Rear Caliper Allen bolt stripped.....Need help asap

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02 Turbo Midnight Blue Protege 5
Ok I'm doing my coilovers and I'm on my last one in the rear. The thing is the allen bolt in the caliper is stripped so I can't release the piston to get the caliper off of the rotor. Does anyone have ideas how to compress the piston so I can pull the caliper off of the rotor? Please reply ASAP because I need the car for tomorrow. Thanks in advance!!!
 
You can try to remove the adjustment gear from the other side with a magnet and use it.

I have heard of actually rotating the piston with pliers,... apparently it works,...

EDIT: I've never tried pliers before but I could see it screwing something up,... and you may not be able to do that with the rotor in the way.
 
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You can try to remove the adjustment gear from the other side with a magnet and use it.

I have heard of actually rotating the piston with pliers,... apparently it works,...

What adjustment gear? I guess, if I have a strong enough magnet I can turn the allen bolt. The thing is I would use the pliers but how would I get to the piston if its still on the rotor? Thanks for the idea.
 
yeah I did, the thing is that the allen bolt is stripped or should it spin freely when the e-brake is released?
 
huh I heard about that and someone else mentioned you get put the bolt on the opposite side. Ok I engaged the e-brake again and released it and it released the brakes and I slid the caliper off. Happy Jackie Chan said something or I would have not tried the e-brake again. Thanks!
 
huh I heard about that and someone else mentioned you get put the bolt on the opposite side. Ok I engaged the e-brake again and released it and it released the brakes and I slid the caliper off. Happy Jackie Chan said something or I would have not tried the e-brake again. Thanks!

OK, that makes sense,... normally the caliper just rotates off, it's getting it back on with new pads that the gear becomes an issue.
 
lol yeah not thats the issue I'm going to have when I need to get the caliper on. so if I remove the pads, I should be able to mess with the adjustment gears with a magnet it to get the piston to compress?
 
If you're re-installing the same pads, you shouldn't have to compress the piston, but you may have screwed up your adjustment gear by having the brake on ??

Number 4 in this picture is the allen headed adjustment gear (underneath bolt #1). If your gear feels stripped, you can pull it out with a magnet and check to see if your splines are screwed up,... if so use the the one from the other caliper.

rearbrakegear_zps86d02bbb.jpg


A stripped gear is common but there is a lot of other parts in there to screw up nicely for you causing adjustment failure.


Try sticking a few of those really strong "rare earth" magnets to your allen key to magnetize it ??
 
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Good descriptions. I can drive with a deleted EGR valve, but gotta have those rear brakes. I'm hesitant to even mess with mine till the pads are almost gone.
 
Gonna be honest, once you strip one of those, you're probably not going to get the caliper piston moving again. If it's stripped, it's because the piston is jammed or seized. If that's the case, you're just going to strip the gear from the other side if you try to use it in that caliper. Either rebuild the caliper or replace it...the rear calipers on this car are really finicky.
 
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