Brakes on a '97 Sport...

[85Tbird5oh]

Hey all, as you mighta guessed I'm new here and no, I don't drive a Neon. However I'm gonna be doing the brakes on my girlfriend's parent's car soon and it's, like you might have guessed also, a '97 Sport. Now, I've replaced brakes before, pads, shoes, rotors, drums, hardware, lines, master cylinder, but I've never done it on any Chrysler.

My question is, what should I expect? Will I need any special kinda tools? What's the process for compressing the piston back into the caliper? I'm always leery about doing brake work but I feel confident. I just wanna make sure I'm not caught with my pants down and lookin' like an idiot. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[dropmech]

I just changed the brakes on my friends neon a few weeks ago. There really isn't anything out of the ordinary from other cars. You will need a piston compressing tool which is about $5 from a parts store. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward.

[85Tbird5oh]

Are you talkin' about the sqare thing that's used to screw the piston back into the caliper? Are these used on the front calipers? I'm guessing this car doesn't have rear discs, but I dunno. When compressing the caliper pistons, is it neccessary to take the cap off of the master cylinder? I'm guessing the Haynes manual I'm gonna get will tell me all this. Just wanna cover my ass.

[dropmech]

That's the tool i'm talking about. You don't need to remove the master cylinder cover if you didn't brake the system integrity anywhere i.e. loosening brake lines, etc.

[Polygon]

You don't need any special tools. It should be pretty much the same as changing the brakes on your Thunderbird. To compress the caliper pistons you can use something as simple as a screw vise, you don't need any special five dollar tool to do it.