Sticking brake caliper while out of town...

dja4260

dja4260

Joined
May 16, 2011
Messages
1,521
Location
Greenville, SC via Chicago, IL
I pulled my camper about 220 miles from home to the coast of SC. I was taking my daughter to see a (urgent care) doctor over an ear infection for a 3:15pm appointment. I pull into the medical center's lot and my front drivers side brake caliper is smoking, all other rotors are cool... I do a quick Google and called a shop conveniently 2 blocks away, and they said to bring it over. I made them aware of that we we're leaving in 48 hours. About an hour after initial drop off, I get a phone call around 5:30pm that they were not able to duplicate my issues but did feel the heat. We talked and both agreed to change both front calipers. I wasn't going to attempt to pull a 5k+ trailer with my family inside back home... They finished the work by the evenings end and even kept the truck in their garage overnight for me. We made to back home safe today, just $500 lighter. Also fortunate that my father was with us and we have an extra vehicle to get around.

In the big picture, this is a win.
IMG_2617.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
atikovi said:
So why replace BOTH front calipers if only one is smoking and the others are cool?
Click to expand...
It's what I would have done as well. I.m wondering what the pads looked like? Unless they were over 50% I would have replaced those as well.
 
atikovi said:
So why replace BOTH front calipers if only one is smoking and the others are cool?
Click to expand...

What made the one fail? is the other close behind? what's the actual difference in cost, the labour doesn't change much as pads would be changed in pairs anyway.

I would have rebuilt both calipers if still possible, otherwise rebuild 1, change the other.
 
Jetronic said:
I had dozens of failed calipers in my mechanic career, not a single collapsed brake hose. Leaking or burst, yes.... so I take exception to the "many times" claim...
Click to expand...
OK. And what I've seen backs up my claim. I guess we were taught differently. I see no point in changing ten year old calipers and leaving the hose, a few years old OK, just make sure to inspect the fluid coming out of the caliper.. They can fail internally, look good on the outside and mess up a good caliper. Been there done that.
 
Last year on vacation near Mount Rushmore our left side caliper locked up on our 1993 Roadtrek, had to get towed to an OReilly in Rapid City. They had the part and pads. .They even let my wife and I replace the caliper and pads in their side parking lot. We were very thankful and they kept coming out of the store to see if we needed anything or help. I had replaced that hose a few years back and it was still good. They were an awesome part store. I set a note to the company about how helpful they were and how glad we were that they had the parts that we needed.
 
Jetronic said:
What made the one fail? is the other close behind? what's the actual difference in cost, the labour doesn't change much as pads would be changed in pairs anyway.

I would have rebuilt both calipers if still possible, otherwise rebuild 1, change the other.
Click to expand...

I choose to replace both as the truck is 10 years old and for piece of mind...
 
Jetronic said:
I had dozens of failed calipers in my mechanic career, not a single collapsed brake hose. Leaking or burst, yes.... so I take exception to the "many times" claim...
Click to expand...
Have a 92 Chevy C3500 rollback with a bad transmission so I put maybe 10 or 20 miles on it per year taking scrap cars to a local crusher. Thing sits most of the time. A few years ago I had dropped one off and was heading towards the exit. The truck was bogging down badly and then it just wouldn't roll. This was on gravel so I could see the gravel mounding up in front of the front wheels.

I managed to maneuver it to the side so as not to block others from getting out. I figured the brakes were locking up and if I could just loosen the bleeder screws, the pressure would release and they would roll again. Nobody there would lend me a wrench, so I walked an hour back to the shop to get some tools, and when I returned, the brakes had released themselves. Was able to drive it the three miles back by avoiding the use of brakes as much as possible. Ordered and installed a new set of hoses that fixed the problem.
 
dja4260 said:
I pulled my camper about 220 miles from home to the coast of SC. I was taking my daughter to see a (urgent care) doctor over an ear infection for a 3:15pm appointment. I pull into the medical center's lot and my front drivers side brake caliper is smoking, all other rotors are cool... I do a quick Google and called a shop conveniently 2 blocks away, and they said to bring it over. I made them aware of that we we're leaving in 48 hours. About an hour after initial drop off, I get a phone call around 5:30pm that they were not able to duplicate my issues but did feel the heat. We talked and both agreed to change both front calipers. I wasn't going to attempt to pull a 5k+ trailer with my family inside back home... They finished the work by the evenings end and even kept the truck in their garage overnight for me. We made to back home safe today, just $500 lighter. Also fortunate that my father was with us and we have an extra vehicle to get around.

In the big picture, this is a win.
View attachment 194603
Click to expand...
After the job was done did they or you examine the parts to see what the problem was? Caliper, pin, SS clips, brake hose?

It looks like you live in the rust belt, was the brake system cleaned and lubed on a yearly basis to prevent problems? Brake fluid flush?
 
atikovi said:
Have a 92 Chevy C3500 rollback with a bad transmission so I put maybe 10 or 20 miles on it per year taking scrap cars to a local crusher. Thing sits most of the time. A few years ago I had dropped one off and was heading towards the exit. The truck was bogging down badly and then it just wouldn't roll. This was on gravel so I could see the gravel mounding up in front of the front wheels.

I managed to maneuver it to the side so as not to block others from getting out. I figured the brakes were locking up and if I could just loosen the bleeder screws, the pressure would release and they would roll again. Nobody there would lend me a wrench, so I walked an hour back to the shop to get some tools, and when I returned, the brakes had released themselves. Was able to drive it the three miles back by avoiding the use of brakes as much as possible. Ordered and installed a new set of hoses that fixed the problem.
Click to expand...

Had a similar issue but it was the master cylinder needing adjustment: when the engine bay heated up the brakes wouldn't release anymore. The master cylinder was just replaced with a pattern part, so 1+1=2 in this instance. I opened the brake line at the master and the brake released.

Had several where the pistons would seize up after some use, by far the most common failure for serious binding brakes.
 
demarpaint said:
OK. And what I've seen backs up my claim. I guess we were taught differently. I see no point in changing ten year old calipers and leaving the hose, a few years old OK, just make sure to inspect the fluid coming out of the caliper.. They can fail internally, look good on the outside and mess up a good caliper. Been there done that.
Click to expand...

At ten years old I'd replace the hose aswell, but calipers seize much earlier than that. there's no real extra labour involved anyway
 
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