Brake servicing

I am new to mazdas and new to a lot of the newer brake caliper technology so I am looking for some assistance and maybe a picture or two on how to properly service the brakes on my 2014 cx-5.

I am used to my older firebird and my old durango which do not have the same caliper style.

I just finished my first brake service which was a learning experience. I read through the brake manuals posted for the 2013 cx5. I could figure out the front brakes pretty easily. The rear brakes have me a little stumped in that I couldn't figure out how to remove the pads from the retaining clips so i could clean the areas that the pads move on.

I was a little nervous about prying the rear pads off as the front ones came off really easy and by hand with minimal effort and no tools needed. As a result, I greased the areas where the pads contact the retaining clips as well as the shims, slide pins and rubber boots. The OEM grease is a neat orange which is different. I use a green synthetic caliper grease.

Can anyone provide details on this style of caliper or have any tricks to get the pads and retainers off for maintenance?

Also, after the winter, the exposed portions of the slide pin heads had a fair amount of surface corrosion and build up. Are these pins alum or steel? Is it safe to sand this corrosion off for clean up or will this affect how the caliper sits on them? Or just lube it to prevent further corrosion?

I'll be removing my rear calipers in a couple weeks, I'll make a write up and post back here with the info. I am pretty sure the pins are steel, most cars are. The exposed portion of the caliper slide pins do require sitting perfectly flat against the flat mating surface of the caliper. You can try sanding it off, but if it's pitted and deep, you should replace the pins and/or calipers and put a very light coating of anti-sieze between the surfaces. You can do as do this to all nut and bolt mating surfaces. WD-40 works good on other parts of the car too, but I'd be careful about lube around brake surfaces.