Hey TN,
With all the recent craze around here with upgrading to dual piston calipers, I have been a victim. But, since I clearly have too much time on my hands and I like to make my life more difficult than it has to be, I rebuilt and re-painted my calipers. Yeah... :hi:
I painted mine first. This was stupid, as you should really rebuild them first, then paint. Otherwise you run the risk of getting brake fluid onto your freshly painted calipers, and you end up repainting them. Brake fluid is fantastic at taking off paint.
PAINT
(remember, do this last).
1. Clean your calipers and brackets really well if you don't want your paint to fall off.
- I used wire brushes at first, and then rust remover (naval jelly) afterwards. This was way too much effort on my part, but hey...
2. Mask off at least the bleeder nipple and brake hose, and pistons. I also masked off mounting surfaces.
3. PAINT. Get some caliper/high-temp paint of your color preference. I used VHT brand sold in Autozone, but any auto parts store will have some type. Apply as you would any other spray paint.
Here's some comparison of pre and post.
![Image]()
4. Chocolate chip cookies anyone? It's bake time. This step is optional, so of course I did it. Your spray can should have rough guidelines on how long and at what temp to bake. I couldn't find any info on how long you're supposed to wait before baking, so I waited a few hours. Bake time: 1hr at 200F.
![Image]()
The "aroma" wasn't bad at all with VHT paint. Apparently, some other types of paint render your oven unsuitable for civilian use for sometime afterwards, so keep that in mind if SHMBO is in the house.
5. Wait for things to cool down, unless your some sort of ### who likes to get burnt. These things will take a few hours to cool off.
REBUILD
(I recommend you do this before paint)
Now, rebuilding the calipers is, in my opinion, simpler than most people imagine it to be.
I suppose you can re-use your old rubber parts, but there's a strong chance they won't survive the surgery. I will STRONGLY encourage you to purchase the more expensive caliper rebuild kit from Toyota dealer for two reasons:
- Things will fit right (Dorman kit I purchased was too big...)
- Dealer kit come with everything you need, including: packet of grease, caliper bracket boots, slide pin washer, copper brake line washers, OEM bleed nipple covers
1. (If your caliper is on the car) Take it off the car and drain whatever remaining brake fluid is in the caliper. Clamp the brake line on the car or it'll leak slowly.
2. With compressed air (I used a bike air pump) pushed into where your brake line used to connect, push out the pistons. The piston will be completely out when it's 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the outer arm. Use smth to hold one piston in place if the other is stuck, otherwise you'll have one piston out and the other one stuck in. You want them to come out more of less same.
IMPORTANT: put a piece of wood of something to stop the piston, otherwise you run the risk of flying projectiles and damaged pistons.
![Image]()
3. Push the rubber dust boot off the edge of the piston, otherwise your old rubber boot might not stretch enough and will rip. See the piston further in the pic for what I mean.
![Image]()
![Image]()
4. Once your piston is out, there is a retaining c-clamp holding the outer side of the dust boot. Find it, remove it. Hint: the c-ring I'm talking about holds the dust boot in the upper groove which is really rusty in the above pic.
5. Clean everything, replace damaged/worn parts, lube the piston walls, inner piston ring, dust boot. I would suggest you clean the groove for dust boot extra well, otherwise your replacement boot won't fit in right and you'll have a hard time putting things together. Just trust me on that one.
6. Put everything together. The way I found the easiest was, put the dust boot in place with the new c-ring, then stretch it over the piston and slide the piston in. If you put the piston in first and then try to put the dust boot on, you'll be making your life more difficult.
Now you have a line-new caliper. Congrats.
You can google "caliper rebuild" or similar, and there are some videos out there. Keep in mind, though, that some suggest lubing everything with brake fluid, but Toyota FSM calls for "Lithium soap base glycol grease" instead, and you can actually feel the difference. (ask me how I know...)
I'll try to snap some pic of the "new" calipers on the car and post them here sometime later.
