Probably easy question, on brake caliper pistons

[Richard]

Newer caliper pistons (ie, my 2012 Accord) have a ‘closed-head’ piston with a cross design, like a very large phillips screw head, rather than the open head piston I’m used to seeing, and like in Eric’s ’97 Subaru video. Also like my former 2000 Civic.

Does one push a cross-head piston to compress it, or turn it? My assumption would be that it must compress just like open-headed pistons, but they can be turned like a screw with the right (or the wrong) tool.

If it won’t compress into the caliper by turning or by squeezing with a c-clamp, then I guess it’s messed up?

I have other signs of bad caliper anyway, notably the inner rear pads are down to almost nothing, while the outer pads aren’t nearly as worn. Rear pads should last much longer than 45K miles.

Thanks!

Topic

[Daniel]

It is not out of the ordinary for rear calipers like that to wear the inner pads much sooner than the outters.

[Author]

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