To those asking about pushing the piston back, the cardone one was a brand new (remanufactured) caliper, so I never touched the piston or pushed it back, obviously had no reason to do so... For the previous caliper, the promecanix one, when I pushed it back in, I used my brake caliper compression tool, looks like this
This one properly rotates the piston back while pushing it... not sure how else you're supposed to push a piston back... so when I say I tore the boot, who knows, maybe I tore the inner gasket too
Regarding the cardone caliper and the seal, thanks for the replies everyone, the gasket didn't look right to me either but I don't have that much experience of what gaskets should/shouldn't look like... I wanted to take the gasket apart, but figured it might be to much of a pain to do so since I am returning it for a full refund and wanted to bring it back in one piece (not like they'd ever check the inside of the caliper at the store anyways)... If I have more time to fiddle with it tomorrow, I may take the gasket apart and post a picture
I hope this nugeon one is better made... I don't expect amazing quality from aftermarket remans, I am well aware of the you get what you pay for, but this cardone caliper was an absolute joke, and more so, dangerous, which has me wondering how the hell they get away with selling probably tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands... I see these calipers at various shops I drive to for my second job all the time...
I will say this, lesson learned, hope the Nugeon one lasts and doesn't bite me again, and i'll be be buying quality calipers from now on, just like how I learned with wheel bearings (luckily that one was a cheap mistake and I never actually used the cheap bearing I bought)
This one properly rotates the piston back while pushing it... not sure how else you're supposed to push a piston back... so when I say I tore the boot, who knows, maybe I tore the inner gasket too
Regarding the cardone caliper and the seal, thanks for the replies everyone, the gasket didn't look right to me either but I don't have that much experience of what gaskets should/shouldn't look like... I wanted to take the gasket apart, but figured it might be to much of a pain to do so since I am returning it for a full refund and wanted to bring it back in one piece (not like they'd ever check the inside of the caliper at the store anyways)... If I have more time to fiddle with it tomorrow, I may take the gasket apart and post a picture
I hope this nugeon one is better made... I don't expect amazing quality from aftermarket remans, I am well aware of the you get what you pay for, but this cardone caliper was an absolute joke, and more so, dangerous, which has me wondering how the hell they get away with selling probably tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands... I see these calipers at various shops I drive to for my second job all the time...
I will say this, lesson learned, hope the Nugeon one lasts and doesn't bite me again, and i'll be be buying quality calipers from now on, just like how I learned with wheel bearings (luckily that one was a cheap mistake and I never actually used the cheap bearing I bought)