Symptoms of a Frozen Caliper

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My vehicle started right around labor day a slight pulsation.
A couple days later, when I drove a friend home.....the driver front brake was just shot. It's as if the pad just went all the way to the plate. The anti rattle clip is literraly touching the rotor.

I since then have parked the car and not driven it until I could get a brake/rotor swap. I threw my back out which is not helping as well.....


Can anyone help me define/advise on what would the symptom be for a frozen caliper ?
 
Since I'm going to have it lifted, gutted, calipers & rotors off and all .....does it make sense to just *rebuild* the other side as well ?

I'm going to try to take some extra *painkillers* this weekend and get the brakes done.
 
It's not a bad idea to check all the brakes then. Often if you find one slider/pin siezed up the others aren't far behind.

If you disassemble the caliper (like take the piston out of the bore, etc) best to either have a reseal kit on hand, or get reman'd calipers. If you just do the sliders, the boots can be reused unless they're torn or in bad shape.

You need synthetic or silicone grease; petroleum based grease may no be used.

I don't know what your vehicle make is, but there's a component pic for a '96 Subaru with single piston front calipers:
front-caliper-96.gif
 
In addition to porcupine's suggestion, may I throw in the idea of brake lube by PBS?

It's meant for use in brake related rubber parts assembly (those that come into contact with brake fluid eventually) and it's 100% compatable with regular brake fluid of all sorts.

I don't use lubricants that aren't compatible with brake fluids to begin with.

Q.
 
Lubing the parts is critical.
Replace corroded parts, or at least dress them smooth.
Some parts move only a very tiny amount at a time, but NEED lube.
Brake grease or wheel bearing grease works well. Leave the antiseize for it's intended purposes.
 
Just got home. Uuugghhhh, definately frozen caliper.
Poor wheel.....alot of embedded *rotor* dust.

I had a brake job coming up.....and I guess the frozen caliper helped speed up whatever pad I had left in no short time !

Yes, I do live in the snow belt...but it's only been 2 real seasons with snow and salt. We got lucky last year.
Can anyone shed some light on what causes frozen calipers...
 
Is this a sound plan.....
For now, I'm just going to rebuild the 1 caliper that's frozen.

I would just order a rebuilt set of powdercoated blacj calipers and just switch all 4 when they arrive. In this particular case, I can't really wait for the powedercoated calipers as the lead time on these is 3-4 weeks.
 
This is ironic, same thing is happening with my rear passenger disc. The pad is shot on the outer side, while the inner pad is ok. Rebuilding seems like a hassle, I don't know.
 
Pad worn out the outer side while inner pad looks ok sounds very much like a frozen slider to me if you have slider style calipers. If you have fixed calipers with one piston per pad then it could be a frozen piston. The sliders are actually pretty easy to service; you don't have to undo the brake line to the caliper or anything.
 
Wait a minute. I see some drifting here from one thing to another. Is ONLY one pad of TWO in ONE wheel assembly worn? Or is it BOTH pad(S) on the driver's side?
confused.gif


If both ..then the passenger side caliper's piston is seized. The driver's side is functioning perfectly, but is doing all the braking. If it's a front driver, you'll never notice a pull since the differential will transmit the braking to the other axle.
 
Only One. Outboard DS Pad. I was wondering why the brake pad light did not come on ;-)

It actually started a slight pulsation when braking a couple days back. I paid no mine as it only happened during braking and was very slight. I figuered it was just a warped rotor. I had planned a brake/rotor job anyhow.

I did not look at the car since the time I parked, figuring the pads were shot.


Never did expect a brake rebuild at 48K miles....heres's hoping the pistons are in decent shape.
 
I was wondering why the brake pad light did not come on

Brake pad light? Haven't heard of that one. The brake light typically indicates low master cylinder fluid level. Haven't seen any vehicles that indicate brake pad wear yet, other than the pad wear indicator.
 
My 1979 Peugeot had a pad indicator light. The piston side pad had a lead on it. It was a waste, though. The factory pads were so soft that they wore even though I drove all highway and, for some reason the warning light glowed most of the time. It had to be a grounding type light ..and I couldn't figure how the friction turned it on ..even if it produced some voltage potential
dunno.gif


It's the only car that I've ever seen it on.
 
It has sensors on the front DS side and the rear passenger side. When it wears down....and the sensors light up on the cluster showing *check brake linings*. Around less than 3mm is left on the pad when the nub on the sensor breaks off....tripping the lights.
 
Instead of starting another thread, just short of pulsation, HOW would one recognize if a caliper is frozen....let's say on the inboard side ?

I'm planning to rebuild the one caliper to get me up and running and deal with the other 3 at some point before winter.

Enlighten me mechanical gurus....
 
Cool brake pad wear indicators. I had not seen that before.

Typically if you can't compress the piston back into the caliper bore with a medium amount of force with a big c-clamp or other device, then it is probably siezed. Or if you can't get the piston out with some compressed air.
 
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