How to Compress Car Brake Calipers

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Nate McCullough on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip we are going to talk about the proper way to compress your vehicle's braking caliper. In this particular instance, we are going to be reusing our brake pads while we service the rotor. If we weren't going to reuse our brake pads, what we would do is jam our screwdriver between the rotor and the pad and compress the caliper. That will release the hydraulic pressure and allow us to remove it. As I said in this particular case, we are reusing these brake pads. So what we are going to have to do with our screwdriver is aim for the outside edge of the inboard portion of the rotor. That is this piece right here. We are going to apply pressure between the outside edge and the brake caliper itself. That will allow us to compress the caliper without damaging our pads. Get my grip on there. As you can see the caliper is compressing, just like so. You can see in there that is the outboard edge of the rotor and that is what we are aiming for, right there. Like I said if you are not going to reuse your brake pads, install them then its okay to wiggle your screwdriver in there and pry them back. If we do that at this case, it will damage the friction material. We are going to avoid that just like so. "