I was changing my brake pads and discs when i accidentally broke the piston, or what im guessing is the piston. the ceramic piece that pushes against the pad. can i replace this or do i need a whole new caliper? please does anyone know?

 

Yup, replace it no questions asked. Any time a caliper or wheel cylinder is even slightly leaking, replace it. No need to do each side unless the vehicle is old and it's a good piece of mind. Yours isn't so replace. I've never heard or seen just piston replacement, it's always been straight up caliper for caliper. Gonna need a good bleed of the system after replacing it too!

 

ok thanks, its not leaking just chipped the hell out of the piston. anyone know a good place to get a factory replacement?

 

Carquest is where I do my shopping, but you American's have lots like this, anyone like that will most likely have a rebuilt caliper, MAYBE a new one, same at the dealer.

 

I've usually found the best prices and availability at NAPA. Just remember that if you do not bring the old caliper in there will be a core charge (pretty substantial if I remember) until you do bring it in. I have seen a brake caliper piston rebuild kit for sale (about $15) but I never found anybody who had one is stock. And with brakes there is no time to wait 3 days to fix your daily driver.

Best of luck and I hope this helped.

 

That's not a reason to replace it, unless the chip actually took a section out of the face ring of the piston. If it's just a small chip, forget about it.

But next time, use the right tool, or use the wrong one better. A caliper compressor is cheap.

 

Ya, old pad in and a large c-clamp turning slow so fluid doesn't come pissin out the master cylinder resevoir.

 

thanks huys. got a reman from NAPA for 70 bucks. actually i was using the old pad and c-clamp but reached up to get something and dropped the caliper, broke the ring almost the whole way around. so be careful.

 

http://www.newfordparts.com/catalog.htm

They have decent prices on OEM parts. Looks like $97 for the right and $107 for the left. Not sure why $10 difference.