I got in a bit of a mess doing rear pads yesterday. I followed the process to put the handbrake in the service position not using the diags tool, which going by the noises, seemed to retract the handbrake, but no messages that it had actually done it.
Tooke the pads out, but couldn't push or wind the piston in, so got the diags tool out to use that to put handbrake into service position. Unfortunately, just turning the ignition on was enough to cause the handbrake to come on, popping the piston out of the caliper in the process.
Fortunately that nice ex-member Gixer popped over to lend a hand at this point to see what could be done.
4 hrs later, we had managed to get 70 ball bearings and 10 springs back in to the handbrake actuator, and rebuilt that. Tidied the caliper enough so it is short term usable (it's had water ingress and corroded badly, so needs refurb, looks like it had been binding as well (probably just replace it TBH)), and got it back together. Car is movable now, and probably fine for short journeys, as I imagine we'll be hard pressed to get another caliper by next weekend, given the short week. Need to give it a quick test drive.
Had a very quick look (it was not far off getting dark at this point) at other caliper on the other side, that looks badly corroded, but might be serviceable, half tempted to get a caliper for that side as well.
I'd like to thank chrisgixer for popping over yesterday to lend a hand, as it had seemed like a completely lost cause at one point when bearings and springs flew everywhere.