^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^(read up there)^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You don't need to, but it gets any preservative oil off of them so they don't smoke the first day you're using them.

I don't wash my parts. Never been an issue...

I took the front apart again.

I lubed up the calipers pins with approved silicone lube.
Reassembled everything and there was plenty of back and forth movement in the caliper. With the rotor held in place with the lug nuts I then applied the brake.

The pads clamped down on the rotor but did not back off. I then started the car and pushed on the pedal and there was no change.

What could be keeping the cylinder piston from retracting? Any thoughts? Im ready to scrap the whole car.

Disk brakes drag a little. If they are clamping down and not releasing at all then you have a problem(colapsed brake line maybe?), but it'* always been my experience they will always drag a little.

There aren't any retracting springs like on drum brakes. Only the seal in the rubber boot and rotor runout causes the pads to retract. Only a few thous is necessary.

Drive it. It'll be OK.

That'* why drum brakes are faster in the quarter. No drag!

Agreed! Once the new pads are "bedded" they should stop fine. I don't get why there was some surface rust on the "New" Rotor hubs. Also, since you spent this much time, money, and effort on this project, you should have gone that one extra step (dollar) and replaced the front brake lines that go into the calipers if they have never been replaced.

This sounds like a normal issue to me.

With all the front disc brake jobs I've come across; once you compress the piston, install new pads and rotor, reassemble then repressurize the brake system, the piston will not go back into the caliper. It is a very small fraction of space between the pads and the rotors from that point forward. To ensure proper seat (as stated above) Drive your car up to speed and make a couple of hard stops. Then do the same in reverse. (I've heard this is good for the rear drum brakes as well).

If your having problems with pad to rotor contact (from warping or not seating; I would take things apart and troubleshoot, or make good use of the LLT Warranty that most brake components come with. As for the pads being extremely close to the rotor all the time...it'* completely normal in my book.

Just my $.02

-IKZ

Its all good man. Discs are supposed to make a little teensy tiny bit of contact with the pad to keep em a bit warm to burn off contaminents (mainly water). If they didnt do this they would not work in the rain very well if ya had to jump on the pedal to say, stop for a cat running across the road or something. Ever tried driving a old skool car w/ front drums in the rain? heh... you kinda just hope you can stop. If the pedal is not depressed, there is no contact in the drums (well there shouldnt be if they are adjusted right) so theres no heat generated untill the last minute when you are braking to burn off water and oils wich is not enuff. God bless disc brakes.

When your car is actually, on. There is a bit of pressure actually made to aid in keeping the pads in contact with the discs due to rotor runout trying to keep them apart and high heats and other such things. Discs are precise, a few millimeters of pad thickness can translate to a couple centimeters of pedal travel in a modern car. Keeping that in mind, a few millimeter gap between the discs and the pads would translate in to having to jam the pedal to the floor to get them to come on wich would not be cool. This is most apparent when you do a brake job on your car and you let your old pads really get down there. You install the new pads and all of a sudden the pedal only goes down like half of what it used to hehe.

You can bleed your brake system very easy w/out a bleeder bottle and a friend to pump the pedal because of this just by running the car in idle and backing off the bleeder valve a bit. Mind you this way is messy cuz it just runs out of the valve on to the floor so a ice cream bucket underneath is a good idea. And dont get brake fluid on tarmac it will eat it.

Well I hope that helps. :>

It'* all a matter of degrees. As the others have said, there is no return spring on disc brake pistons. So, they will drag for a little bit after they have been applied. But they should not drag much. For example, if you jack a wheel and tire off the ground, then apply and release the brake, you should be able to spin the tire and wheel easily with your hand. In the real world, after a brake application, the spin and twist of the rotor kicks the piston and pad back from creating any significant drag on the rotor as the car rolls. If you feel a noticeable drag, suspect collapsed hoses, especially if they are older.

BTW, I hope you opened the bleeder screw on the calipers when you pushed the pistons back in their bores. That keeps the dirty fluid from flowing back up into and quickly screwing up your master cylinder.

I always scrub the waxy oil off new rotors so that junk doesn't embed in the new pads.