Yes, you have to disconnect the cable, before you push the piston back. I tried without disconnect the cable, the cable didn't go back in at all.

Has anyone tried putting the car in neutral? I'm wondering if you have it in neutral, chock the front, raise the back the wheel should spin freely. If it does then my only concern would be whether the piston is far enough retracted that it can fit over new pads?

Looks like you have to remove the electric brake actuator and use a Torx 40 also called a T-40 bit and spin it while pressing in the caliper, Here are two Youtube videos showing it being done. Be careful not to damage the O-ring when removing the actuator.

I did it without scan tool, and here is how:
put in park
While running, turn OFF the auto e brake
turn off the car
remove the negative battery cable and positive
remove rear wheels
disconnect E brake connection
Then replace as normal

I used the tool Torx to turn the piston as seen on YOUTUBE

This is the NX procedure (which is very similar) note the verbage on page 4. It cautions that if you use a hex wrench to rotate that nut to release the brake, you have to replace the brake actuator o-Ring.

https://media-cf.assets-cdk.com/team...TG_Outline.pdf

Good point. I mentioned not to damage it in my post when taking off the actuator, but technically you should pick up a new one along with you other parts. Part Number: 90015AH005. It only a few dollars.

I've done countless brake jobs on different cars but will be doing my '17 RX for the first time. Ordering new OEM rotors and pads all around. Anything else I should get? Shims are usually reusable at least once.

The electronic parking brake, anything around that I should know? It's always been a nightmare taking off rear rotors on other cars due to rusted parking brake. Never seen what this electronic stuff looks back there, hopefully it's not a pain to deal with.

Also, does anyone know the size of the bleeder screw on the rotors? I want to flush the system using a speed bleeder.


Thanks

Your best bet is to invest in the Techstream software, once you have that the rest is easy. Use the NX procedure above and chock the front wheels a leave it in park. Then you can remove one wheel at a time and chock the other . When you are done turn the ignition on and set the parking brake , you’ll hear the piston winding out till it stops , After the car is started the EPB will release and you are done.

9volt worked perfect for me

This should work for our cars right? i wish i knew this before putting in new pads... would have save me half an hour.

DOES NOT WORK ON 4th GEN RX350!!!

Nice! Tried it on my 2018. After disengaging it, and then turning the car on again, as instructed, mine backed off the motor on the first pull of the button, and re-tightened on the first push thereafter. At least I THINK that's what happened. It's reset to auto and hopefully stays that way. But that's much more elegant than some of the home brew procedures that you can find.

awesome learned something new

Tell me about it, I ​​​​​​ couldn't get the 9v battery trick to work! I'm not sure what the culprit was but good thing I bought a pair of o-rings for the EPB as a backup plan just in case, so I did end up just rewinding it with an allen wrench.

I saw this on YouTube yesterday.....safer than trying to wire it and kill a computer. I asked him about using the Torx fitting on back of the motor that I have seen some people use. He said don't do it manually bc it has to calibrate. I believe him, just wonder why it would not self calibrate when you re-engaged the system. I will use this video.

Nothing like the good old days when working on cars was super easy.

At first engagement of EPB after new brake pads it did display a message, but then it recalibrated and all was good....i think.
But there is no reason to do it that way if we can put it in service mode. Each EPB o-ring is like $3-4

There is an advantage to the EPB though. We no longer need special keys to push the caliper piston back,