Wheel cylinder leaking during brake job

[BD7]

I attempted to replace the brake shoes on a 2001 Corolla myself today. With both shoes removed, I step on the brakes a couple times(dont ask why, I was stupid). Long and behold, I got fluid leaking out the of the wheel cylinder. One of the end on the cylinder popped out. I put it back on and wiped off the leak.

Now, my concern is.. How bad did I f*ckd up?

Topic

[W00DBar0n]

Its a dumb move but you shouldn’t of done any damage, gonna need to bleed the brakes now and maybe replace the fluid… but i don’t think you did any real damage either then making a mess and adding a little more work to your load.

[Wade Deatherage]

Had the same thing happen years ago except I didn’t lock the brake shoe into the wheel cylinder pin. I fixed it by putting the wheel cylinder back together and bleeding the system.

[CELICA XX]

Drum brakes on a 2012 ?

I thought Toyota had went to all disk now…

[BD7]

sorry it was a typo. the car is a 2001.

thank you guys for the response.

since one of the end/pin on wheel cylinder came off, should I have the whole wheel cylinder replaced or is it ok to just to snap the pin back in?

[Matt]

I’m not going to tell you what to do for liability purposes, but here’s what I would do if it were me. I would push the pin back in, bleed the system, and then pull the wheel and drum back off (after cleaning the area before reassembly) and see if I had any leakage. If not, then I would sleep pretty good. I would also make for certain that the wheel cylinder wasn’t leaking under the rubber boot for good measure.

At the same time, if I had ANY doubt, wheel cylinders are cheap.

[college man]

I would replace the wheel cylinder.
as stated above its a cheap part. do
them both.

[John B Kobberstad]

You could always see if you could get a rebuild kit and just put some new rubber boots on to seal the pistons inside.

[EricTheCarGuy]

We’ve all done this at some point I’m sure so don’t beat yourself up too much. Safe money says replace the wheel cylinder but you might get lucky if you put it back together. It really depends on what you want to risk. The worst that will happen is it will leak onto your new shoes, so if you do decide to just put it back together I would inspect it after a week or so to check to see if the seals are still holding, if they are then you win, if not replace the wheel cylinder.

[Author]

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