jimdiddy21

I been doing some reading on this situation and it seems people have had frozen calipers, but once fixed there all set.

My situation and possible theory,correct me if I'm wrong.

I had someone put in my suspension and I think they did something to my front passenger abs wire, at first the abs light would pop on when I cut the wheel all the way to the left or right. Now I'm at the point where it just stays on.

Make a long story short I'm dealing with my third set of frozen calipers now, all in different areas. Is it just a coincidence and the abs has nothing to do with it or could that be the issue?

My mechanic told me my caliper hoses are clogged up and that's what seems to be the issue, but before I just go and replace the calipers I wanted to make sure its not the abs problem causing this issue.

Sorry for the long message just looking for some feedback as I haven't seen anything related on this site.

Thanks guys

TANKERG

Is it your calipers that are freezing, or are your caliper slide pins freezing?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

^^ that, and also "caliper hoses clogged up" makes no sense, if there is that much crap in your brake hydraulics you have even bigger problems

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

The calipers freeze up. It's a mechanical problem caused by the grease getting old and corrosion setting in on the pins. It happened to me. You need at least a propane torch to get it to loosen up.

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

A caliper rebuild kit is less than $20.00. Something is wrong with your ABS and it needs to be properly diagnosed. Find a new mechanic, because that guy doesn't know WTF he is talking about.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

I'm not so sure if the mechanic is a mess or if the OP doesn't know enough to understand what he's being told

jimdiddy21

Ya I'm not the car expert I'll admit that's the reason I'm on here looking for some feed back. I'm just going off what the mechanic told me, He said the hoses are clogged and the caliper can squeeze to brake but when it goes to release that's the issue.

So whether or not its just the hose or it goes even deeper then that I need to find out. I'm possibly going to just try and get my hands dirty and make it a project of my own so I can learn a little, but Im in boston so its going to have to wait till spring. I'll just order parts now and possible get a second opinion.

Thanks for the feed back

jimdiddy21

the car is paid off and not my daily driver and i got about 86k so I think I can get a few more years out of it even though it needs about 3k in upgrades. There is a lot of cars I like out there but a new payment isn't preferable, also when I get into my 8 I just get happy again!

Spin9k

Just my opinion, but I'd listen to Team and others who think you have frozen (seized) caliper pins. It's common, I've had them, many others as well. Problem is - it's a silent disease...you'd not realize you have it in many cases until inspection or compromised braking. When you do discover it, it takes a rebuild kit (a pain with stuck pins) or a rebuilt caliper (easy, just replace) to fix.

A clogged brake hose (or three of them) is high unlikely because ... if it was truly clogged, that wheel would have no brakes, if it was only partially clogged, well, the clog wouldn't matter. And what would clog it? There just no practical way for it to happen.

And get your ABS looked at, ABS is helpful, and the light doesn't tell you much - but to get it looked at. And BTW your mechanic need to go back to brake school me thinks, unless you are not relaying what he told you exactly.

One last suggestion - I wouldn't recommend brakes being your 1st foray into car repair - it's a safety issue and not something you want to learn was done incorrectly the hard way. I'm in NH and would gladly look at them if you want to come up, just PM me. I've done mine so many times, they're like old friends at this point.

godesshunter

Hoses being clogged is not a far-fetched idea. And the theory behind what you mechanic is saying is correct. It is possible that the hoses can deteriorate over time and cause the pressure to not relieve itself causing the illusion of a stuck caliper. I have diagnosed it and repaired it before.

Thing is, your car is too young to have it happen. Ive seen it several times on older cars from the '90s and older. Most commonly on Mercedes and VW. I wouldnt say your mechanic is an idiot but probably more accustomed to working on older cars.

Chances are, as others have mentioned, it is the guide pins that are rusted solid. If you replaced calipers in the past and didn't service the guide pins, that could be the problem.

Now a days most aftermarket providers sell a whole new bracket with a new caliper and it comes with new guide pins installed. Problem is, most of the time the guide pins are installed dry or with very little grease.

Its important to remove, clean, and re-grease the guide pins during every brake job.


Check also that there isnt a layer of rust built up under the stainless caliper slide clips on the bracket. Again more of a problem for older cars, but still worth removing them and going at that surface with a wire brush during the brake job also. That can cause the brake pads to not retract from the rotor even if the caliper and guide pins are working properly.

Very few shops do a thorough cleaning and re-lube of the brakes when they do the job.

jimdiddy21

Wow I really appreciate the feed back. I was looking to just get a set of used calipers off some guys from here, but I think I'm just going to get some rebuilt ones off of partsgeek.com.

Any advice on what I should go with I was looking at centric posi quiet calipers or the semi loaded calipers the prices are pretty decent and cheaper then getting them used off the forums, I already got screwed over on a set of really beat to **** shocks, I don't really want to go that root.

As far as my mechanic I think I will spend the money and go to someone with a good rep, the guy I go to now is just a friend of the family that has his own little shop but he don't speak a word of english lol he basically works on regular cars. I think he doesn't care to work on my mazda.

I couldn't appreciate this feedback anymore honestly you guys have been great.

If I could just see what you think my best bet is for calipers that would be great, I tried to find reviews on the centric ones but can't find anything on them. I mean at 80 bucks a pop its cheap, but again I don't want to take the cheap way out I want my car to run great.

Thanks again

TANKERG

Something to think about, if you know someone who can show you how to change brakes, not only will it save you money, but you will know it was done right without any shortcuts.

Good Luck!

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

As easy as brakes are to work on...it is better for beginners to let someone who knows what they are doing work on the brake hydraulics.

Changing pads is an easy thing to do...but there are too many ways to screw up the rest of the system if you don't know what you are doing

jimdiddy21

so any idea what kind of caliper i should go with ?

Spin9k

fully loaded are the quickest to do, I'd probably choose based on what pads are included.

jimdiddy21

any good websites you recommend?

Spin9k

No not really, I've googled looking at the choices avail and there are many different ones, brands, colors, pads, etc. I would guess (but don't know) that most are fairly generic and so brands are similar but the pricier ones may have better pads (and fancy colors), but again I don't have any experience with them. Some require a core deposit which encourages you to return your used ones. Personally, I have for yrs simply bought Racing Brake rotors, Cobalt Friction pads, and Mazda brake hardware kits to redo my own. Other than that, I've only had stuck caliper pins to deal with, but just fixed them, never replaced the calipers because of it.