Hi all,
I've been a member for some time, but this is the first time I'm posting anything. First things, I drive a vehicle that is somewhat rare (even in these parts) and will be unheard of for most of you (I'm guessing these forums have a high American/rest_of_world ratio), but it should be pretty similar to the ones built and sold in America. Its a late 2007 model Corolla (which looks the same as the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 models, give or take a few face-lift details) with the 2.0 liter D-4D Diesel engine ( the 1AD-FTV). Lovely lovely vehicle, but now it needs new brake rotors at the rear (I will use disc, disk and rotor somewhat interchangeably in this post, over here we speak a somewhat unique blend of English). The front ones have already been replaced but finding good non-Toyota rotors is a difficult task (and Toyota charges about 4 times more for the same ATE disk, so don't even go there). But on Friday, I found a set of disks for the back.
This morning I set about swapping the discs, a task I recall takes about an hour. I had the new rotor on on the one side, but I just couldn't get the caliper to open up. I gave up, put the old parts back, and decided to do some research first. This particular model has disc brakes at the back, but the hand brake (aka parking brake) doesn't have its own set of shoes, instead it looks like it applies force to the pad in some or other manner, thereby using the same disk and pad setup for the hand brake.
What I need to know is if there is anything special I need to open up the caliper? Do I need to somehow release the tension on the hand brake first (my attempts at doing this yielded no results), or should I simply go out, buy a bigger G-clamp and force it open? Has anyone done such a job yet, or are these models just too new for anybody to have these details? Mine is almost off its service plan (but wear and tear isn't covered) and the warranty expired about a year and a half ago, so there is no point in taking it to the dealer other than to pay too much.
Looking forward to some responses :-)