I noted some time ago that my driver side (rear) dust boot on my piston was shot. Saturday I decided to fix it.



This was a bit of a PITA. I have not discovered how to keep the brake line from dripping all the fluid out of the master cylinder so it drip, drip, dripped its way damn near to a brake fluid flush. I never let it get dry or down too low, kept topping it off with brand new Valvoline DOT 3/4 Synthetic, but jeeze what a pain. For the next one I'll use a vacuum cap on the line, prior to the run to the caliper.

Popping it out with the air compressor was a breeze. As you can see, the old boot left crap behind on the rim of the piston and along the lip of the caliper, as well as inside a bit.



I hit all that with a brush and brake cleaner, until it looked like this:





Then came the 1 of 2 PITA parts. The FSM calls for lithium soap base glycol grease. No one around here has that, dealer was out of stock. I did not know this was not part of the repair kit (it is not), so I had the line dripping and needed something to lubricate. So I got some synthetic moly blah blah blah everything brake grease and used it. It's blue, and maybe it is OK, maybe I will need to do this again. We'll see what you experts say.

Then I had to press that piston back in. The FSM shows you doing it with your hands, and not to force it with a tool. Yeah, right. Not a chance. I had to use my POS tool I got AutoZone some time ago to press the piston in. I call it a POS as it does not have any adapters to fit over the piston (so you have to just put it into the cavity) and it won't back out far enough to use it as designed when the piston is out as far as it is when you have it popped out. So, I had to rig a way to do it with clamps and such, but in the end I got it in.

Then PITA 2: the boot. You have to be careful you don't puncture it, but it has to be worked to get it in the groove right. Not to mention the metal snap ring you need to get in place. I wrestled with it a but, but final got it all in without tearing the new boot.

The boot, ring, and already inside is the inner gasket.


I compressed the piston back in, got it all buttoned up, and took a test drive. Damn near had a heart attack seeing how I had virtually no brakes. I was concerned the piston was not able to press out (due to possible bad grease used), and thought I most likely had air in the line. So back up on the jack stands. I had my son press the brake and I could see the piston move out freely enough, so that eased that concern. I bled some air out of the line, so saw that was an issue. Then took a good look at the pads. Think they needed to be replaced?



You see the old behind the new. There was around 5mm on most pads on the rear, but on that side the outboard pad was down under 4mm or thereabouts. So I replaced all the pads in the rear. Used some ceramic brake grease for the contact points. Put it all back together and it worked great. Always love the feel of new shoes on the Camry!

I will video the entire job, from wheel removal to reassembly, on the next boot repair for the rear. Look for that sometime in July.

 

Great write up and pics!

The grease issue is for compatibility with the seals and fluid (glycol-ether).

Apparently the official product is hard to find.

Most other manufacturers recommend brake fluid as the lube.

 

I was that close to just using brake fluid, but I figured I'd get it "right" when I do the next one. I ordered the Toyota part number today 08887-01206, will get it by end of the week. Targeting July 11 weekend to hit the other rear boot as it looks gnarly (and I already have the repair kit), so will just pull the new one off and grease it up properly when I do the other one. Just work.

I will be videoing the other repair so will have a DIY for that.

 

Nice write up! Thanks for sharing and again, great pics!