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Help - Rear drum brake cynlinder piston poped out

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by prscht, Mar 8, 2010.

  1. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    Hi all,

    I pressed the brake pedal while the left rear drum was off of the car. Then there's a popping sound and brake fluid squirted out of the rear brake cylinder. The attached picture shows what happened, now the right piston is pushed out, the cylinder dust boot separated from the cylinder, and about half of the brake fluid in the reservoir drained through this leak. The right shoe is all the way extended.

    Do I need to replace the entire cylinder assembly or can I disassemble the unit and replace the bad parts? Which parts went bad? When bleeding the brake, do I need to remove the No.1 and No.2 motor relays under the hood? Is an Intelligent Tester needed as mentioned in the factory service manual to bleed brakes? Thanks for any help, I have never worked on rear brakes before.
     

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  2. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    I don't think you broke anything. Lost a lot of brake fluid, but that's about it. You should be able to push it back together if you open the bleed valve. Getting all the air out of the system is going to require Techstream, a MasterTech scantool, or something similar.
     
  3. bat4255

    bat4255 2017 Prius v #2 and 2008 Gen II #2

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    I also feel that nothing is broken. All that happened was the piston was over extended because the drum was not on. You should be able to reassemble using the parts you have.
     
  4. MERIDIAN

    MERIDIAN Junior Member

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    If the piston did'nt come out all the way,you might not have taken in air.You have to put the drums on anyway to bleed it,so why not top off the resevoir and check for spongy pedal?:)
     
  5. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    OK cool, I feel so much better now that nothing seems broken. Yea the piston was not hanging out, just overextended.

    So just open the bleeder valve, push the piston back in, then bleed the brake. I remember having a hard time pushing the shoe/piston back yesterday but that was with the bleeder valve closed. I will try again tonight.

    Can I bleed it without the scan tool? I have an ODBII to USB interface module that I use with a laptop to read codes, that's it. I will search for bleeding procedure if not found will ask here again.

    You guys have been a great help! thanks everyone!
     
  6. bat4255

    bat4255 2017 Prius v #2 and 2008 Gen II #2

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    If no fluid leaked out, I would still try to push it back without opening the bleeder valve. Doing so, would not allow air to get in the line, and a very good chance that you would not need to bleed the brake line. When I do brakes, (95% front disk), I use a C clamp to push the caliper piston back, and I have yet had a need to bleed the brakes afterwords, because no air enters the system. Perhaps something similar could be done with the rear, by attaching the shoes, and carefully use a large C type clamp (possibly a padded wood workers clamp) on the shoes to push the piston back.

    By opening the bleeder valve, there is a risk if allowing air into the system, that would require you to bleed the brakes.

    Let us know how it went.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  7. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    It may not be necessary to use a scantool to bleed the Prius brakes. Certainly any time-is-money mechanic would use a scantool. But if you'd rather spend time than money, all the scan tools do is operate solenoids. It can't be that difficult to unplug the solenoids, and hook up your own wiring to power the solenoids.
     
  8. PriusLewis

    PriusLewis Management Scientist

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    I would try a compromise between the "open" or "not open" school of thought. First, place pressure on the piston to push it back into the cylinder. Next, while holding the pressure, slowly open the bleed screw until it starts to let fluid out. Continue to press the piston as it moves in. Keep more pressure on it than is necessary to get it to move so that it does not have a chance to move back and suck in air. As the piston returns to the "in" position, tighten the bleed screw while still pushing in on the piston. This method should ensure it does not aspirate some air through the bleed screw as you are moving the piston back in. Trying to push the fluid all the way to the master cylinder may or may not work.

    NOTE: if you have the drum off the other side, make sure to put it back on before doing all this. You don't want to accidently push fluid all the way back to the master cylinder, and back out to the other rear brake.
     
  9. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Sorry but your done. You opened the hydraulic system with the loss of fluid. The car's skid cpu will detect that loss of pressure and possibly immobilize the car. You may be unable to move the car.

    There's no way to bleed the brakes without the proper software.

    Check it by going into Ready and check the codes it will throw with your laptop.

    BTW, here's a link from another poster with similiar issues:
    http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...em-rear-brakes-no-pressure-when-bleeding.html
     
  10. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Meep, that's a bit of an oops. Did you rip the boot, or did it
    just pop off the end of the cylinder intact? Was the car
    powered up or down at the time? How much fluid escaped?
    .
    If you are very sure you didn't get air back up the rear line far
    enough to land in the actuator, and didn't wind up draining out
    enough fluid to empty the reservoir, there's a good chance that
    you *can* recover gracefully from this. Please see the brake
    section in my 100K maintenance pages, where I do a very brief rear
    bleed to pull a little fluid sample. The other referenced thread
    above is slightly wrong about not being able to bleed the rears --
    but you have to do it with the car *powered up* because of the way
    the brake system works. And it does not work through pumping the
    pedal, as the actuator valves and accumulator will continue sending
    pressure to the rear lines until the pressure sensors show the
    right feedback. That implies that a held pedal and a leak in
    the rear system would cause the accumulator to happily pump the
    reservoir dry all by itself, so be careful here.
    .
    Remove both shoes to get more working room. The main spring just
    under the cylinder is a pain in the nice person to unhook; a small
    screwdriver held in a pair of vice-grips or something helps. Keep
    everything *religiously* clean, and make sure you didn't damage the
    edge of the piston seal. You might want to bleed a little more fluid
    [and keep an eye on the reservoir] with the thing still open just to
    make sure there aren't a lot of air bubbles coming out of the line at
    you. Reinsert the piston *really* carefully to avoid messing up the
    edge of the seal lip. Hopefully there's enough up-and-down in the
    line that no bubbles would have risen all the way back up to the
    actuator in the time it took you to post and read all this stuff
    in return, and you'll be able to reassemble things and keep a solid
    column of fluid intact. And as someone already said, having the
    bleeder open just a touch will allow the piston to displace fluid
    as it goes back in.
    .
    Air remaining in the rear lines will likely *not* give a "spongy
    pedal" feel, as your master cylinder is pretty much insulated from
    it all the time under all operational modes. The only difference
    air would make is that more fluid would have to be pumped in and
    out to bring the rears to the requisite pressure, and the nagging
    chance that the trapped air could eventually migrate back up to
    where it would do more harm. So you want to make sure that line
    is thoroughly bled, maybe doing it again after a couple of days
    of driving around. The only hint that something's amiss might be
    more accumulator running, and a very slightly different subtle
    change in valve modulation as the brakes are applied.
    .
    _H*
     
