I just completed the brake pad replacement on my 2000. When I disconnected the cable for the parking brakes I noted that the retaining pin was inserted from the bottom of the cable clevis and the retaining clip was on the top. I thought this odd as the service manual clearly shows the pin installed from the top and I am pretty sure that the brakes have been untouched since the car came out of the factory (slightly less than 70,000 mi, I am 3rd owner). On reinstallation of the caliper, it became apparent why the pins were inserted from the bottom. I attempted to get the pin inserted from the top; but, the head of the pin was hitting the caliper body which was preventing it from dropping straight down. I fiddled around for about 15 min trying to get it inserted and then gave up. If they had been installed upside down for 70,000 mi without incident, I figured it was probably good enough.
As a matter of curiosity because I am not going to change it, has anybody managed to insert the pin from the top? If so, what was the secret?
And as a tip for those doing pad replacements. Last year I had my brake system flushed as part of routine maintenance. The guy flushing the system topped up the master cylinder reservoir to the max, which I guess was the thing to do. However, with 70,000 mi on the pads the caliper pistons were fairly far out which meant that there was a fair amount of fluid displacement by the time the pistons had been pushed / rotated back far enough to get them over the new pads. This caused a momentary panic attack when I discovered a rather large puddle of fluid forming under the front of the car, however, exploration showed that the top of the brake reservoir was wet with fluid. If your brake pads are fairly worn and your brake fluid reservoir is full, you might want to siphon some off to avoid the overflow problem.
Second tip. If you are cleaning and re greasing the sliding caliper pins (which you should), be aware that the top and bottom pins on the rear calipers are not identical. The top pin has a little plastic collar on the end of it. The bottom one doesn't. They appear identical and I don't know whether the top would fit in the bottom; however, I only noticed this little collar after having completed the RR brake and working on the LR brake. This generated one of those did I do it correct moments which caused me to go back to the right side and pull everything apart to confirm that it was assembled correctly (it was). Just something to watch out for. The fronts do not have different top and bottom pins.
As a matter of interest, at 70,000 mi I have minimal wear on the discs. Standard thickness on the fronts is 28 mm and the service limit is 26 mm. Both front discs measured out at 27.6 - 27.7 mm. I am sure that the track dudes would chew through the discs and pads much much faster.
As a matter of curiosity because I am not going to change it, has anybody managed to insert the pin from the top? If so, what was the secret?
And as a tip for those doing pad replacements. Last year I had my brake system flushed as part of routine maintenance. The guy flushing the system topped up the master cylinder reservoir to the max, which I guess was the thing to do. However, with 70,000 mi on the pads the caliper pistons were fairly far out which meant that there was a fair amount of fluid displacement by the time the pistons had been pushed / rotated back far enough to get them over the new pads. This caused a momentary panic attack when I discovered a rather large puddle of fluid forming under the front of the car, however, exploration showed that the top of the brake reservoir was wet with fluid. If your brake pads are fairly worn and your brake fluid reservoir is full, you might want to siphon some off to avoid the overflow problem.
Second tip. If you are cleaning and re greasing the sliding caliper pins (which you should), be aware that the top and bottom pins on the rear calipers are not identical. The top pin has a little plastic collar on the end of it. The bottom one doesn't. They appear identical and I don't know whether the top would fit in the bottom; however, I only noticed this little collar after having completed the RR brake and working on the LR brake. This generated one of those did I do it correct moments which caused me to go back to the right side and pull everything apart to confirm that it was assembled correctly (it was). Just something to watch out for. The fronts do not have different top and bottom pins.
As a matter of interest, at 70,000 mi I have minimal wear on the discs. Standard thickness on the fronts is 28 mm and the service limit is 26 mm. Both front discs measured out at 27.6 - 27.7 mm. I am sure that the track dudes would chew through the discs and pads much much faster.
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