P3 red caliper rear pad replacement

[beastmode13]

Hi,

Any advice on how to get the rear caliper piston fully retracted? I'm installing a Racing Brake 2-piece rotor, which is 1mm thicker than stock performance rotor. I was able to disable the e-brake by following the instruction from another thread, the stock rotor can be removed with ease, but it doesn't quite have the extra 1mm needed for the thicker rotor.

I recall seeing a similar piston with two pins on the rear brake of my other cars. Those require a rotation tool to screw in the piston. I hope this is not the case with P3, as there is no straight on access to this piston. Attached is the photo of the caliper/piston.

The instruction I have follow is far:

• Put the car in tow mode
• Disconnect the electric plug to the brake caliper on the side I'm working
• Take stuff apart, swap rotors, reverse

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[mcbarnet007]

I've done this twice and you'll need to take off the parking motor. After that you'll need to turn clockwise on the screw that the parking motor drives. Do it slowly and compress the piston the same time. It should retract slowly. To put the parking motor back, you might need to adjust the screw slightly so it matches the orientation of the parking motor.

 

[Skione65]

Hi,

Any advice on how to get the rear caliper piston fully retracted? I'm installing a Racing Brake 2-piece rotor, which is 1mm thicker than stock performance rotor. I was able to disable the e-brake by following the instruction from another thread, the stock rotor can be removed with ease, but it doesn't quite have the extra 1mm needed for the thicker rotor.

I recall seeing a similar piston with two pins on the rear brake of my other cars. Those require a rotation tool to screw in the piston. I hope this is not the case with P3, as there is no straight on access to this piston. Attached is the photo of the caliper/piston.

The instruction I have follow is far:

• Put the car in tow mode
• Disconnect the electric plug to the brake caliper on the side I'm working
• Take stuff apart, swap rotors, reverse

Thanks in advance for your input.

View attachment 397914

@beastmode13,

Do you have a link to the thread on disabling the e-brake?

Ski

 

[beastmode13]

@beastmode13,

Do you have a link to the thread on disabling the e-brake?

Ski

Post #11 > Aftermarket Racing Performance brake rotors - weight loss w/better heat dissipation at a steep price

then do the steps on post #2 per @mcbarnet007

 

[beastmode13]

Well, boys and girls pay attention and go slow when you rotate the parking lock bolt. I got distracted while I was doing it and push the entire piston out of the caliper. In an attempt to push the piston back into the caliper, I proceeded to push the parking lock bolt into the piston. What is better than one problem? Two problems.

At this point, I was ready to toss the towel in and just get a new caliper from SC. It turns out I'm the first person ever ask about purchasing a rear Performance caliper. FYI, the price for a new rear P caliper is over $600, and I was quoted two weeks before the part arrives at SC. Having the car on jacks for two weeks is not an option.

After I cool my head off, I decided to try to fix it myself. I removed the caliper from the car and took a good look at it on my workbench. Things are a lot easier when you can see it clearly. Using a 6mm Allen wrench which fits the bolt perfectly, I aligned the bolt with the hole that it went in through. Slowly pushing the piston back in from the other side I was able to get the bolt back out of the hole. The next challenge is getting the tension ring back on the bolt. For this I use a vise to keep the piston in place while I used a socket that fits over the bolt but still small enough to push on the tension ring. With couple gentle taps of rubber mallet, the ring is back in place. Caliper is fixed.

Below are couple photos of the the process of getting the tension ring back on. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos when the bolt went into the caliper. That one is self explainatory when it happens to you.

 

[beastmode13]

For those interested in using Motive Power Bleeder on your Model 3. The cap adaptor you need is 1118.

1118 Black Label GM / Late Mustang 3-Tab Cap

 

[SammichLover]

For those interested in using Motive Power Bleeder on your Model 3. The cap adaptor you need is 1118.

1118 Black Label GM / Late Mustang 3-Tab Cap

Yeah, I got mine a few weeks ago. I've been swamped with life (and getting my front rotors turned after I cooked the pads ) lately and haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Maybe this long weekend.

Have you had a chance to use it yet?

 

[beastmode13]

Yeah, I got mine a few weeks ago. I've been swamped with life (and getting my front rotors turned after I cooked the pads ) lately and haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Maybe this long weekend.

Have you had a chance to use it yet?

I have the Capri as well, saw tons of great review on Amazon, so I bought it. I used Capri yesterday and thought it was way slow and deafening from the air compressor and the venturi valve. This morning I called Motive and learn about the 1118 and post it here before I drove down to Gilroy to get the cap from Motive HQ. The Motive folks are super nice and told me that they only recently modified the 1118, so it will work with Model 3, and Motive is what Tesla Mobile Service uses to bleed brakes.

Couple tips on the 1118, it comes with two different thickness of rubber grommets. The thick one is too thick; the thin one can only hold 12~15psi of pressure before it starts to leak around the cap. Fortunately, Motive still works well excellent and expediently even at 10psi.

 

[brianman]

It turns out I'm the first person ever ask about purchasing a rear Performance caliper.

Incorrect. I asked back in Nov. '18.

 

[SammichLover]

Couple tips on the 1118, it comes with two different thickness of rubber grommets. The thick one is too thick; the thin one can only hold 12~15psi of pressure before it starts to leak around the cap. Fortunately, Motive still works well excellent and expediently even at 10psi.

Thanks for the tip! I knew I was going to have to figure out which one was the right one, no instructions for that came in the box. This will save me headache of ciphering it out by trial and error.

I assume it was the included pad(s) that they changed for it to work with the Model 3, because I was warned that for now only those shipped direct from them would work. That old stock at distributors probably was an older iteration of it that wouldn't, even though it had the same part number.

Yeah, 10 PSI is definitely enough in my experience for the Motive. You could probably get away with 5 PSI with only a bit more patience. Although maybe the lower pressure you go there is a bit of risk of it not working quite as well to push a bubble free in a new installed caliper? Still better than old school gravity feed in any case....and "more [rubber] hammer" is gonna be there as a solution.

 

[beastmode13]

Another FYI @

Yeah, 10 PSI is definitely enough in my experience for the Motive. You could probably get away with 5 PSI with only a bit more patience. Although maybe the lower pressure you go there is a bit of risk of it not working quite as well to push a bubble free in a new installed caliper? Still better than old school gravity feed in any case....and "more [rubber] hammer" is gonna be there as a solution.

Right there, well said. Exactly why I used Motive instead of Capri for the job.