  11. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    Thanks for the advice. I just pushed the piston back into the cylinder without opening the bleed valve. I wasn't able to do that yesterday because the fork in the parking brake shoe strut was not correctly seated in the left shoe; it was pulled out by the right shoe as the piston was pushing the right shoe out of place.

    Anyway, about half of the original brake fluid drained out from the piston/cylinder leak. I read and understand the warnings about only the dealer can properly bleed the brakes. I just need to make it drivable to the dealer (~5 miles).

    Should I add brake fluid to reservoir, open the bleed valve until fluid comes out then close it? Again, thanks for all the inputs.
     
  12. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    Hobbit, I was working on the car when you posted this and posted my previous message without reading your post, so unfortunately i wasn't able to follow what you described exactly.

    Answers to your Qs: the boot was not ripped, it is also intact after i put it back on. the car was powered off when this happened, and has never been back on since. I'm not sure if air got in, but fluid did drip out until it stopped dripping by itself, at which time there was half of the original quantity of brake fluid in the reservoir (just below the "Min" mark), no more fluid dripped out since.

    As it stands right now:

    1. Without opening the bleed valve, I very carefully slid the piston back in the cylinder without binding/scratching the piston/cylinder and made sure that i didn't damage the seal.

    2. Since i didn't open the bleed valve while pushing the piston back in, would the next step be opening the bleed valve and adding fluid to reservoir?...you mentioned powering the car on...I will read your post again and the 100K maintenance pages to see what the next steps should be.

    Thanks!
     
  13. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    Pictures of the piston back in, and brake fluid left in the reservoir.
     

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  14. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Okay, well, now you've likely got a wheel cylinder full of air.
    So more fluid is going to leave the reservoir as the system tries
    to compress against that, and/or you bleed that line. Do you
    have additional DOT 3 brake fluid available? You should likely
    pick some up before proceeding, to make very sure you don't
    empty the reservoir.
    .
    Refer to the hydraulic diagram, and note that the only way
    pressure can reach the rear wheels is through the SLARx valves
    which are normally closed and need power to operate and open. When
    the car is powered off the brake ECU still gets more or less powered
    on when the brake pedal is pressed, and will do sort of a rough
    rear-wheel pressurization in response to pedal application, but
    it's better to come to full READY where you have smoother overall
    control in the braking systems. To send continuous pressure to
    the rear wheels, wedge the pedal slightly applied like I did with
    my special rock.
    .
    _H*
     
  15. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    OK I've already bought a bottle of brake fluid and will try the following tomorrow:

    1.fill reservoir, do not exceed Max
    2.(take Relays out? Not for rear brakes)
    3.IG ON. (same as ICE on/READY mode?)
    4.Connect vinyl tubing to bleeder plug
    5.Depress brake pedal and loosen bleeder plug until all air comes out, do not pump brake, hold pedal depressed when bleeding
    6.tighten bleeder plug after all air is out, release brake

    Please let me know if there's anything wrong with the above. Should I do this with the other rear brake, too? Since i have not powered the car On since this happened what codes will I be getting? Thanks.
     
  16. nthach

    nthach New Member

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    ^ that will throw a few codes. I had this happen to me last week. What I did was clean off the piston, put it back in and I cracked the bleeder screw and let gravity take over. Then I tried to bleed the system that way, but after I was done I saw all the brake warning lights light up.

    I cleared the codes by using a jumper wire between terminals 4 and 13, and I have problems since - but I'm going to be taking the car in for a proper brake flush.
     
  17. prscht

    prscht Junior Member

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    nthach, can you still drive after you bled the brake and clear the codes with the jumper? That's all i need to get it going to the dealer. What problems have you had?
     
  18. nthach

    nthach New Member

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    Yep - all the codes were cleared and my parents said they didn't see the dash light up like a Christmas tree.

    The system threw 3 codes - 1 for brake system leakage, and 2 for left rear hydraulic fault - a pressure drop when the bleeder was cracked. After I cleared the code, I took the car on a vigorous test run to ensure no problems will happen - the regen was working, and heard the brake pressure pump running normally.
     
  19. kurtdaniel1

    kurtdaniel1 New Member

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    ,i just want to post a newbie question on how to clear those codes..
     
  20. gundush

    gundush New Member

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    I also knocked the piston out but I had an added rip in the boot. At, first I didn't see the rip and started bleeding but to no avail. After another inspection I noticed the boot rip. Very small rip but is pumping air back into the system. I replaced the wheel cylinder. Been through all the steps.Filled reservoir twice after hitting the median between full and low. Just wondering roughly how long I'm supposed to sit pumping the brakes before I get any pressure. Could there be another issue or is there just that much air in the rear line? The fluid is dripping out and not really spraying.