DIY Rear Brake Calipers

2014 Gen III Prius Model 2

Maybe I missed it in my search here, but I couldn’t find a “Start to Finish” procedure for replacing a rear brake caliper(s). I’ve seen a few folks mentioning they’d replaced them without any details as to how they actually did it; the discussions seemed to focus on the bleeding procedure.


I’m about to do mine and below is what I have in mind. I’d appreciate any constructive criticism, cautions, tips, tricks, etc. regarding my proposed method. I’m leaving out some details like jacking up the car, removing wheels, lubing various parts, etc. I’ll start with the passenger’s side rear caliper and then repeat these steps when doing the driver’s side rear caliper.

1. Disconnect the battery. My thought is that now the rear brake booster pump (not sure what the official name is) won’t activate when I disconnect the hydraulic hose later or set any error codes when doing this (IS THIS TRUE?).

2. Loosen the “banjo bolt” while the caliper is in place and tighten it just enough so it doesn’t leak. This is so I can quickly transfer the hose to the new caliper when it is ready.

3. Remove the brake cable, again while the caliper is in place.

4. Install new pads & hardware on new caliper. Prefill the new caliper with brake fluid and make sure the bleeder screw is able to be loosened when bleeding.

5. Remove the old caliper from its mounting and hang it from something so the hose can be transferred to the new caliper when it is in place.

6. Remove old rotor and install new rotor.

7. Install new caliper.

8. Transfer hydraulic hose quickly to new caliper to minimize fluid loss. I don’t like the idea of pinching brake hoses and think that there will be minimal fluid loss and any air introduced will come out in the bleeding procedure.

9. Connect brake cable.

10. Connect battery.

11. Bleed this brake following Nutzaboutbolts’ Video 18 (nice video!)