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Author: YURIY-GX71

So, another weekend spent productively with March. The reason for rebuilding the brake calipers was our 'good' rainy summer in Primorye, where the roads are flooded)) and as a result, the brakes on my March started to chatter and heat up the brake discs significantly. Original repair kits for the calipers are quite expensive and take a long time to arrive, so I found aftermarket equivalents by SAM (04479-22010 - rear, 04479-30090 - front) at an auto market. Each repair kit cost 600 rubles. During the rebuild, I was surprised at how poor the condition of the calipers' internals were, especially the brake cylinders and pistons. On the front calipers, the boots on the pistons were severely torn. The pistons showed slight signs of rust, but I wasn't prepared for this since I didn't have any new ones handy, so I cleaned them up and put them back in place. As for the aftermarket repair kits – they fit perfectly as if they were original parts. Since I was doing this part of the car’s maintenance for the first time, I noted down important points to follow the correct sequence, which I will try to outline here. So,
Sequence for rebuilding rear calipers:
1. Loosen two bolts on the piston housing (the base of the caliper doesn't need to be loosened);
2. Remove the housing without disconnecting it from the brake line;
3. Pump the brake pedal until the piston pops out of the cylinder (you can't pull it out manually, I tried)) );
4. Disconnect the brake line from the housing and plug it with a wooden stick or something similar;
5. Disassemble the piston housing, clean the pistons and cylinder thoroughly, and file down any rough spots where the seals are supposed to fit;
6. Install the seal and the piston with its boot in sequence as seen on the photo:
a) install the seal;
b) put the boot over the top of the piston but leave the bottom part loose;
c) place the bottom part into its spot, then push the piston into the cylinder;
d) slowly press the piston down into the cylinder using a small pulley puller or similar tool to remove as much air from the cylinder as possible and make it easier to mount the housing on the hub.
7. Replace the boots on the sliders, but the process of mounting them is the same as for the pistons;
8. Install the assembled housing on the hub, reconnect the brake line, bleed out any air in the system. That's all!

The sequence for rebuilding front brakes is similar, but there are some differences:
1. Loosen two bolts (the upper one just a bit so that it doesn’t come off completely due to the brake hose, and fully unscrew the lower one) on the piston housing (the base of the caliper does not need to be loosened yet);
2. Remove the housing without disconnecting it from the brake line;
3. Pump the brake pedal until the piston pops out of the cylinder;
4. Disconnect the brake line from the housing and plug it with a wooden stick or similar object;
5. Remove the housing and caliper base from the hub;
6. Replace the seal and boot on the piston in the same sequence as for the rear calipers;
7. Replace the boots on the base of the caliper;
8. Install the assembled base and caliper housing onto the hub, reconnect the brake line, bleed out any air in the system. That's all!
That’s how it went. As an additional note, since last year I had genuine brake hoses from e-xist.ru lying around in my garage (the original ones were cracked), so I also replaced them at this time. Hope someone finds my description of this process useful.
Photos for the procedure are attached, but I will divide them into two parts to upload all photos! First, photos for rebuilding rear calipers.