On Sunday, I had a second go at my brakes, this time having more time, and taking the troubled one apart more completely. As the mechanic at work suspected, it had rust build-up on the piston that was making it hard to move (and likely the culprit for why that inside pad wore way too soon). So I removed that and cleaned up the rust, then put it back it. This time, it was SO easy to retreat that I was kicking myself for not doing that the first time! In the process I lost about 1/4 cup of brake fluid - didn't think that would be a problem, though as I topped up after the back brakes were finished. When it came to "pump the brakes" after the job, to firm them up again, they didn't... "oh oh, what'd I do", I thought to myself. I was under the impression that the brakes just self adjust to the correct depth, which they do, but wasn't happening. The brake petal would go right to the floor with little resistance, and after pumping them a few times, the pressure would just leave again. Hmm..... not good. I called Tony to ask him what he thought. He said, just keep pumping them as the cylinder should refill and get pressure back. So I took it around the block, pumping the brakes the whole way. Little-to-no improvement.
So I left them as they were so that I could ask one of the mechanics at work about it. He said, without hesitation, there's probably air in the lines and you have the bleed them. I had asked Tony about that on Sunday, to which he said, no you shouldn't have to do that (I should have just tried it anyway). So after a quick lesson on how to do that, I went home at the end of the day, and bled them. There's a little screw that you loosen that purges the air from the cylinder, so that's all I did on the one side. A few bubbles of air came out, and I had a neighbour pump the brakes while I bled them until I was sure the air was gone. Sure enough, that was the problem. 10 extra minutes on Sunday would have saved my concern, and the brakes are now working great!
The question for me now is, do I attempt my front brakes and oil change? I guess I should take the wheels off and have a look to see if they're needed (I bought front brakes and rotors at the same time because they were on sale). My intention is to be done with the brakes until I sell/trade in the car next year. I do like to have new brakes on all 4 wheels, though, so we'll see.
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