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask questions. :thanks:
With all the recent craze around here with upgrading to dual piston calipers, I have been a victim. But, since I clearly have too much time on my hands and I like to make my life more difficult than it has to be, I rebuilt and re-painted my calipers. Yeah... :hi:
I painted mine first. This was stupid, as you should really rebuild them first, then paint. Otherwise you run the risk of getting brake fluid onto your freshly painted calipers, and you end up repainting them. Brake fluid is fantastic at taking off paint.
PAINT
(remember, do this last).
1. Clean your calipers and brackets really well if you don't want your paint to fall off.
- I used wire brushes at first, and then rust remover (naval jelly) afterwards. This was way too much effort on my part, but hey...
2. Mask off at least the bleeder nipple and brake hose, and pistons. I also masked off mounting surfaces.
3. PAINT. Get some caliper/high-temp paint of your color preference. I used VHT brand sold in Autozone, but any auto parts store will have some type. Apply as you would any other spray paint.
Here's some comparison of pre and post.
4. Chocolate chip cookies anyone? It's bake time. This step is optional, so of course I did it. Your spray can should have rough guidelines on how long and at what temp to bake. I couldn't find any info on how long you're supposed to wait before baking, so I waited a few hours. Bake time: 1hr at 200F.
The "aroma" wasn't bad at all with VHT paint. Apparently, some other types of paint render your oven unsuitable for civilian use for sometime afterwards, so keep that in mind if SHMBO is in the house.
5. Wait for things to cool down, unless your some sort of ### who likes to get burnt. These things will take a few hours to cool off.
REBUILD
(I recommend you do this before paint)
Now, rebuilding the calipers is, in my opinion, simpler than most people imagine it to be.
I suppose you can re-use your old rubber parts, but there's a strong chance they won't survive the surgery. I will STRONGLY encourage you to purchase the more expensive caliper rebuild kit from Toyota dealer for two reasons:
- Things will fit right (Dorman kit I purchased was too big...)
- Dealer kit come with everything you need, including: packet of grease, caliper bracket boots, slide pin washer, copper brake line washers, OEM bleed nipple covers
1. (If your caliper is on the car) Take it off the car and drain whatever remaining brake fluid is in the caliper. Clamp the brake line on the car or it'll leak slowly.
2. With compressed air (I used a bike air pump) pushed into where your brake line used to connect, push out the pistons. The piston will be completely out when it's 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the outer arm. Use smth to hold one piston in place if the other is stuck, otherwise you'll have one piston out and the other one stuck in. You want them to come out more of less same.
IMPORTANT: put a piece of wood of something to stop the piston, otherwise you run the risk of flying projectiles and damaged pistons.
3. Push the rubber dust boot off the edge of the piston, otherwise your old rubber boot might not stretch enough and will rip. See the piston further in the pic for what I mean.
4. Once your piston is out, there is a retaining c-clamp holding the outer side of the dust boot. Find it, remove it. Hint: the c-ring I'm talking about holds the dust boot in the upper groove which is really rusty in the above pic.
5. Clean everything, replace damaged/worn parts, lube the piston walls, inner piston ring, dust boot. I would suggest you clean the groove for dust boot extra well, otherwise your replacement boot won't fit in right and you'll have a hard time putting things together. Just trust me on that one.
6. Put everything together. The way I found the easiest was, put the dust boot in place with the new c-ring, then stretch it over the piston and slide the piston in. If you put the piston in first and then try to put the dust boot on, you'll be making your life more difficult.
Now you have a line-new caliper. Congrats.
You can google "caliper rebuild" or similar, and there are some videos out there. Keep in mind, though, that some suggest lubing everything with brake fluid, but Toyota FSM calls for "Lithium soap base glycol grease" instead, and you can actually feel the difference. (ask me how I know...)
I'll try to snap some pic of the "new" calipers on the car and post them here sometime later.
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask questions. :thanks:
