Yeah, this is a weird one. Then again, maybe not.

Few days ago I noticed that when off the throttle as well as taking off from a standstill, the car felt "heavy". Then all of a sudden while I was driving, I started getting a really serious vibration.

Once I got to work and parked, I went around the car looking for anything I could spot that was odd and realized the front drivers side wheel/brake area was VERY hot. (KEEP IN MIND, my front drivers side caliper, both parts of the floating caliper, were replaced with a reman about a year ago)

At that point I realized that it was the caliper not releasing the pad's on the rotor but I wasn't ready to call AAA to have it towed just yet.

After work I decided to try and drive home and everything was fine...

Its been like that, completely normal, until tonight where it happened again as I was just about home. There was terrible drag coming from the front left caliper and at speed, a horrible vibration. Once again that caliper/rotor/wheel area was very hot and you could feel the car almost "putting on the brakes" when coasting slowly.

So I pulled the wheel off tonight, and took out the top slider bolt so I could swing the main caliper out and pull the pads out. I didn't notice the seal for the piston in poor condition but I suppose it could still be seized.

Essentially, my question is, is this caliper toast? It's the second caliper i'v put on this corner of the car as the first one seized solid.

The fact that this one is fine after the car cools down is a bit odd.

BTW, if you've seen my other post HERE, you can tell i'm not happy with my car right now...

 

The front driver's side rotor is getting notorious for seizing up on our cars... I'm rebuilding mine right now.

I could see it hanging up temporarily before seizing outright.

As far as "toast" goes, I would clean out the section of the caliper that the pin penetrates, and install a replacement pin. Make sure you lube it up really well with some lithium grease. You may as well try to repair it before you spend more money on another caliper.

At least, that's what I'm doing...

 

Hmm, what's weird is the slider pins all still move freely. That's what went on my first caliper so I did the research and made sure to lube the new ones with silicone paste (not regular automotive grease that can dry out) and that seems to have worked as they're still completely free and movable.

Its the actual piston that's the problem this time.

I did a test with the caliper free of the pad's and pushed on the brake pedal. I couldn't get the piston to extend much at all even when pushing quite hard. Trying to push it back in (even that small amount) with a channel lock plyer (which is normally how I do it) was quite difficult.

 

Yeah it happens. I had the same problem when I was running stock calipers. Rebuild kits are less than $15.00 and there are plenty of videos on YouTube that detail how to do it.

 

Ordered. I did a full replacement already and I'm not looking to do it again. Thanks man.

Pretty shitty that its the same damn caliper.

 

If you search a bit, you'll find that it's usually that caliper that gives issues. I have no idea why.

 

i see that places like autozone sell rebuild calipers. They are only like $150 plus they will give you back $35 when you bring in your old caliper. Like a trade. Would they be equivalent to the oem calipers on our cars? Not cheap crap right? Ive bought blank rotors from them and they seem ok.