I had to replace the rear brake caliper on my2007 F250 today. I had an issue though and I don't know what to do about it. The new caliper had the usual plastic plug in the brake line hole. When I tried to remove the plug, it fell inside the caliper body. !!
What can I do?
Will it cause any damage?
Will it cause a problem?
Is there a way to get it out?

 

This is just speculation -- I've never faced this problem, not am I any kind of mechanic.

Can it cause a problem -- I'm guessing that it could jam up the piston and possibly cause it not to move or to stay stuck in the brake applied position.

How to remove -- Google caliper exploded view and you'll see a lot of diagrams of what's in there. It looks as if you could remove the dust boot and the piston seal and then take the piston out. BUT -- it's probably a bad idea to try it yourself. You could ruin the piston bore or the piston pretty easily I'd bet.

Maybe some place that's a real brake shop could do it for a reasonable price. Call around and see what they say. Also look for some small independant shops. Some of those guys are pretty good. (and some aren't).

I'm a little surprised that it happened. Did it break apart or something? I thought that they usually had a little lip that rested on the rim of the brake line hole. If it did break apart you COULD get lucky and shake it out.

Good luck,

hj

 

I don't think Ford's bothered to correct whatever the problem is with the replacement calipers on the super duty ( mine go every every 12-18 months which is rediculas) Don't play with it, take that one back and say it's faulty,. Believe me it's only the begining of a long list of calipers you'll probably be needing to buy on a regular basis so don't feel guilty. Those things are one of my biggest pet peaves . . Again don't play with it, it's nothing but a piece of money sucking junk anyway and the last thing you should do is take ownership of any problems they already have by messing with them.

 

If you use an air compressor hose, you should be able to "pop" the piston out of the caliper, remove the plug and with a little bit of brake fluid applied as a lube to the seals, reinstall the piston...not a big deal....unless you leave it in there....and if you take it back to ford, they are going to ask you specifically what's wrong..... all I can say is "good luck" with that one......

 

Any good parts store/ dealer should accept a problem part at your word. The exact issue with it isn't something a customer needs to or should diagnose. IF they argue with you over something more than your saying it's not working properly, especially with something brake related than my point is only confirmed. If those calipers were not such an ongoing thing I'd agree being totally honest, buy another or play with it and hope you do everything right. But once you've touched something like that you own it and own all responsibility for any failure from that point on. And with brakes well.... Only my opinion, doesn't need to be followed in any way shape or form . Simply depends on what kind of good luck you prefer. After being forced to spend what I have on calipers over the years , you tend to become tainted on what kind of quality you're spending hard earned money on. As earlier posted, simply being able to poke one of those through the hole is suspect all by itself. I wouldn't touch that part with a ten foot pole.

 

Since it was ordered through a ford dealer it would typically be considered a "special order', meaning, if the part is defective, ok, no issue with them handling it, if you're returning it because you accidentially pushed a plug used to protect dust, etc. from getting into the caliper, and accidentally pushed it into the caliper......good luck!

 

OP simply said he bought a new caliper and somehow poked the plug inside then asked what he could do. No mention of a ford dealer special order that I noticed. If he special ordered a caliper through a dealer , that's a lesson learned in itself, . Each post including yours answered what he could do. He's free to do as he chooses but he's in a lose lose situation. Unless he takes a loss and just buys another caliper he's taking either a slight moral risk by returning it or a slight legal risk playing with a 'new' brake part and it's simply something he should be aware of. Once again, if that plug popped inside without a lot of force pushing directly inward , my guess is either the plug was defective or it was sold before and someone popped it out, weakened the lip on it, put the plug back it to return it for whatever reason, wrong part, wrong side, ended up not being needed as they thought or whatever. He came along and it was resold to him. That's why I'd simply say it was defective, start off fresh , safe and that way it's returned as a defective part and not just put back on the shelf to be resold to the next unsuspecting guy. But again, he can play with it, get the plug out and hope it all works out fine and/or pray there wasn't a guy before him that did the same thing.

 

After I posted, I checked youtube and found a few vids about caliper disassembly. It's not rocket science, but you have to be careful not to damage the piston and the seals. Both the vids I watched showed putting a piece of wood in front of the piston so that it wouldn't bang into metal and get damaged.

hj.

 

Yes, it's nothing that hard to do. Be careful and you should be fine. As long as your good with the time you'll spent on it, just do what you need to do.. Prices on those vary widely so if you have an expensive one, simply keep in mind there's no turning back if something goes wrong once you open and play with it. If its a cheap one and you still believe it's worth the time , just dive in. It'll be a good learning experience if nothing else. Pretty sure it'll turn out just fine but after a few decades playing with things VS time/effort/ risk/ expense/results give some of us a different outllook on what's worth spending any time on. I doubt there's many out there that can say they never had the 'I never should have touched this thing' regret. Good luck. It's always good to try something new and have the feeling of accomplishment after the fact.