and it'll explain how to use it, even i didnt get how it would be used just by looking at it and i do brakes everyday i'm at work!

They have a more expensive one with the handle and you can use it without the pads in place, but this one will get the job done in the same fashion, just dont do it too hard or you'll indent the pads!
-GP-

 

HA! that's what i'm talkin' about! "4+ piston caliper depressor!" sheesh! i found this on the snapon site, it's a spreader...is that the same thing that you are referring to GP?

 

i think we are posting the same damn things at the same damn time! LMAO! i know that's not the one you're talkin' about and that's why i said it wouldn't work. i was replying to hai's post, then yours popped up before mine when i posted!

 

The rear tools are different from the front...The front you would use that top tool....Just leave the old pad on the side of the piston and use the tool to compress it...

 

haha, yep, that's the one i'm talking about. They have a more intricate one like the quick depressor (with the handle and spring and everything) but the one you posted the picture of and the one i linked to will do the job.
-GP-

 

the rears are only different on certain cars. ALL G's in the rear with non brembo single piston calipers are PUSH IN calipers (rear brembos are dual piston with one on each side so you still need the tool i linked to) NOT twist calipers like those found on the rear of most honda's.
-GP-

 

^^+1^^

 

Got it...I haven't looked at our cars...I assumed they are the same as most cars...

 

believe it or not... most cars actually dont have rear twisting piston calipers anymore. I've only seen it on Honda's pre '04
-GP-

 

alright GP, this one's off topic...but since you work in a shop...what's the best way to install slip-on hoses? it's just so hard to get it over that nipple and keep going after, you know?

i think these would do the job....



they are gates surelok pliers...

 

Sheesh, i've been out of it that long...haha...Well, it has been a few years since 've worked on cars..